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Abstract:
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The Quality of Pitch (QOP) statistic has been shown to successfully rank many MLB team pitching rosters to the satisfaction of their team analysts (https://tht.fangraphs.com/measuring-the-quality-of-a-pitch/). Nevertheless, there remains a small number of highly effective pitchers with low QOP. Upon inspecting their pitching, their effectiveness appears to be due to skillful use of contextual game factors and deception, as opposed to specific control of the ball (high QOP). In this study, we attempt to quantify pitchers’ relevant contextual and deception factors and combine them into a statistic that, together with QOP, provide a more complete picture of pitcher performance. The factors include pitch: tunnel quality, balance, sequence, context, and effective velocity.
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