Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth
Assuming it is the case, would you agree that it's probably not just the result of luck/randomness but is attributable to his pitching skill?
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I guess it depends on what you consider skill. Is it a skill to cause more ground balls than fly balls, or is it simply a preference? Some pitchers feel more comfortable throwing lower in the zone. As I said, there is a tradeoff between ground and fly ball pitchers. My understanding is that one isn't "better" than the other. Here's an article from fangraphs.com that discusses the topic.
https://library.fangraphs.com/which-...-ball-pitcher/
Along the lines of what I was talking about earlier; I mentioned that Maddux probably traded in a lower slugging percentage against for a higher batting average against. You could look up more pitchers than this of course, but a simple comparison of Maddux's numbers vs Randy's numbers certainly shows this tradeoff.
Randy Johnson
0.221 AVG, 0.353 SLG, 2.4% HR
Greg Maddux
0.250 AVG, 0.358 SLG, 1.7% HR
As you can see, they had very similar slugging percentages, with Randy's being 5 points lower despite him giving up 40% more HRs, but Maddux's batting average against is much higher than Randy's. There is a tradeoff happening here. It's a difference of approach. Throwing more ground ball pitches is going to net you more singles against than fly ball pitches, but fewer 2B, 3B, and HR.