Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Dewayne Wise confuses PITCHf/x

Dewayne Wise has now pitched twice this season. While that is already unusual for a position player, doing so for two different teams is even more unusual. And the funniest part of such occurrances is that they completely baffles PITCHf/x. Here's how:
 
If you go to Wise's Fangraphs.com page, you can click on his pitching statistics They show that in two appearances on the mound, Wise has pitched one and two-thirds innings. He has allowed no runs with one hit and one walk allowed. His ERA, of course, is zero, but his FIP is 4.91. Those are all easy to verify in cement. But PITCHf/x had trouble figuring out what he was throwing.
 
According to Fangraphs' own data, Wise threw 85.7 percent fastballs and 14.3 percent change ups. The site also lists the data from PITCHf/x and that data says that Wise has thrown 5.3 percent fastballs and 94.7 percent change ups. This writer is not sure what you think of such things, but this observer finds that data discord hilarious.
 
According to PITCHf/x, Wise has averaged 81.6 MPH with his fastball and 75.5 MPH with his change up. Fangraphs averages his fastball at 79.8 percent and his change up at 65.5 MPH. Needless to say, Wise probably did not throw two different types of pitches. Most likely he was just chucking and ducking and trying not to embarrass himself.

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