OnlyBucs

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-poss ... s-bullpen/



Rivero in line to be a dominant back end of the bullpen guy.



There were other, better relievers. But he threw an above-average rate of his pitches in the zone, and he also minimized contact within the zone, relatively speaking. Those are two wonderful things to pair together. Last year, there were 39 relievers who threw at least 50 innings, with at least half their pitches in the zone. Out of that group, the only pitchers with lower in-zone contact rates were Chapman, Edwin Diaz, and Mychal Givens. Rivero allowed essentially the same in-zone contact rate as Kenley Jansen and Kelvin Herrera. That speaks to his ability to completely dominate certain at-bats.

I really liked that Melancon trade. It was a tough call at the time due to the Pirates on the borderline of the wild card chase, but they got two really good players in return.



Rivero looked good last year and Hearn looks like a special talent down the road. I still think Hearn was the main piece in that deal.



Good for Melancon to get paid too. He is very underrated for some reason even though he has been one of the top closers in all of baseball for years.

I'm always excited. I'm always believing the Pirates are just one good winning streak away. Start of the season is all about possibilities.



Notwithstanding my disappointment in the ownership, I will once again live and die on a daily basis depending on the Buccos score.



A toast to baseball!

And the Pirates!

Ownership -

Am I reading the quote below correctly? (it is from fangraphs article on Rivera). Is it saying that umpires miss 14% of strikes overall? If so that is more than enough evidence to convince me that umpires should not call balls and strikes.





For example, of Rivero’s pitches that were taken in the zone, 20% of those were called balls, against a league average of 14%.

436564736575060 wrote: Am I reading the quote below correctly? (it is from fangraphs article on Rivera).  Is it saying that umpires miss 14% of strikes overall?  If so that is more than enough evidence to convince me that umpires should not call balls and strikes.





For example, of Rivero’s pitches that were taken in the zone, 20% of those were called balls, against a league average of 14%.


I agree.



Look up the story Eric Byrnes did for HBO Real Sports. He umped a game with a computer calling balls and strikes. There were no delays, the pitches were accurate, and the fans never knew. The game flowed perfectly.