SPECULATOR: Searching for the next Chris Devenski
Feb 28 2018
In case you haven't heard, our game is changing.
The 2017 season provided us with a number of Extremes; the not-so-coincidental title of Ron Shandler's opener in the 2018 Baseball Forecaster. We saw a record number of home runs, a top-heavy distribution of stolen bases, a jump in strikeouts, and the rise of middle relievers.
As Ron noted in his intro, starting pitchers lasted an all-time low 5.5 innings per start in 2017. The multiple inning reliever snatched up much of that added volume. The elite ones were able to rack up more strikeouts with strong ratios that made an even bigger impact as league-wide ERAs and WHIPs spiked.
This can be seen in the number of relievers with less than 10 saves who earned double-digit 5x5 value in...
Almost!
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