STARTERS: Early command sub-indicator changes, 2018

It's still way too early to put significant stock into early-season skills in many cases, especially aggregate measures like strikeouts and walks. But looking into the components that drive them can be a helpful early-season exercise, since they represent a larger sample size of data points.

In fact, the same exercise at this time last season helped us identify that Luis Severino (RHP, NYY) was on the path towards a breakout:

Luis Severino (RHP, NYY) has been one of the biggest early-season surprises so far in 2017. His stats have been top-tier (3.00 ERA, 0.78 WHIP). So have his skills: 11.0 Dom, 1.3 Ctl, 56% GB%, 196 BPV. His swinging strike rate has surged from 7.9% in 2016 to 11.8% so far in 2017. His ability to pound the lower part...

Almost!

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