Very early observations, 2024
Apr 6 2024
It's easy to panic after your SP has a terrible start or two during the first week of the season. It can be similarly dangerous to fall in love with a pitcher who gives you good stats if they were produced without any underlying skill support.
Keeping in mind that we're dealing with tiny data samples, let's take a look at some extreme early season performances by focusing on starters who are missing the most bats and those whose pitch mix has changed significantly from 2023.
Only 29 starting pitchers have managed a 13.0%+ SwK% thru Wednesday's games. Here they are, along with changes in their pitch groupings from 2023 to 2024:
| Name | Lg | K% | BB% | GB% | SwK% | Ball% | Fastball % Δ | Breaking % Δ | Offspeed % Δ |
| Tarik Skubal | AL | 29% | 0% | 33% | 20.5% | 29% | +9% | -11% | +2% |
| Spencer... |
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