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	<title>Toronto &#187; STUFF</title>
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		<title>The 2017 Stuffies! Volume 2 &#8211; The Best Stuff in Baseball</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/10/26/the-2017-stuffies-volume-2-the-best-stuff-in-baseball/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/10/26/the-2017-stuffies-volume-2-the-best-stuff-in-baseball/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Oct 2017 10:20:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Sonne]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[STUFF]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroman]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=13985</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Welcome back to the Stuffies! It has been a thrilling ride through the first few rounds of the playoffs, but to really increase your appetite for the World Series, Nick and I are here to help you understand which pitchers in baseball had the best Stuff. Off the hop &#8211; a bit of a lesson [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Welcome back to the Stuffies! It has been a thrilling ride through the first few rounds of the playoffs, but to really increase your appetite for the World Series, Nick and I are here to help you understand which pitchers in baseball had the best Stuff.</p>
<p>Off the hop &#8211; a bit of a lesson on the Stuff metric used here; instead of average STUFF for teams, we&#8217;re using &#8220;Weighted STUFF&#8221;. Essentially, it&#8217;s each pitcher&#8217;s stuff, multiplied by the % of pitches they threw with respect to their rotation or bullpen mates. This was also repeated for all of the inputs that went into the STUFF metric &#8211; velocity, change, and break distance. For the individual pitchers, they had to throw 1000 pitches in the season to be included in the awards competition.</p>
<h2>Best Team Stuff &#8211; Starters</h2>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/weighted-starters.png"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-13990" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/weighted-starters.png" alt="weighted starters" width="700" height="559" /></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3><strong>Dodgers</strong></h3>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400"><span style="color: #0000ff">ND &#8211; </span>It’s no surprise to see the Dodgers’ starting rotation (all 9 of them) up here at the top of the stuff list this season. Much to the frustration of the rest of baseball, the Dodgers used their deep pockets to trot out talented starter after talented starter this season. It’s not hard to take home a Stuffy when your 4-7 starters are Alex Wood, Brandon McCarthy, Hyun-jin Ryu and Kenta Maeda. But in a true embarrassment of riches, it’s not just depth that makes the Dodgers great – Kershaw, Darvish and Rich Hill aren’t a bad top three either. Money might not be able to buy you happiness, but it can definitely buy you a lot of great starting pitching.</span></p>
<h3>Pirates</h3>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000">MS -</span> Gerrit Cole? Stud. Tyler Glasnow? Beast. Jamieson Taillon? Monster. The Pirates have the flame throwers to make a formidable rotation&#8230; but youth and inexperience has held them back from really taking the next step. There&#8217;s no mystery to the madness here: Look at what the Pirates lead the league in &#8211; a 94.47 mph weighted fastball velocity. From their starters&#8230; You better be ready to swing early!</p>
<h3><strong>Mets</strong></h3>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400"><span style="color: #0000ff">ND -</span> Everyone knows that the Mets have a talented, young rotation full of great pitchers. What nobody knows is what the hell the Mets training staff are doing that makes these poor guys get hurt so damn often. Even if Matt Harvey might have (allegedly) partied his way onto the disabled list, that doesn’t explain their inability to keep Steven Matz, Noah Syndergaard, Zack Wheeler, and Seth Lugo reasonably healthy over the past season. We all know pitchers get hurt but geez…..</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000">MS &#8211; <span style="color: #000000">This is the part of the Stuffies where the award winner starts uncontrollably sobbing on stage and everyone in the audience is left kind of looking at each other, really awkwardly, not knowing what to do with their hands. It was fine when there were some sniffles, but now we&#8217;re getting the big snot bubbles and it sounds like the person is choking. Please Mickey Callaway &#8211; find a way to make this rotation everything that it could be.</span></span></p>
<h3>(dis)Honorable Mention &#8211; Toronto Blue Jays</h3>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000">MS -</span> It certainly didn&#8217;t help the Jays that the guy on their roster with the best STUFF was blistered up all season, but the Jays ranked 24th in total Stuff. Stroman (to be discussed later) lead the team in Stuff out of the rotation and swingman Joe Biagini also had great STUFF, while Brett Anderson chimed in some some good STUFF near the end of the season &#8211; but the Metric didn&#8217;t favour soft-tossing Marco Estrada, fastball dominant J.A. Happ, or the slew of other jabronis that took their turn getting smashed throughout this 2017 season.</p>
<h2><strong>Best Team Stuff &#8211; Bullpens</strong></h2>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/weighted-relievers.png"><img class=" wp-image-13989 aligncenter" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/weighted-relievers.png" alt="weighted relievers" width="700" height="559" /></a></p>
<h3><span style="color: #000000">Red Sox</span></h3>
<p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #ff0000">MS -</span> John Farrell had the best STUFF in the world to work with out of his bullpen and that still couldn&#8217;t get him to the ALCS. It also couldn&#8217;t get him his job for the 2018 season&#8230; but I swear that doesn&#8217;t come from a place of bitterness and resentment. The Red Sox threw absolute gas out of their bullpen, but they also had a lot of consistency &#8211; both Kimbrel, Joe Kelly, and Matt Barnes put in great seasons and appeared in a lot of Red Sox innings &#8211; partially due to a starting rotation that had its question marks. All of those guys look to be ready to put in great seasons in 2018, so there&#8217;s no reason to think the Red Sox STUFF is going anywhere.<br />
</span></p>
<h3>Yankees</h3>
<p><span style="color: #0000ff">ND &#8211; </span>Sometime in July, Joe Girardi must have paid Brian Cashman a visit and suggested that the Yankees would have a better chance of winning if their opponents weren’t able to make contact after the fifth inning. Cashman then spent the 2017 trade deadline assembling a super bullpen that sits number two on the reliever stuff list this season. Teams usually talk about a two or three-headed monster at the end of a game but the Yankees bullpen eats those for breakfast.</p>
<h3><span style="color: #0000ff"><span style="color: #000000">(Dis)Honorable Mention &#8211; Toronto Blue Jays</span></span></h3>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000">MS &#8211; <span style="color: #000000">Dear Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins &#8211; Stuff is good for bullpens. Like, it&#8217;s really good. It helps strike batters out and it helps keep the ball out of the 3rd deck. Can we please get some more for the bullpen in 2018? I&#8217;m not saying that Stuff is the only way to get hitters out&#8230; but it acts like an insurance policy against bad control. Like the kind a certain father of the Jays Bullpen had in the early part of the season (#NEVERFORGETGRILLI2016). </span></span></p>
<h3>(SuperDis)Honorable Mention &#8211; Baltimore OriLOLs</h3>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000">MS -</span> Ha! Showalter you clown! Just like in the AL East Standings, the Jays jumped ahead of the Orioles at the last minute to stay out of the basement! The Orioles, while having some elite bullpen arms in Zach Britton and Brad Brach, don&#8217;t fare that well in the STUFF category because they rely on velocity alone &#8211; a bunch of these guys don&#8217;t have secondary pitches to rely on.</p>
<p><span style="color: #0000ff">ND &#8211; <span style="color: #000000"><strong><span style="font-weight: 400">One of the biggest surprises of the Stuffies this season is seeing Baltimore take home the Stuffy for worst reliever stuff. The Baltimore bullpen is considered one of the better pens in the American League. While many teams across the league would love to have Zach Britton, Brad Brach and Darren O’Day at the back of their pens, all of those groundballs don’t impress the stuffy judging committee. Or Jose Bautista.<br />
</span></strong></span></span></p>
<h2>Best Stuff &#8211; Starters</h2>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/starters-ranked.png"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-13988" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/starters-ranked.png" alt="starters ranked" width="700" height="290" /></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>Clayton Kershaw</h3>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000">MS -</span> Any time you create a pitching metric that is supposed to represent success at the MLB level and Clayton Kershaw comes out on top &#8211; you feel pretty good that the metric is accurate. Kershaw takes home the 2017 crown with an absolutely absurd Stuff level of 2.1. Kershaw has great fastball velocity &#8211; almost 93 mph&#8230; but it&#8217;s the change in speeds and the distance between the pitches that truly sets him apart. Go and watch a bunch of PitchingNinja gifs about Kershaw now &#8211; you deserve it.</p>
<p><strong><span style="font-weight: 400"><span style="color: #0000ff">ND -</span> Water is also wet. Sun rises in the east. Despite spending much of the second half of the season on the disabled list, Kershaw once again takes home the stuffy for best starting pitcher. Do you really need a Ph.D and a complicated multi-variable formula to know Kersh is the best starter in baseball? What are they teaching these people in grad school?</span></strong></p>
<h3>Gerrit Cole</h3>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000">MS -</span> There&#8217;s absolute hot nasty fire flames being thrown when former first overall pick Gerrit Cole is on the mound. His season was a rocky one &#8211; a lot of injury concerns, paired with an underperforming Pirates team, and you get the end result of Cole&#8217;s career worst 4.26 ERA. There&#8217;s a ton of upside for young Gerrit &#8211; he&#8217;s only entering his age 27 season.</p>
<h3>Jesse Hahn</h3>
<p><span style="color: #0000ff">ND &#8211; <span style="color: #000000">Injuries and inconsistency torched Hahn’s 2017 season but the stuff-o-meter seems to really like him. Paired with pitching in the spacious O.co Coliseum and we might have a 2018 fantasy baseball sleeper on our hands….if you’re into that sort of thing.</span></span></p>
<h3>Honorable Mention &#8211; Marcus Stroman</h3>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000">MS &#8211; <span style="color: #000000">The StroShow put up his best STUFF season in 2017 and continued doing what he does best &#8211; being completely consistent. His 2017 Stuff was elevated from 2016, with nearly a 2&#8243; increase in pitch separation and a slight increase in his fastball velocity. Earlier this year, Stro was talking with The Pitching Ninja on Twitter and started chiming in on how nasty Corey Knebel&#8217;s curveball was. The two exchanged pleasantries, but what would it look like if Stro added the Knebel Knuckle Curve? Well, it would nearly double his stuff &#8211; increasing separation for both break and velocity. That&#8217;s the the type of pitch that would really change things for Stro, and may get those strikeout numbers climbing.</span></span></p>
<h2>Best Stuff &#8211; Relievers</h2>
<h3><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/relievers-ranked.png"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-13987" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/10/relievers-ranked.png" alt="relievers ranked" width="700" height="285" /></a></h3>
<h3>Joe Kelly</h3>
<p><strong><span style="font-weight: 400"><span style="color: #0000ff">ND -</span> One of these things is not like the others. Kelly finds himself atop the reliever stuffy list without piling up the K’s (his K/9 was a very pedestrian 8.07) that so many of the other top relievers do. All grit, moxey, and tattoos, Kelly’s fastball velo keeps him atop the stuff leaderboards despite middle of the road results.</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000">MS &#8211; <span style="color: #000000">At this point, people start to regurgitate their lunch whenever someone tells them Joe Kelly has great STUFF. But are people objectively quantifying it? Usually not! So, suck on that haters. Full disclosure &#8211; Joe Kelly seems like he might be a bit of a dork, and those are my people. </span></span></p>
<h3>Dellin Betances</h3>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000">MS &#8211; </span><span style="color: #000000">That Yankees bullpen is filled with absolute nasty STUFF &#8211; the only reason Chapman isn&#8217;t on this list is because of his injuries this season; he just never crossed that 1000 pitch threshold. But you know who did? Dellin Betances. Betances pairs an absolutely next level fastball with huge pitch separation. His Stuff is legendary and his strikeout rate matches. One thing to watch for &#8211; there&#8217;s no one who has had a higher workload since 2012 than Betances. By the time his huge free agency contract signing comes up, the Yankees may have bled him dry. More reason to hate them, I guess.</span></p>
<p>ND &#8211; This year&#8217;s judging committee didn&#8217;t put too much weight in being able to control the stuff each pitcher unleashes, because if they did, Betances might not be taking home a Stuffy. The big reliever walked 44 batters in 59 innings. That&#8217;s not ideal, but when you&#8217;re as nasty as Betances, you can afford to miss a little more often than not.</p>
<h3>Craig Kimbrel</h3>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000">MS -</span> Do you like pitchers who throw gas but also look like a weird bird before they do it? Craig Kimbrel is the guy for you, my friend. Not much else to say here &#8211; Kimbrel is one of the best in the game and he throws some of the nastiest junk in baseball.</p>
<h3>Honorable Mention &#8211; Ryan Tepera</h3>
<p><span style="color: #ff0000">MS -</span> Tepera is not talked about enough. Maybe he is? But not enough by me. Relievers have a very hard job &#8211; they have to go into games on short rest, get out the best hitters, and forget about bad results that happened in the recent past. When I looked at workload, Tepera was in the top 10 of the entire MLB. His Stuff sits at 32nd overall for relievers who threw 1000 pitches this season &#8211; and it&#8217;s his giant fastball that is pretty much the only contributor to that. Great work, Ryan &#8211; let&#8217;s keep it going in 2018.</p>
<h2>The Wrap Up</h2>
<p>From an MLB wide perspective, Stuff has never been better than it was in 2017. Velocity has its pros (striking fools out) and cons (ouch), but boy is it fun to watch and write about. On behalf of my friend and colleague Nick, thank you for reading about STUFF! It has been a pleasure once again. Let&#8217;s hope the Jays can give us some more STUFF to look at in 2018 &#8211; looking at you, Connor Greene!</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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		<title>The STUFF report – Vol. 2, Issue 5 &#8211; All Star Break Edition</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/07/12/the-stuff-report-vol-2-issue-5-all-star-break-edition/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/07/12/the-stuff-report-vol-2-issue-5-all-star-break-edition/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Jul 2017 10:45:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Sonne]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marcus Stroman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Roberto Osuna]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[STUFF]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=12292</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hey Sorry &#8211; I broke my own Stuff report &#8211; but it&#8217;s all fixed now and we&#8217;re ready to rock again. I think it might even be new, and improved. Let&#8217;s get to it. Starting Pitchers The usual suspects are all here; and the numbers don&#8217;t look a whole lot different than they did in [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hey Sorry &#8211; I broke my own Stuff report &#8211; but it&#8217;s all fixed now and we&#8217;re ready to rock again. I think it might even be new, and improved. Let&#8217;s get to it.</p>
<h2>Starting Pitchers</h2>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Starters-Graph.png"><img class="alignnone wp-image-12294" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Starters-Table-1024x240.png" alt="Starters Table" width="801" /><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-12293" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Starters-Graph-1024x742.png" alt="Starters Graph" width="801" /></a></p>
<p>The usual suspects are all here; and the numbers don&#8217;t look a whole lot different than they did in 2016. Stroman&#8217;s Stuff is much better in 2017, driven by a bit more fastball velocity but significantly (nearly 4&#8243;) more separation between his pitches. That&#8217;s a lot more room to miss bats. In 2017, Stroman is giving up contact on 76.9% of his pitches, compared to 80.2% of his pitches in 2016.</p>
<p>Obviously though &#8211; the Jays starting rotation is struggling in 2017 compared to their banner year of 2016. If the Stuff looks like it is still there, what&#8217;s going on with these guys? I took a look at Baseball Prospectus&#8217; command and control statistics to see what&#8217;s happening. For a quick refresher, command refers to a pitcher&#8217;s ability to hit his spots &#8211; measured in the % of called strikes above average a pitcher receives. Control refers to the ability for a pitcher to put their pitch in the strike zone &#8211; measured as the called strike probability of their pitches.</p>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/command-control.png"><img class="alignnone wp-image-12295" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/command-control-1024x851.png" alt="command control" width="550" height="457" /></a></p>
<p>Remember if the Stuff stays the same &#8211; which, it has for the most part, something else is happening to make the pitches more hittable. For the brief time we&#8217;ve seen Aaron Sanchez this season &#8211; he has gotten rocked, or his hand has fallen off. He&#8217;s getting fewer called strikes on the edges of the zone and then he&#8217;s putting the ball in the zone less frequently. The blister issues that he&#8217;s had relate directly to this; if the finger tip is hurt, there&#8217;s less sensation. He will struggle with release point, and his fine control. Hopefully he gets the rust off and has a great second half.</p>
<p>Marco Estrada is likely the biggest example of the command/control/stuff interaction. His Stuff has remained relatively the same, but his command is way down, and his control is up. That means his easily hittable, lower velocity and movement pitches are staying in the zone &#8211; and they&#8217;re getting hammered.</p>
<h2>Relief Pitchers</h2>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Relievers-Graph.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-12297" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Relievers-Table-1024x344.png" alt="Relievers Table" width="801" /><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-12296" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/07/Relievers-Graph-1024x742.png" alt="Relievers Graph" width="801" /></a></p>
<p>The only elite Stuff guy in the Jays Bullpen remains Joe Biagini, and that has been a bit of a mixed bag with his entrance and exit to the starting rotation. If you&#8217;re looking for a light at the end of the tunnel for Biagini, his &#8220;Deserved Runs Average&#8221; is actually lower in 2017 than it was in 2016. His Stuff is there, and his command/control numbers look consistent. The evidence points to him breaking out of his funk and being a great pitcher once again.</p>
<p>Osuna&#8217;s Stuff is down in 2017 when compared to his 2016 numbers, but with this comes refined command and control. There is no doubt that Roberto Osuna is one of the best pitchers in the world right now. His fastball velocity is well above average, though the separation between his pitches is much less than it was in 2016 (13.8&#8243; in 2016, compared to 8.1&#8243; in 2017). Where he&#8217;s totally dominating is in the command/control segment. He has more than doubled the amount of command he has on the edges, while leaving fewer pitches in the zone to hit. This has resulted in staggering changes in swinging strike profiles &#8211; batters are making contact on nearly 6% fewer pitches, while swinging at nearly 8% more of his pitches that are out of the zone. In general, he&#8217;s getting 4% more swinging strikes in 2017 than in 2016. Roberto, never leave us. You are a king.</p>
<h2>Conclusions</h2>
<p>In general, what we&#8217;re seeing out of this Blue Jays team is a ton of injuries, which have a significant effect on the pitcher&#8217;s ability to throw strikes where they want them. Last year, the Blue Jays pitchers got more called strikes than the average team &#8211; this year, they&#8217;re under that average mark. <a href="http://www.mikesonne.ca/baseball/but-greg-maddux/">While I&#8217;m sure to attract the &#8220;But Greg Maddux&#8221; crowd with this statement, velocity is king.</a> It trumps command and control and is a huge predictor of MLB success. You can see this in the evaluation of the Stuff metric as well &#8211; it&#8217;s easier to succeed with great stuff than it is with mediocre, or bad stuff. That doesn&#8217;t mean you can&#8217;t succeed, though. Think of Stuff and Velocity as an insurance policy against bad command &#8211; missing your spot at 97 has way more margin for error than missing your spot at 89. The Jays are not a pitching staff with a whole lot of insurance policies, and now that they aren&#8217;t threading the needle like they did last year, they&#8217;re paying for it.</p>
<p>Well, welcome back to the Stuff report! I promise I won&#8217;t leave you again.</p>
<p><em>Lead Photo © Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports</em></p>
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		<title>THE STUFF REPORT – VOL. 2, ISSUE 4</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/05/30/the-stuff-report-vol-2-issue-4/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/05/30/the-stuff-report-vol-2-issue-4/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 May 2017 14:35:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Sonne]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[STUFF]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aaron Loup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marcus Stroman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Roberto Osuna]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=11248</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Thank you for tuning into the 2-4 Stuff report. It&#8217;s a week late for celebrating the real 2-4, but that doesn&#8217;t mean you can&#8217;t grab a 2-4 with your buds and enjoy some statistical bliss. And that doesn&#8217;t mean beer! There&#8217;s a great sale on Blue Label sparking water at Fortino&#8217;s right now. Have you [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Thank you for tuning into the 2-4 Stuff report. It&#8217;s a week late for celebrating the real 2-4, but that doesn&#8217;t mean you can&#8217;t grab a 2-4 with your buds and enjoy some statistical bliss. And that doesn&#8217;t mean beer! There&#8217;s a great sale on Blue Label sparking water at Fortino&#8217;s right now. Have you tried it? Delicious. What was I talking about?</p>
<h2>Starting Pitchers</h2>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Starters-Table.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-11252" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Starters-Table-1024x208.png" alt="Starters Table" width="700px" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Starters-Figure.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-11251" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Starters-Figure-1024x742.png" alt="Starters Figure" width="700px" /></a></p>
<p>My favourite pitcher to watch on the Stuff report has been Marcus Stroman. Stro has better stuff in 2017 than he did in 2016 &#8211; actually, his Stuff has increased by double, from 0.24 to 0.58. Last season, <a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/06/01/pitch-homogenization-and-marcus-stromans-breaking-balls/">Kyle Matte wrote about how Stroman&#8217;s pitches looked too similar.</a> It&#8217;s great that you can throw 6 different pitches, but if the hitter can&#8217;t tell the difference between them &#8211; they might as well all be fastballs to him.  This year &#8211; Stro is doing something different.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Stro-Show.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-11254" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Stro-Show-1024x243.png" alt="Stro Show" width="700px" /></a></p>
<p>Take a look at how he is changing speeds in 2017 &#8211; and how he is gaining separation between his pitches. The change in velocity is slight, but the 16.6&#8243; separation between his fastball and breaking stuff in the past two weeks is excellent. This separation actually ranks in the top 25 percent of all pitchers in the MLB in the 2017 this season. The 10.2&#8243; he had in 2016? 75 percent of pitchers were better. The current numbers mean a lot more space to induce swings and misses. This is reflected in his increased strikeout rate as well:</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/stro-break-and-k9.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-11255" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/stro-break-and-k9.png" alt="stro break and k9" width="700px" /></a>\</p>
<p>You obviously can&#8217;t infer that much from this graph &#8211; it is too small of a sample to say that this is a sustainable trend &#8211; but the relationship sure is interesting. We can look back at the end of the season and see how Stro&#8217;s pitch separation leads to punching more tickets.</p>
<h2>Relief Pitchers</h2>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/relievers-table.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-11250" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/relievers-table-1024x224.png" alt="relievers table" width="700px" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Relievers-Figure.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-11249" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Relievers-Figure-1024x742.png" alt="Relievers Figure" width="700px" /></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The Blue Jays Bullpen Stuff resembles a lot of their season in general &#8211; a rocky start, followed by a lot of stability. In fact, this graph is boring as hell. Here class, may I show you a bunch of straight lines? The exciting thing is about how straight they are. Do you like Molson Canadian and White Wonderbread? I also enjoy going to bed at 10pm and having Swiss Chalet at 4:30 on Wednesdays.</p>
<p>There are two guys that I have some concerns with though &#8211; Roberto Osuna and Aaron Loup. Right now, Osuna&#8217;s stuff is 33 of what it was in 2016. As for Aaron Loup, his stuff has fallen completely off the map. While the culprit with Osuna looks like it&#8217;s a lot of velocity loss, Loup is not separating between his pitches at all in 2017. The Loup concern is something that is a bit more strategic &#8211; if he&#8217;s really feeling that fastball, there&#8217;s no need to throw the slider &#8211; especially if it&#8217;s getting guys out. Osuna&#8217;s leaking velocity is a bit more insidious &#8211; this could be a sign of fatigue and worse, a chance he&#8217;s injured. </p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Loup-and-OSuna.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-11257" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Loup-and-OSuna-1024x316.png" alt="Loup and OSuna" width="700px" /></a></p>
<p>Stuff will continue to educate us all on the miracles of pitching.</p>
<p>Ok, back to my quarter chicken dinner.</p>
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		<title>The STUFF report &#8211; Vol. 2, Issue 3</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/05/18/the-stuff-report-vol-2-issue-3/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/05/18/the-stuff-report-vol-2-issue-3/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 18 May 2017 10:24:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Sonne]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[STUFF]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Joe Biagini]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=10971</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Things are looking up &#8211; arms have stopped flying off pitcher&#8217;s bodies and some wins have started coming around (until this series). But &#8211; what about the Stuff? We always want to know about the Stuff. Starting Pitchers &#160; Now, the STUFF report gets a bit messy here &#8211; because Joe Biagini has become a [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Things are looking up &#8211; arms have stopped flying off pitcher&#8217;s bodies and some wins have started coming around (until this series). But &#8211; what about the Stuff? We always want to know about the Stuff.</p>
<h2>Starting Pitchers</h2>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Starter-Teable.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-10974" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Starter-Teable-1024x192.png" alt="Starter Teable" width="700px" /></a> <a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Starters-Graph1.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-10975" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Starters-Graph1-1024x742.png" alt="Starters - Graph" width="700px" /></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Now, the STUFF report gets a bit messy here &#8211; because Joe Biagini has become a very bad man as a starter. When you look at his Starting Stuff &#8211; it&#8217;s pretty comparable with the known beast of STUFF &#8211; Aaron Sanchez. Just how similar are the two?</p>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/sanchez-vs-biagini.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-10976" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/sanchez-vs-biagini-1024x328.png" alt="sanchez vs biagini" width="700" /></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>A limitation of the STUFF metric is that it doesn&#8217;t look at pitches individually &#8211; it looks at the pitcher&#8217;s arsenal as a whole. When you do this &#8211; it&#8217;s pretty evident just how similar Sanchez and Biagini look. Obviously Joe doesn&#8217;t have the nasty sinker that Sanchez posses as a main weapon, but the velocity is comparable, the change in speed is very similar, and Sanchez gets a bit more separation between his pitches. One advantage that Biagini has over Sanchez is that he tends to use more of his arsenal. This plays very well when considering the prospect of Biagini being a starter over the long term.</p>
<h2>Relief Pitchers</h2>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Relief-Table.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-10972" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Relief-Table-1024x227.png" alt="Relief Table" width="700" /></a> <a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Relievers-Graph1.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-10973" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Relievers-Graph1-1024x742.png" alt="Relievers Graph" width="700" /></a></p>
<p>After some down weeks to begin the season (and some down results to follow), Roberto Osuna&#8217;s STUFF has started to climb towards its 2016 level. There have also been increases in STUFF by Joe Smith, Dominic Leone, and Jason Grilli. This has had mixed results for the pen &#8211; as Smith has been lights out, Leone has been hit or miss, and Grilli has been a bit of a punching bag. The Bullpen had a bad one this week, but they&#8217;ve had a lot of success recently. Let&#8217;s hope they can keep it up.</p>
<p>The Blue Jays continue facing the worst Stuff rotation in the Majors on Thursday &#8211; the Braves, lead by Colon and Dickey, aren&#8217;t lighting up the radar guns. Let&#8217;s hope the hitters can take advantage and steal a game.</p>
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		<title>The STUFF report – Volume 2, Issue 2</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/05/02/the-stuff-report-volume-2-issue-2/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/05/02/the-stuff-report-volume-2-issue-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 02 May 2017 13:01:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Sonne]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[STUFF]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marcus Stroman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Roberto Osuna]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=10613</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[EVERYTHING IS STILL AWFUL, BUT WE’RE GOING TO GET THROUGH THIS TOGETHER. DO YOU HEAR ME??! TOGETHER! Hey, it’s issue 2 of the Stuff report! The Stuff report examines changes in the Blue Jays pitching staff to look at changes in performance, risk of injury, or for the deeper meaning of life and a cold [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400">EVERYTHING IS STILL AWFUL, BUT WE’RE GOING TO GET THROUGH THIS TOGETHER. DO YOU HEAR ME??! TOGETHER!</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">Hey, it’s issue 2 of the Stuff report! The Stuff report examines changes in the Blue Jays pitching staff to look at changes in performance, risk of injury, or for the deeper meaning of life and a cold rationalization as to why we put ourselves through the agony of donating three hours of our time to something that will only bring us suffering.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">The reason for that last one, is Stuff. Stuff brings us all together.</span></p>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400">Starting Pitchers</span></h2>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">There are two new, unfortunate debuts on the Stuff report this week with Cat Latos’ dad and Casey Lawrence joining in while getting pummeled on the field (Lawrence more than Latos). </span></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><strong><strong><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Starters-Graph.png"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-10619" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Starter-Table-1024x192.png" alt="Starter Table" width="816" height="153" /></a></strong></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-10620" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Starters-Graph-1024x744.png" alt="Starters Graph" width="527" height="383" /></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">Both of the new guys profile with less than stellar STUFF &#8211; so it’ll be interesting to see whether they go down the Estrada route and dominate with awesome secondary STUFF or turn into cannon fodder. The pitcher who gets the most amount of excitement is none other than yesterday&#8217;s birthday boy himself, Marcus Stroman. Fresh off a time frame that saw two complete games and a 10 K performance, Stroman is becoming the ace of the staff people expected last year. What has changed between this year and last year in his Stuff?</span></p>
<p><strong><strong> </strong></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Stroman.png"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-10621" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Stroman.png" alt="Stroman" width="657" height="151" /></a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">First, be warned because there were some changes in velocity readings that lead to pitchers having inflated numbers this season &#8211; that’s been addressed in the STUFF score, but not necessarily in just looking at the average velocity values. Stro looks to be throwing harder this year, but looking at his average fastball velocity &#8211; it isn’t up by a lot &#8211; is not enough to buoy a massive change in results. When it comes to the components of his Stuff, the big change is in the separation between his pitches; he is getting nearly five extra inches of separation than the 2016 season. That’s a lot of space to miss bats!</span></p>
<h2><span style="font-weight: 400">Bullpen</span></h2>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Reliever-Table.png"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-10617" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Reliever-Table-1024x258.png" alt="Reliever Table" width="727" height="183" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Relievers-Graph.png"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-10618" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Relievers-Graph-1024x742.png" alt="Relievers Graph" width="619" height="449" /></a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">There’s not much positive to to write about in terms of the reliever Stuff, but Roberto Osuna’s steady decline in Stuff is worth noting. While his velocity looks down from the previous seasons, it’s the fact that he isn’t using his fastball that has lead to the largest drop in his Stuff. The movement and the change in speeds looks relatively constant &#8211; but let’s hope this is just a matter of Bob getting his confidence back and using the fastball that got him to this level more frequently.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Osuna.png"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-10616" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/Osuna.png" alt="Osuna" width="618" height="142" /></a></p>
<h2><b>Team Report</b></h2>
<p>Before the season, I ran a projected Stuff Report to see where we could expect to see the Jays rotation and bullpen rank in terms of their Stuff. This projection pegged the bullpen at 20th overall, and the starting rotation at 16th overall.</p>
<h3>Bullpen</h3>
<p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-weight: 400"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-10614" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/all-relievers.png" alt="all relievers" width="599" height="446" /></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">On a whole, the bullpen looks to be matching their previewed Stuff fairly well &#8211; and with Osuna starting to throw his fastball with more frequency, that should be looking even better in the future. They still look pretty good, sitting at 16th in weighted Stuff.</span></p>
<h3>Starters</h3>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/All-Rotations.png"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-10615" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/05/All-Rotations.png" alt="All Rotations" width="598" height="449" /></a></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-weight: 400">As for the rotation, they look a lot worse than their projected numbers. When you replace one of the best Stuff pitchers in the world (Aaron Sanchez), with Mat Latos and Casey Lawrence, that’s bound to happen no matter how much junk the Stro Show throws. The Jays were projected to have the 16th best Stuff, but they&#8217;re near the bottom of the league now at 26th.</span></strong></p>
<p>Just remember &#8211; when it was January and -20 and we were all freezing our faces off, we were desperate to watch baseball. This beats the alternative&#8230; I think.</p>
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		<title>The STUFF report &#8211; Volume 2, Issue 1</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/04/18/the-stuff-report-volume-2-issue-1/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/04/18/the-stuff-report-volume-2-issue-1/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Apr 2017 10:00:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Sonne]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[STUFF]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aaron Sanchez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Joe Biagini]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=10278</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[***Sunday morning, Mike wakes up, knowing he has a Stuff report to file on Monday. He&#8217;s frustrated by the Blue Jays play, but relieved that he at least has an elite pitching rotation to write about*** 7:38 am Aaron Sanchez to the 10-day DL with a blister. Matt Dermody recalled, will give bullpen second Lefty [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>***Sunday morning, Mike wakes up, knowing he has a Stuff report to file on Monday. He&#8217;s frustrated by the Blue Jays play, but relieved that he at least has an elite pitching rotation to write about***</p>
<p>7:38 am</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Aaron Sanchez to the 10-day DL with a blister. Matt Dermody recalled, will give bullpen second Lefty for now.</p>
<p>— Keegan Matheson (@KeeganMatheson) <a href="https://twitter.com/KeeganMatheson/status/853607998283022337">April 16, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p>***Swearing begins to intensify&#8230; but at least we get to watch the 20 game winner, J.A. Happ pitch today*** Approx 2:30 pm</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Blue Jays starter JA Happ leaves game after 4.1 IP with apparent arm issue.<br />
Jays 0 Orioles 0 (5th) on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TSN1040?src=hash">#TSN1040</a> right now. <a href="https://t.co/I85fhW2JXT">pic.twitter.com/I85fhW2JXT</a></p>
<p>— TSN Radio Vancouver (@TSN1040) <a href="https://twitter.com/TSN1040/status/853676836420714496">April 16, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p>***Swearing reaches a peak level. Neighbours begin getting concerned.****</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">JA Happ will have an MRI tomorrow; Blue Jays will reevaluate after that.</p>
<p>— Arden Zwelling (@ArdenZwelling) <a href="https://twitter.com/ArdenZwelling/status/853711578079875073">April 16, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p>***There is no sound. There is only pain. There is only darkness, death and despair. Joy was created to make pain feel worse***</p>
<p>Welcome to the 2017 Stuff report! I know, I know &#8211; not the most positive way to start the season, but let&#8217;s try and use numbers to numb our senses, and prevent the inevitable onset of alcoholism that this season will induce!</p>
<p>To bring you back to speed, STUFF is a metric that I created last year, to help win bar arguments with your friends about who has the best STUFF in baseball. The graphic at the top of this article should help with understanding how things are calculated, but to summarize: STUFF is the interaction of fastball and breaking pitch velocity, change in speeds, and separation distance between all pitches at the plate. If you want to read a bit more &#8211; check out some of these articles:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.mikesonne.ca/baseball/22/">Development of the Stuff metric</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/using-the-stuff-metric-as-an-injury-identification-tool/">The Stuff metric as an injury identification tool</a></p>
<p>But let&#8217;s get into the meat of our 2017 Toronto Blue Jays pitching staff.</p>
<p>A word of warning here: This season, MLB has changed the way that pitching numbers are collected, and velocities are appearing a bit wonky. I&#8217;ve normalized the 2017 data to the velocities and break movements that have been collected &#8211; so hopefully it all makes sense.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s see what we&#8217;ve got:</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Stuff-Table.png"><img class="alignnone wp-image-10290" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Stuff-Table-1024x423.png" alt="Stuff Table" width="726" height="300" /></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Starting Pitchers</h2>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Stargers-Figure.png"><img class="alignnone wp-image-10289" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Stargers-Figure-1024x744.png" alt="Stargers Figure" width="500" height="363" /></a></p>
<p>What else could be said about the Jays starting pitchers that hasn&#8217;t been said already? They&#8217;re awesome &#8211; well, they were when they were intact. Aaron Sanchez&#8217;s stuff is better than it was in 2016, and Marcus Stroman&#8217;s has improved dramatically. Ol&#8217; Steady Francisco Liriano remains just where he was in 2016, but both Estrada and Happ look to be falling off. While Marco went through phases last season where his Stuff declined, the main reason for this happening was more of a byproduct of the STUFF calculation than it was with his performance. There was a period where his velocity declined, which hurt his Stuff in 2016 &#8211; but, the main reason for a huge drop in Estrada&#8217;s stuff is not throwing his curveball as much. If he gets that curve ball over 10% of his usage his Stuff climbs dramatically.</p>
<p>Happ is another Story. Joshua Howsam wrote about <a title="How J.A. Happ Evolved Into One of Baseball’s Best" href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/08/31/how-j-a-happ-evolved-into-one-of-baseballs-best/" target="_blank">how Happ&#8217;s fastballs differentiate</a> more from each other than any other pitcher in the MLB. This was a huge key to his success in the past two seasons. His commitment to the fastball is the main reason why he doesn&#8217;t have great STUFF &#8211; neither of his fastballs are particularly scorching, and his seldom used change up only differentiates in velocity by 3%. His results had been great, even up until the point where he left the game. I recently wrote about Zach Britton&#8217;s recent trip to the disabled list, and referenced a paper which cited a small repertoire of pitches as a possible risk factor for UCL injury. Happ&#8217;s arsenal is about as small as it gets. Hopefully he returns to the rotation as soon as possible.</p>
<h2>Relief Pitchers</h2>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Relievers-Figure.png"><img class="alignnone wp-image-10288" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Relievers-Figure-1024x742.png" alt="Relievers Figure" width="500" height="362" /></a></p>
<p>Joe Biagini continues to be a shining beacon for watching this Jays team. He is so, so good. Furthermore &#8211; he has such great STUFF. Biagini continues to impress on the metric, as his early season STUFF looks exceptional. His change in velocity and separation between pitches is elite, plus he pairs that with a very good fastball at 94.3 mph. For the most part, the Jays relievers have looked fairly consistent with their 2016 number. Roberto Osuna has a bit of a drop off &#8211; this might be him working through the rust of his early season DL trip. There isn&#8217;t much to worry about with Joe Smith, as Stuff isn&#8217;t the name of his game, and<a title="Joe Smith: Pitching Backwards and Getting Strikeouts" href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2017/04/16/joe-smith-pitching-backwards-and-getting-strikeouts/" target="_blank"> his approach to hitters</a> looks like it is spot on right now.</p>
<p>The Stuff report will continue every 2 weeks over the course of the season &#8211; let&#8217;s hope we have something more interesting (and happy) to talk about other than cool graphs in the next issue.</p>
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		<title>THE STUFFIES! Part Two: Top Team Stuff and the Not-so-Stuffies</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/14/the-stuffies-part-two-top-team-stuff-and-the-not-so-stuffies/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/14/the-stuffies-part-two-top-team-stuff-and-the-not-so-stuffies/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Oct 2016 16:33:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Sonne]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[STUFF]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bullpen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Starting Rotation]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=7453</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Welcome back to the Stuffies! Now that we&#8217;ve covered the Rookies of the Year, let&#8217;s take a look at what teams brought the best Stuff on the season. Best Starting Rotation Chicago Cubs In third place, we saw the Chicago Cubs &#8211; a team with an overpowering starting rotation that destroyed their competition. They were [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Welcome back to the Stuffies! Now that we&#8217;ve covered the Rookies of the Year, let&#8217;s take a look at what teams brought the best Stuff on the season.</p>
<h2><b>Best Starting Rotation</b></h2>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/starting-rotation-stuffies-.png"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-7454" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/starting-rotation-stuffies--1024x666.png" alt="starting rotation stuffies" width="832" height="541" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Chicago Cubs</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">In third place, we saw the Chicago Cubs &#8211; a team with an overpowering starting rotation that destroyed their competition. They were lead by the league leader in Stuff &#8211; Jake Arrieta. Jason Hammel also utilized a huge separation of 22” between his pitches, and 17% change in speed to help propel the Cubs into the Stuffy finals. </span></p>
<p><strong>Los Angeles Dodgers</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">Had the Dodgers managed to stay healthy in 2016, there is a very good chance they would have taken home the Stuffy title. Kershaw, and Maeda have Stuff that is in the 96%+ range &#8211; something that is truly elite. This was bolstered by a lot of above average Stuff starters (Urias, Anderson, McCarthy, and Kazmir), who just couldn’t put together enough innings to catch up to first place.</span></p>
<p><strong>Kansas City Royals</strong></p>
<p>And, in an extremely tight battle, it’s the Kansas City Royals who emerge as the 2016 Stuff Champions! Who needs to follow up a World Series win with another title run, when you have the honour of hoisting the very first Team Rotation Stuffy award, right?? The Royals were lead by the four horsemen of the AStuffcolypse &#8211; Ventura, Volquez, Kennedy, and Danny Duffy. These Stuff monsters all had Stuff values of greater than 1.0 &#8211; or better than 80% of all MLB pitchers. A worthy achievement, for sure. Congrats to the Royals on their Stuff title. The prospect of having to watch the Royals dominate again based on their starting pitching truly is vomit-inducing.</p>
<h2><b>Best Bullpen</b></h2>
<p><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/bullpen-stuffies-.png"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-7455" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/bullpen-stuffies--1024x683.png" alt="bullpen stuffies" width="834" height="556" /></a><br />
<span style="font-weight: 400">The top 3 teams for Bullpen Stuff really distanced themselves from the pack in 2016.</span></p>
<p><strong>Cincinatti Reds</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">The third best Stuff belongs to a team that didn’t have a lot go well for them this season. The Cincinnati Reds wind up with a Bronze Stuffy, led by the power arm of Michael Lorenzen. Lorenzen had an elite fastball at 96mph, and paired that with a 90+ mph breaking ball. </span></p>
<p><strong>Minnesota Twins</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">Another team that will take solace in a Stuffy medal is the Minnesota Twins. The Twins take home the silver Stuffy for bullpens &#8211; with huge Stuff performances by Ryan Pressly, Trevor May, and Taylor Rogers leading the way. All of these power arms featured strong pitch mixes, and elite Stuff. I guess this just goes to show you &#8211; success is more about location, than it is about lighting up the radar gun!</span></p>
<p><b>Texas Rangers</b></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">That brings us to our 2016 Bullpen Stuff champions &#8211; the Texas Rangers! When the Rangers aren’t pumping fastballs into the lower backs of hitters who hurt their poor little feelings, they’re usually locking down one run games on the backs of Matt Bush, Cesar Ramos, and Sam Dyson &#8211; all pitchers who had stuff better than 97% of all pitchers in the MLB. When looking at every relief pitcher on the Rangers, and turning off any sort of innings cut-off, their reliever with the 8th best numbers (Keone Kela) has Stuff at 1.02 &#8211; that’s still better than 81% of all other relievers. They are without a doubt, the undisputed Stuff champions of Major League Baseball Bullpens.</span></p>
<h2><b>Not So Stuffies</b></h2>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">With our strict selection criteria for the Stuffies, there were a total of 77 eligible starting pitchers included in the analysis. We didn’t include knuckleballers, or relief pitchers (too many guys that only throw one pitch &#8211; thus hurting them in the Stuff metric).</span></p>
<p><strong>Bartolo Colon</strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">DYK: Bartolo takes 50 BP swings a day. His first home run wasn&#8217;t entirely an accident: <a href="https://t.co/yzfOND2FYH">https://t.co/yzfOND2FYH</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mets?src=hash">#Mets</a> <a href="https://t.co/OGhk7IKSi3">pic.twitter.com/OGhk7IKSi3</a></p>
<p>— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnthonyDiComo/status/729355873080872960">May 8, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">It’s hard to argue with the results Bartolo Colon put up this year. 2016’s most memorable home run, and some hot nasty fastball action out of the bullpen and rotation. Bartolo looks like the type of guy that you’d make on the create-a-player in the show, when you’re trying to make your friends laugh at your create a team. I don’t want to be on big sexy’s bad side &#8211; Bartolo might not get love from the Stuff Metric, but let it be known I think he’s the man.</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>This GIF gets me PUMPED UP. Get&#8217;m, <a href="https://twitter.com/CC_Sabathia">@CC_Sabathia</a>. Let&#8217;s see this every start. <a href="https://twitter.com/Yankees">@Yankees</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Yankees?src=hash">#Yankees</a> <a href="http://t.co/oCtaNCLaWK">pic.twitter.com/oCtaNCLaWK</a></p>
<p>— Mushin (@MetalMushin) <a href="https://twitter.com/MetalMushin/status/629675840482062336">August 7, 2015</a></p></blockquote>
<p><strong>CC Sabathia</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">CC Sabathia once ruled the roost (and, he still can generate some nasty stuff now and then). He pushed for Cy Youngs, put in 220+ inning seasons, and was the most highly sought after prize in all of free agency. However, his Stuff has fallen off completely, dropping to a very low level in 2016 &#8211; That is not an encouraging trend. Now in 2016, he sits near the bottom of the Stuff list.</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GottaSeeIt?src=hash">#GottaSeeIt</a>: Jose Bautista hits his second home run of spring training, a three-run rocket off Doug Fister. <a href="https://t.co/YMYhY2ELtu">https://t.co/YMYhY2ELtu</a></p>
<p>— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sportsnet/status/710891248152928256">March 18, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p><strong>Doug Fister</strong></p>
<p>Doug &#8220;Twisted&#8221; Fister &#8211; Doug Fister owns the honour of being the only starter on the Non-Stuffies list that weighs under 300 lbs. Is there a direct correlation between body mass and pitching effectiveness? David Wells sure doesn’t think so. Doug Fister now has a unique title &#8211; the least amount of Stuff in the MLB.</p>
<p>The appetizers are done! Next time, we finish things off with the big awards. The best Stuff of the year.</p>
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		<title>The Stuffies! 2016 &#8211; Stuff Rookies of the Year</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/12/the-stuffies-2016-stuff-rookies-of-the-year/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/12/the-stuffies-2016-stuff-rookies-of-the-year/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Oct 2016 18:05:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Sonne]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[STUFF]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rookies of the Year]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=7400</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ladies and gentlemen, put on your finest tuxedo and get “Golden Globe” drunk &#8211; it’s time for the culmination of a year’s worth of Stuff reports &#8211; The Stuffies! While the Stuffies currently have less cache than some of baseball’s more talked about awards &#8211; like the MVP, there’s no room for philosophizing about what [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><span style="font-weight: 400">Ladies and gentlemen, put on your finest tuxedo and get “Golden Globe” drunk &#8211; it’s time for the culmination of <a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/category/stuff/" target="_blank">a year’s worth of Stuff reports</a> &#8211; The Stuffies! While the Stuffies currently have less cache than some of baseball’s more talked about awards &#8211; like the MVP, there’s no room for philosophizing about what “valuable” means. Like a Mark Shapiro-led front office, these awards are data driven. Here at the BBSWAAC (Baseball Stuffies Writers’ Association of America&#8230;or Canada) we’ve taken the time to break down the Stuffy Awards into Starting and Relieving categories.  There won’t be any funny business where we pit a 60-inning reliever against a 200-inning starter.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">In the trend of having awards shows with great hosts; the Billy Crystals, and Neil Patrick Harrises of the world, the Stuffies would like to welcome <a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/author/nickdika/">Nick Dika</a> to provide his insight into the MLB’s most (and least) Stuffiest performances.</span></p>
<p>The Stuffies will consist of awards for:</p>
<p><em>Rookie of the Year Stuff &#8211; Starter</em></p>
<p><em>Rookie of the Year Stuff &#8211; Reliever</em></p>
<p><em>Best Starting Rotation Stuff</em></p>
<p><em>Best Bullpen Stuff</em></p>
<p><em>Top Reliever Stuff</em></p>
<p><em>Top Starter Stuff</em></p>
<p>We’ll also present the “Not-so-Stuffies” for the pitcher who, despite lacking in the Stuff department, still managed to churn out innings on the season.</p>
<h2><b>Eligibility</b></h2>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">To have the best Stuff &#8211; it isn’t about catching lightning in a bottle. You can’t just show up one day, throw the lights out, and claim you had the best Stuff in the MLB. That’s just not how the world works! To be eligible for the Stuff awards, I wanted those in the top 25% of innings pitched on the season, for both starting pitchers and relievers. This meant pitching 156 innings for Starting pitchers, and 46.1 innings for relievers. For rookies, those numbers were 63 innings for starters, and 24 innings for relievers. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">The Stuff metric is unfair to knuckleball pitchers, so they were removed from the analysis.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">And without further ado, let’s begin… the 2016 Stuffies!</span></p>
<h2><b>Rookie Relievers</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: center"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-7407" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/rookie-relievers-1024x270.png" alt="rookie relievers" width="834" height="220" /></p>
<p><em><strong>Brian Ellington</strong></em></p>
<p>The big E as they call him down in Miami, put up great numbers in his rookie season. His sub 3 ERA matched up well with his 97mph fastball. Perhaps Jeffrey Loria will build a nasty stuff statue in centerfield at Marlins park to honour this historic performance? Despite his awesome stuff, Easy E struggled with his command at times.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Brandon Phillips is over Brian Ellington&#8217;s fastball. I would be too at that velocity. <a href="https://t.co/n6Ck5rSKxT">pic.twitter.com/n6Ck5rSKxT</a></p>
<p>— Kyle Boddy (@drivelinebases) <a href="https://twitter.com/drivelinebases/status/766433030051278848">August 19, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p><em><strong>Matt Bush</strong></em></p>
<p>With the Silver Stuffy, we have Matt Bush. Matt Bush is featured prominently in the Stuffy awards &#8211; and if you watched Game 3 of the ALDS, you already know why. He has nasty, nasty Stuff. His fastball can get up into triple digits, and he separates his pitches by nearly 18&#8243;. That&#8217;s a lot of ground to cover at a high speed.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Matt Bush showed some emotion after blowing 100mph past George Springer last night <a href="https://t.co/6Bb4B0LirA">pic.twitter.com/6Bb4B0LirA</a> — Pitcher List (@ThePitcherList) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThePitcherList/status/775737088742395904">September 13, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400"><em><strong>Mauricio Cabrera </strong></em></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">Here at the Stuffies we don’t discriminate against small market, west coast or non-contending teams when we hand out <em>our</em> hardware. And that’s why Mauricio Cabrera is taking home a Stuffy this season. If you don’t recognize his name you will soon. Pitching for the retooling Braves means you&#8217;ll know him as &#8220;the top reliever available at the 2017 trade deadline&#8221;</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Mauricio Cabrera&#8217;s unreal 101 mph Fastball + The Nastiest Pitching GIFs From Tuesday&#8217;s Games <a href="https://t.co/KoFCv1llUS">https://t.co/KoFCv1llUS</a> <a href="https://t.co/Pp6d9nTHIF">pic.twitter.com/Pp6d9nTHIF</a></p>
<p>— Pitcher List (@ThePitcherList) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThePitcherList/status/768483154940207104">August 24, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<h2><b> Rookie Starters</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/rookie-relievers.png"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-7408" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/rookie-starters-1024x277.png" alt="rookie starters" width="843" height="228" /></a></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400"><em><strong>Dylan Bundy</strong></em></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">While it’s a bit later in his career than we may have predicted, Dylan Bundy takes home a bronze Stuffy for Rookie Starter. Bundy&#8217;s combination of electric stuff and pitching for the Orioles means that he will almost undoubtedly turn into an ace when he is traded to a different team for spare parts at some point in the future. That or he will sit unused in the Bullpen while division rivals deposit baseballs in the outfield bleachers, eliminating them from the playoffs. </span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Gary Thorne&#8217;s reaction to this Dylan Bundy Curveball: &#8220;Ugh, Mercy&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/1cGeOALTe6">pic.twitter.com/1cGeOALTe6</a> — Pitcher List (@ThePitcherList) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThePitcherList/status/762364752492371970">August 7, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p><em><strong>Kenta Maeda</strong></em></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">Kenta Maeda has the lowest velocity of anyone on the Stuff lists, but he has elite separation between his pitches and his change in velocity is close to the top of all of the MLB. This is a pretty impressive rookie performance for a command type pitcher. </span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Here&#8217;s my favorite <a href="https://twitter.com/JDFernandez16">@JDFernandez16</a> GIF. Just whiffing, but in joyous awe of a Kenta Maeda pitch. <a href="https://t.co/URxIyePjP1">pic.twitter.com/URxIyePjP1</a></p>
<p>— Michael Grace (@LowOutsideCurve) <a href="https://twitter.com/LowOutsideCurve/status/780405246283612160">September 26, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p><em><strong>Jon Gray</strong></em></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400">Finally, Jon Gray takes home the Gold Medal for Rookies! Gray has an elite fastball and paired that with elite change in speed and above average pitch separation. He had a great season for the Rockies &#8211; which amounts to a super amazing awesome season for a pitcher anywhere else. His beard is already elite, but now he’s the Stuff Rookie of the Year. Congrats, Jon Gray!</span></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Jon Gray&#8217;s Slider was so filthy, Oswaldo Arcia forgot how many outs there were. <a href="https://t.co/FNHFOUWBUN">pic.twitter.com/FNHFOUWBUN</a> — Pitcher List (@ThePitcherList) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThePitcherList/status/777926511806611457">September 19, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p>*** break for commercial music starts playing ***</p>
<p>So, a huge congratulations go out to Jon Gray and Mauricio Cabrera. You both had great rookie seasons, and showed the MLB what your Stuff was made of. Next season, maybe your team might give you a hand and you can win some games.</p>
<p>When the Stuffies return &#8211; we&#8217;re going to look at what starting rotations and bullpens had the best Stuff of the season!</p>
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		<title>The Final Regular Season Blue Jays “STUFF” Report</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/03/the-final-regular-season-blue-jays-stuff-report/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/10/03/the-final-regular-season-blue-jays-stuff-report/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Oct 2016 16:03:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Sonne]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biagini]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sanchez]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Stroman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[STUFF]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=7192</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We did it!!! We&#8217;ve made it to the end of the season, and this is going to be the final regular season Stuff report. If you&#8217;ve read one, or you&#8217;ve read them all &#8211; thank you so much for making this such a fun experience. This Stuff report looks at the Jays pitchers over the [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>We did it!!! We&#8217;ve made it to the end of the season, and this is going to be the final regular season Stuff report. If you&#8217;ve read one, or you&#8217;ve read them all &#8211; thank you so much for making this such a fun experience. This Stuff report looks at the Jays pitchers over the past 7 days &#8211; as opposed to normal, where we look at two week periods. Stay tuned later this week, where Nick Dika and I will be presenting the <strong>2016 Stuffy Awards</strong>. It&#8217;ll be a black tie affair. On to the Stuff!</p>
<h1>Starting Pitchers</h1>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/starters-table.png"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-7197" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/starters-table-1024x216.png" alt="starters table" width="844" height="178" /></a><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/starters-table.png"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-7195" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/starter-figure-1024x743.png" alt="starter figure" width="666" height="483" /></a></p>
<p>A lot was made of the spring training battle between Gavin Floyd and Aaron Sanchez for the Starting Rotation. How silly we all were back then. Sanchez dominated, and the rest was history. Then just yesterday, on a day when Toronto needed him to be at his best, he carried a no hitter into the late portion of the game and silenced the best offensive team in the American League. His Stuff has remained legendary, and consistent all season &#8211; there are no signs of fatigue setting in. Pitchers are fragile &#8211; there is no arguing that. Who knows what the future holds for Aaron Sanchez, but it looks like we haven&#8217;t seen his ceiling yet.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Aaron Sanchez, arm action/glove side (front view) <a href="https://t.co/oHUGaQiClL">pic.twitter.com/oHUGaQiClL</a></p>
<p>— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) <a href="https://twitter.com/PitchingNinja/status/782906147212660736">October 3, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p>While not as mind blowing, Marcus Stroman also had a very consistent season from a Stuff perspective. He had his performance ups and downs, without a doubt, but in another game where the Jays needed a huge performance from their starter, Stroman pitched into the eighth inning against the Orioles (in a losing effort), and was cost a couple of runs by some shaky defence. Both of these young guns were there when their team needed them the most. All of Jays starters appear to be firing on all cylinders right now &#8211; and with a bit of luck (and hopefully some offence), it&#8217;s going to be exciting to see what these beasts can do in the playoffs.</p>
<h1>Relief Pitchers</h1>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/reliever-table.png"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-7194" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/reliever-table-1024x216.png" alt="reliever table" width="787" height="166" /></a> <a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/relief-figure.png"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-7193" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/relief-figure-1024x742.png" alt="relief figure" width="778" height="564" /></a></p>
<p>Consensus Blue Jays Rookie of the Year, Joe Biagini, saved his best stuff for last. In fact, Biagini had better stuff than all but four other pitchers in the MLB last week (Aroldis Chapman, Arquimedes Camineiro, Matt Bush, and Joe Kelly narrowly edged him out). Biagini has been put through the ringer this season &#8211; he has the second highest workload on the Blue Jays (per the Fatigue Unit&#8217;s metric &#8211; <a href="http://www.mikesonne.ca/baseball/giving-a-big-fu-to-workload-metrics-in-pitchers-part-2b-cumulative-fus-from-fangraphs/">which you can read about here</a>). He&#8217;s also been a great teammate &#8211; exhibit A.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Biagini kisses Grilli. Drunk already? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash">#BlueJays</a> <a href="https://t.co/AjdRWc2GXf">pic.twitter.com/AjdRWc2GXf</a></p>
<p>— Adam Virani (@adamv_23) <a href="https://twitter.com/adamv_23/status/782713621801558016">October 2, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Bullpen-Workload.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-7198" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/Bullpen-Workload.png" alt="Bullpen Workload" width="738" height="312" /></a></p>
<p>If you were concerned about big spikes in workload, Biagini should be number one on your warning list. I do believe that his recent struggles can be tied directly to his huge workload this season &#8211; but if you look at it from a Stuff perspective &#8211; Biagini does not appear to be showing physiological signs of fatigue. These last few bumps in the road may just be a matter of other teams finally getting a good scouting report on him, and hitters facing him for the second and third time.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s it! The end of the 2016 Regular Season Blue Jays Stuff report. Let&#8217;s hope there are a bunch of games we can use to evaluate stuff this postseason!</p>
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		<title>The Blue Jays &#8220;Stuff&#8221; Report &#8211; Volume 10</title>
		<link>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/08/29/the-blue-jays-stuff-report-volume-10/</link>
		<comments>http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/08/29/the-blue-jays-stuff-report-volume-10/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Aug 2016 15:43:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Sonne]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[STUFF]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/?p=6056</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Blue Jays Stuff Report will be appearing in this space every two weeks. The metric was created by Dr. Mike Sonne, who has a PhD in biomechanics from McMaster University. For his work on pitcher fatigue, injury, and other baseball related research, please visit his website over at www.mikesonne.ca. We&#8217;re in the home stretch for [&#8230;]]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>The Blue Jays Stuff Report will be appearing in this space every two weeks. The metric was created by Dr. Mike Sonne, who has a PhD in biomechanics from McMaster University. For his work on pitcher fatigue, injury, and other baseball related research, please visit his website over at<a href="http://www.mikesonne.ca/baseball/who-has-the-best-stuff-in-baseball-volume-1/"> www.mikesonne.ca</a>.</em></p>
<p>We&#8217;re in the home stretch for the Stuff report now!  If my calculations are right (and sometimes, they are), there will be 3 more stuff reports after this one. The next project &#8211; analytics for Jays players&#8217; shoes featured in Stroman&#8217;s snapchat.</p>
<h1><strong>Starting Pitche</strong><strong>rs</strong></h1>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/starters-figure.png"><img class="alignnone wp-image-6067 " src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/starters-table-1024x234.png" alt="starters table" width="656" height="150" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/starters-figure.png"><img class="alignnone wp-image-6064 " src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/starters-figure-1024x742.png" alt="starters figure" width="632" height="458" /></a></p>
<p>Looking at the Stuff numbers for the Jays starters, I think Aaron Sanchez&#8217;s mini vacation came at the right time. His Stuff declined around the All Star break, and it hasn&#8217;t really gone up to the lofty standards he set earlier in the season. It&#8217;ll be interesting to see if this time off has refreshed him, and he&#8217;ll be back to throwing smoke. All of that being said, his stuff values are still in the stratosphere; he&#8217;s currently sitting ninth overall among MLB starters when it comes to Stuff. With the command he has shown this season, and his ridiculous Stuff &#8211; it would be pretty dumb to trade him for a 32 year old first baseman &#8211; as awesome as that tight pant wearing, weirdo Canadian might be:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">The rumoured ask for Votto is Sanchez. Just think about that.</p>
<p>— Joanna (@HumandChuck) <a href="https://twitter.com/HumandChuck/status/770250131635445761">August 29, 2016</a></p></blockquote>
<p>One final note on the Jays starters &#8211; Stroman has consistently been trending in the right direction. Compared to where he was at the lowest point in the season (0.15), Stroman&#8217;s fastball is currently a full mile per hour faster, and he&#8217;s using his various fastballs (sinker, fourseasm, cutter) more frequently (74.7% in Volume 4, and 88% in Volume 10). However, he oftne isn&#8217;t getting as much distance between his pitches &#8211; which can result in more contact (like we saw in his last start against the Twins, where he was BABIP&#8217;d to death). When Stroman is spotting his pitches, and his sequencing results in strike outs &#8211; I think he&#8217;s at his absolute best.</p>
<h1>Relief Pitchers</h1>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/relievers-table1.png"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-6066" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/relievers-table1-1024x280.png" alt="relievers table" width="702" height="192" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/relievers-figure.png"><img class="alignnone  wp-image-6062" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/relievers-figure-1024x743.png" alt="relievers figure" width="633" height="459" /></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>After a brief lull in Volume 8 of the Stuff report, Joe Biagini has come back to life, and once again has some of the game&#8217;s best Stuff out of the bullpen. Compared to when his Stuff was at its lowest on the season, Biagini has altered his change in speed from a 13% difference, to a 14.1% difference. He has a small change in his break distance as well &#8211; going from 19.6&#8243; back in Volume 8, to 19.9&#8243; in this report. In Volume 10, we have also seen Roberto Osuna&#8217;s Stuff return to his earlier season dominance. Compared to the same time frame as Biagini, Osuna&#8217;s Stuff boost has come from an increase in fastball velocity (95.5 in volume 8, to 96.2 in volume 10). As a whole, the Jays bullpen is actually looking pretty good &#8211; Every single one of their pen members right how has stuff that is better than the league average. In fact, using weighted Stuff (essentially Stuff/Inning pitched), the Jays have the 8th best stuff out of the pen in all of the MLB.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/bullpen-stuff.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-6070" src="http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/bullpen-stuff.png" alt="bullpen stuff" width="881" height="726" /></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center">
<p>That&#8217;s is for this week. Look for more Stuff soon!</p>
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