Video: LOB% (Now with More Tango Tiger)
I’m skeptical of anyone who’s pointed his or her (but, really, mostly his) internet browser to this site but somehow decides he doesn’t have two minutes to watch Mr. Bradley Woodrum’s new video on LOB%.
When you talk about this video, you’re talking about a video that has pan flute-sounding background music, that features a pretty accurate rendering of famous Bermudan Sidney Ponson, and which, perhaps most notably, reveals the true identity of sabermetrical patriarch Tom Tango.
Other thing: don’t neglect to note that this video has also been preserved for all time in Mr. Steve Slowinski’s Saber Library, a project designed to hold you close as your traverse the wilds of sabermetrica.
Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.
I love these videos, but now I’m wondering how large of a sample size do we need before we can determine a pitchers true LOB% talent? And how well does minor league LOB% reflect on true talent when it comes to MLB LOB%? Is there even an MLE for that?
I would say you should use a sample like Tango/Woodrum use here: look at the past 2-3 years of data and take an average.
Minor league numbers get messy, especially since a pitcher’s numbers can be influenced by poor fielders behind them. I wouldn’t pay much attention, if any, to a pitcher’s MiL LOB%. In general, dominant strikeout pitchers will have higher LOB%s, while blah pitchers will have lower.