A report on pitcher injuries was just provided by Major League Baseball. It was the result of 200 subject-matter specialists’ interviews regarding the increasing number of arm issues in the sport, and 47 times the word “stuff” was used. The idea of stuff measurements, such as Stuff+, and its potential connection to pitcher health are covered in detail in this paper.
Over the past few years, new technologies and machine learning approaches have greatly improved the analysis of a pitch’s physical qualities and how they relate to outcomes. The velocity, spin, and movement of a pitch alone can now be used to determine its quality using a number like Stuff+. These analytics, which indicated that pitch types including sweepers, hard sliders, and cutters were underappreciated, can be linked to the current surge in their usage throughout the league.
One major league pitching coach, who was one of several team personnel who were given anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss these measures in public, stated, “It’s been an important tool for us as we evaluate and develop our pitchers.”
According to an MLB team analyst,
“Stuff+ has really helped bridge the gap between how the public and front offices think about pitchers and pitch quality.” “Obviously, teams maintain their own metrics in-house, but considering how similarly these metrics are constructed by teams and how similar Stuff+ is to what these teams have, Stuff+ makes it easier for the average analyst to understand what teams are looking for in pitchers.”
However, these indicators are important to more than just analysts, coaches, and physicians. An early stuff metric was inspired by a player. In 2018, while pitching, Brandon Bailey—who is currently a pitching instructor with the Dodgers organization—had the generative question.
“Which should I do?” he inquired. said Driveline’s Kyle Boddy. “Oh, that’s a good question,” we said. Is it possible to measure this? We created Stuff+ in response to that initial query.
These measures are obviously here to stay. When the coach is evaluating his team, they are in the bullpen; when pitchers are given homework assignments during the summer; when batters are considering scouting reports prior to a game; and when analysts are looking for undervalued players to sign, they are in the office. These days, they appear on a lot of baseball’s top statistical websites, are used by most organizations when evaluating and acquiring players, and are becoming more and more common in everyday speech.