Cliff Lee is dealing tonight: 9 Ks/0 BBs through 7 IP (and maybe more to come soon). No doubt he’s one of the best – if not the best – pitcher in the game at the moment. He’s throwing nasty pitches but also mixing them up effectively and hitting his spots. Now I think it’s clear to say that his pitch quality and precision are “talents.” Maybe more debatable is his pitch selection and general location – I’ll contend that it is a strategy, instead. Could he possibly be performing even more effectively if he had Greg Maddux in his ear calling pitches?
Lee is still really good by any measure – now 10 Ks/0BBs through 8.
This post has been revised on account of being written while highly distracted by baseball and after a few beers. It needs to be expanded upon anyway.
“we can’t should ignore pitch selection and defensive placement and hitter’s signs and instead just look at results given the given strategy both teams pursue”
I think you’re going to need to clean that up in post.