Have you thought that the main difference might be the pitchers mound? And that pitchers at home tend to perform better (throw more strikes) because they are familiar with the mound?
That's funny, Rob Neyer suggested exactly the same thing to me this morning!
I think it's possible that that's some of the difference. You could check, I guess, by seeing if newly-traded-for pitchers have a lower HFA while they're getting used to the mound.
My guess is it'll be a small factor, since it's baseball-specific and doesn't carry over to other sports that also have an HFA. But, there might be something there.
I will say that one thing I have been trying to figure out for several years now is how to detect pitching mound changes in the PITCHf/x data. I haven't cracked that nut yet.
I have some ideas about how one might detect it with access to both PITCHf/x and TrackMan data, though.
Have you thought that the main difference might be the pitchers mound? And that pitchers at home tend to perform better (throw more strikes) because they are familiar with the mound?
ReplyDeleteThat's funny, Rob Neyer suggested exactly the same thing to me this morning!
ReplyDeleteI think it's possible that that's some of the difference. You could check, I guess, by seeing if newly-traded-for pitchers have a lower HFA while they're getting used to the mound.
My guess is it'll be a small factor, since it's baseball-specific and doesn't carry over to other sports that also have an HFA. But, there might be something there.
I will say that one thing I have been trying to figure out for several years now is how to detect pitching mound changes in the PITCHf/x data. I haven't cracked that nut yet.
ReplyDeleteI have some ideas about how one might detect it with access to both PITCHf/x and TrackMan data, though.