According to the citation, it's exactly as cut and dried as I thought. Batters swing 7% of the time and it is very controversial when they do. The walk ratio is slightly higher than I thought, maybe the data includes the "intentional unintentional walks".
(edit- on re-read, it does indeed - it should be filtered for the first base open runners on base scenario). If he's willing to groove the pitch, I give MLB pitchers a 90+% success rate. I'm fine with a skilled batter drawing a walk, just do it faster. I even like watching great pitches fouled off in the process.
I would not like to see phantom waves at pitches to avoid the double strike pitch, so I'm not that sold on it. I'd love to see different game strategies, and Bill James can easily catch up. Remember how much fun stolen bases were before the sabermetricians got involved?
These are just musings, and a moderator will probably spank us soon, so I'll go dead.
Volante wrote: ↑Thu Apr 12, 2018 11:29 pm
2-3" of foam isn't enough of a crumple zone for the NFL either. As long as the brain keeps moving after the skull stops, it'll have the same problem as every other helmet.
There's a lot going on in the sub-concussive mode as well. It's not just motion but also shock waves which I assume the suspension is designed to mitigate. I'm sure the designers and engineers can make good use of a 2" exterior shell whether it's urethane foam or spray on hair. If you have an additional 4" (both players in helmet to helmet), you can go from 30 mph to zero with about 6 g's in 3 milliseconds (hasty calculation advisory). I'd worry more about potential neck injury from the extra leverage of a big dome (whiplash).
What I'd really like is a rule makes offending corners and safeties (and Gronk) have to wear bigger and bigger dunce helmets each time they lead with their helmet
. When they play a full game without an infraction, they can go back to the next size helmet.
Disclaimer - repeated exposure to author's musings may cause befuddlement.