Lindbergh: Baseball’s top 10 single-season starting pitcher draws
From SABR member Ben Lindbergh at Grantland on May 14, 2015:
You’ve heard of Harvey Day and Felix Day. You’re getting down with Pineda Day, and looking forward to Fernandez Day. If you’re really dedicated, you rise at dawn to greet Dallas Keuchel Day. All of these occasions signal the approach of strong starting pitching. But which one brings the strongest sense of anticipation? Which one would you least want to miss?
I was recently challenged1 to determine the best Pitcher Days from baseball’s past. Counting tweets to measure audience excitement won’t work for decades-old seasons, but we do have attendance data. And one way we can answer the question is to search for the pitchers whose starts sold tickets, a proxy for a starter’s must-see-ness.
Using attendance data from Retrosheet, which BP’s Rob McQuown pulled from the Baseball Prospectus database, I looked for starters who gave their teams bigger gates.
Read the full article here: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/mlb-top-10-single-season-starting-pitching-attractions/
Originally published: May 15, 2015. Last Updated: May 15, 2015.