astros4545 said:
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28830287/what-rewatching-two-key-astros-2017-world-series-games-tells-us?platform=amp
Great article. One key point:
"With
Marwin Gonzalez batting in the third inning, Fox showed a graphic with the Astros' decline in strikeout rate from 2016 to 2018: From 27th to first. "Credit the organization," John Smoltz said. This is one of the overriding narratives about the 2017 Astros, although it's important to note that due to personnel changes (such as the addition of Gurriel and
Alex Bregman's first full season), preseason forecasts projected a steep drop in strikeouts for the Astros -- with or without cheating."
I hate when I see people just throw out random stats as if it is proof like our Ks dropping from 2017 to 2018. If you look at our roster in 2016, we dropped Jason Castro, Colby Rasmus, Carlos Gomez, and Luis Valbuena who all struck out a lot. Springer's numbers and Correa's numbers did come way, but they also played a lot less due to injury. Beyond those two, guys like Marwin and Altuve struck out at about the same rate. I'm sure there was some benefit from the scheme, but I hate when people just throw out random stats as proof.