UncategorizedHow Would The Real Strike Rule Change A Game?

By David Evans

July 29th, 2020

         Opening Day, Chris Paddack of the Padres pitched 6 scoreless innings against the DBacks.  Below is a comparison spreadsheet showing each pitch including whether it was in the strike zone or not.  It shows how the Real Strike Rule would have lowered the pitch total by 17 pitches.  He probably would have thrown an even higher percentage in the zone if he knew that pitches out of the zone would always be balls. It looked like Paddack threw 52 of his 81 pitches in the strike zone.

         To my knowledge, Major League Baseball has not officially defined what an electronic system would call a strike; is it one point on the ball touches the edge, the mid point, or the entire ball?  I went with umpire calls unless it was really obvious.

The game stats said he threw 64 strikes and 17 balls.  The difference is batters swinging at pitches out of the zone along with some missed calls by the umpire.

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Present Rules         Real Strike Rule

81             Pitches            64

3            Strikeouts             6

4                Hits                  1

1              Walks                2

15    Ball-In-Play Outs     12

 

Present Rules   Real Strike Rule   Pitch Total B/S Call/ In/Out At Bat Total Ball AB No. Pitches F/IP Swing Of Zone Result No. Pitches Strk Rslt K Marte 1st Inning 1 S C I 1 S 2 S C I 2 S 3 F I 3 3 S K 4 B O 5 5 IP I Single Peralta 1 6 IP I Dbl Play 1 4 Gr Out S Marte 1 S S I 1 S 2 B O 2 B 3 S S I 3 S 4 B O 4 B 5 F O 5 9 S K 6 B O 7 13 IP I Pop Up Escobar 2nd Inning 1 B O 1 B 2 S ? I 2 S 3 F I 3 F 4 B O 4 B 5 F I 5 14 S K 6 19 S ? O K Walker 1 F I 1 S 2 S ? O 2 B 3 22 IP I Single 3 17 IP Single Calhoun 1 S S I 1 S 2 S S I 2 S 3 F I 3 20 S K 4 F I 5 F I 6 F I 7 F I 8 30 IP I Single C Kelly 1 S C I 1 S 2 F I 2 S 3 B O 3 B 4 34 IP I Dbl Play 4 24 IP Gr Out Lamb 3rd Inning 1 S C O 1 B 2 S C O 2 B 3 F O 3 27 B Walk 4 38 IP I Double Ahmed 1 S S I 1 S 2 S S I 2 S 3 41 S S I K 3 30 S K K Marte 1 S C I 1 2 S C I 2 S 3 F O 3 33 S 4 B O B 5 46 IP I Gr Out B Gr Out Peralta 1 B O 1 B 2 B O 2 B 3 49 IP I Gr Out 3 36 IP Gr Out S Marte 4th Inning 1 S C I 1 S 2 S C I 2 S 3 B O 3 B 4 53 S S O K 4 40 S K Escobar 1 54 IP I Line Out 1 41 IP Line Out Walker 1 B O 1 B 2 S C I 2 S 3 57 IP I Fly Out 3 44 IP Fly Out Calhoun 5th Inning 1 S S I 1 S 2 59 IP I Gr Out 2 46 IP Gr Out Kelly 1 S ? I 1 S 2 61 IP I Gr Out 2 48 IP Gr Out Lamb 1 B O 1 B 2 B O 2 B 3 S C I 3 S 4 S C I 4 S 5 B O 5 53 B Walk 6 F I 7 F O 8 F I 9 70 B O Walk Ahmed 1 B O 1 B 2 F O 2 B 3 S ? I ? 3 S 4 74 IP O Fly Out 4 57 IP Fly Out K Marte 6th Inning 1 75 IP I Fly Out 1 58 IP Fly Out Peralta 1 S C I ? 1 S 2 S C I 2 S 3 78 IP I Gr Out 3 61 IP Gr Out S Marte 1 S C I 1 S 2 S S O 2 B 3 81 IP I Gr Out 3 64 IP Gr Out Present Real Strike Inn Rules     Rule   1 Single K Double Play Ground Out Pop Up K 2 K K Single Single Single K Double Play Ground Out 3 Double Walk K K Ground Out Ground Out Ground Out Ground Out 4 K K Line Out Line Out Fly Out Fly Out 5 Ground Out Ground Out Ground Out Ground Out Walk Walk Fly Out Fly Out 6 Fly Out Fly Out Ground Out Ground Out Ground Out Ground Out Present Real Strike Rules Rule 3 K 6 K 2 Double Plays 1 Single 3 Singles 2 Walks 1 Double 12 In-Play-Outs 1 Walk 15 In Play Outs 81 Pitches 64 Pitches