With walk rate exploding, which starting pitchers could be most impacted in fantasy baseball?
Eric Samulski discusses a handful of starting pitchers whose walk rates make them due for regression
A big talking point across MLB this season is that walks are way up across the league. Walks per game are up at 3. 69, which is the highest rate since 1951 and the only time since 1999 it's been over 3.
50. I tried to figure out why that was and what impact it would have on the game, both from a real-life and fantasy standpoint. My initial thought, since horizontal movement is also up this year, is that there may be a difference in the seams on the ball, but that idea seems less plausible after I spoke to a few pitchers.
Tobias Myers of the New York Mets suggested that it may be weather: "Maybe colder weather... I know here we've had a lot of wind, which a lot of guys are getting crazy movements on their pitches, but it's more on like the sinkers and the sweepers. " That could certainly be a component of it, and we know that offense is going to heat up when the weather heats up (more on that later).
The other common hypothesis is that it's ABS-related. However, ABS hasn't added any walks when you look at specific challenges overturned. A look at Statcast’s detailed breakdown would seem to refute that .
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