Predictions are hard. Getting them right is even harder. But everyone loves them, so I’m going to attempt to predict which starting pitchers will improve in the second-half of the season, and which are poised to put up worse numbers. This information may be especially helpful for a GM thinking about acquiring a pitcher before the trade deadline, or, maybe more applicably, a fantasy owner trying to surge his team into playoff position.
How do you exactly predict starting pitcher performance in MLB? Well, it’s pretty commonly known amongst baseball-thinkers that FIP is more accurate at predicting a subsequent year’s ERA than ERA itself. Again, FIP is a statistic on an ERA-scale that only accounts for what the pitcher can control (strikeouts, walks, and home runs). There’s been a lot of research that looks at differences between ERA and FIP, but to my knowledge, there’s nothing out there to see if it can predict second-half performance. So that’s what I’m going to do here.
I compiled all the starting pitchers who were qualified in both the first and second halves of 2015 (57 total), and ran a basic scatter plot of their first-half ERA, FIP, and xFIP against second-half ERA, to see which of the former was best at predicting the latter.
First-Half ERA and Second-Half ERA
First up is first-half ERA and second-half ERA. A fairly weak correlation– 7% of a pitcher’s second-half ERA is explained by their first-half ERA, albeit significant (p-value < 0.10)
First-Half FIP and Second-Half ERA
Next is first-half FIP and second-half ERA. It’s hard to tell but the dots are, on average, a bit closer to the fit line– 11% of second-half ERA is explained by first-half FIP (p-value < 0.05)
First-Half xFIP and Second-Half ERA
Lastly, we have first-half xFIP and second-half ERA. While FIP uses a pitcher’s actual home run totals, xFIP uses league-average totals because home run rates fluctuate year-to-year. You can clearly see the dots are much closer to the fit line than the previous two graphs– 15% of second-half ERA is predicted by first-half xFIP (p-value < 0.01)
Is 15% good? Using the same method as above, I looked at the correlation between 2014 xFIP and 2015 ERA– and found an r² of 27%. So while half-season predictions don’t seem to be as accurate as season-to-season predictions, if MLB teams are making real moves based on a 27% correlation, I’m going to take a leap and say my fantasy team can makes moves based on a 15% correlation.
Now the part you (and I) have been waiting for: Here are the top 10 pitchers poised for second-half improvement followed by the top 10 pitchers who may get worse (sorted by the difference between ERA and xFIP, as of 7/9).
Some interesting things to note on the first list:
- Smyly is owned in 48% of Yahoo Fantasy leagues, Nola in 47%, Ray in 11%, and Bettis in 4%. Pick them up.
- The rest could be solid buy-low trade options (minus Eovaldi, unless your league values middle-relievers).
- A common theme amongst the members are high BABIPs and home run rates (>.300, >15%)– which suggests they have been victims of bad luck
And the second list, where the opposites are mostly true:
- While Teheran’s name has come up in trade talks, his numbers suggest he may regress in the second-half
- Sell-high trade options in fantasy leagues
- Low BABIPs and home run rates (<.275, <10%)
This article has 1 Comment