Maybe the cutter was registered as a slider and accounted for the increase in the amount of sliders thrown to the right hand batters.

In any case, thanks for the great post, very interesting!

Thanks for the analysis, Dave, but do keep in mind that “less” is used when referring to something that’s not physically measured/counted. “Fewer” is the appropriate term when referring to, for example, the number of fastballs or sliders thrown in a game.

Humid air is less dense than dry air. That makes it harder to get a ball to break. Cold air is much denser than warm air (and in fact will contain less water vapor than warm air at the same relative humidity). The temperature is a much greater factor than humidity in this respect.

To the extent humidity depresses the long ball it’s because damp balls are less elastic and damp bats don’t transfer energy as well. The ball doesn’t go as far because it gets less initial velocity, not because humid air slows it down. That’s why at Coors they put the balls in the humidor to supress home runs (and why pitchers who rely on ball movement still complain about pitching there). All things being equal — with humidity-controlled dry balls and bats — a day with humid air should (slightly) increase home runs, though in reality the difference in air resistance between atmospheres with high and low water vapor content doesn’t amount to much.

(I did these calcs once but can’t find them at the moment, so I leave them as an exercise for the reader. Relevant equations can be found here.)

Logger Says:

Based on Silva’s outing last night, has your opinion of him changed at all? Or do you need to see more of the big fella?

Honestly, I was impressed with Carlos last night. Do I need to see more? I think so. Let’s just hope his next outing goes as well.

On top, you have 76FB/26SL/20CH
Totals on the bottom are 69/26/21

Not that this changes anything, necessarily.