Baseball is a fickle sport.
Year in and year out, players scratch their heads as their performances fluctuate from exhilarating highs to frustrating lows. Over the next few slides, we’ll take a look at some players in the current offseason market who are poised to bounce back in 2016.
By digging deep into the numbers, there are trends that bode well for future production. ERA and batting average tell part of the story, but there are more telling numbers when looking at a player’s stat sheet.
Take Jeff Samardzija, for example. How can his near-5.00 ERA and decline in strikeouts be explained? Usage rates, velocity and the effectiveness of his pitches all played into that ugly number.
The good news? Those are factors that require just small mechanical tweaks to fix. Samardzija, Ian Kennedy, Chase Utley and others have the numbers in their favor.
Let us know what you think about our selections in the comment section below. Would you be OK with your favorite team signing one of these players? Should teams be wary of these players?
It’s easy to write off a player after a poor performance, but the quality organizations are able to identify the ones that won’t make it two seasons in a row. Here are a few names that fit that mold.