Add new comment

I think that its certain that Washburn pitched better than he ever had as a Mariner this year.  I've had a couple of debates where the counter-argument has everything to do with strand rates, pitch/fx data and neo-analytical catch phrasing.  Much ado about statisical regression and so on.  What they miss is exactly what you seem to be pointing to, Doc.  Averages are based upon highs and lows in a spectrum, there is no physical law enforcing one to fall back towards their mean totals.  Many scoff at slight adjustments that a guy makes in his delivery, and the truth is, they often don't work.  But sometimes they do, and instantly you have a new ballplayer.  Jarrod appeared this year, to add a wrinkle,(slow curve), turn over his fb a bit, and pitch lower in the zone.  We can go round and round about LD%, it means nothing when those line drives are singles instead of doubles.  The flyball % means nothing if they are by and large of the lazy variety caused by a fooled hitter.  Many examples, impossible to convince the Sabes that they don't have the answers.  
 
Whether he pitched better this year because of job security, contracts, whatever, he just pitched better.  There are enough examples, across the sporting world, that one at least has to ponder the significance of "contract year" ballplayers.