Whatever Happened to Controlling the Strike Zone?
Monday, July 21, 2008by Geoff Young
Baseball revolves around control of the strike zone.
-- Bill James, Baseball Abstract 1988, p. 72
On pages 179-181 of the Ducksnorts 2007 Baseball Annual, we examined how the Oakland A's and Minnesota Twins parlayed their dominance of the strike zone into wins. The A's excelled at getting on base, while Minnesota specialized in keeping runners off base. Both achieved a fair measure of success with this approach -- perhaps not directly because of it, but certainly during the same time frame.
Acknowledging that many other factors dictate a team's fate, it's worth noting that the Padres have done an excellent job of controlling the strike zone since moving to Petco Park. This ...
