Paul Daugherty has this article on the Reds philosophy of “pitching to contact.” It’s an interesting piece, and I wish there were some way of quantifying the success or failure of this philosophy.
I did enjoy this:
This is a prime emphasis with the Reds this spring. Their marquee offseason acquisition, lefty Eric Milton, pitches to contact. Milton is Tom Browning for the new millennium. When Browning pitched on the last day of a homestand, you could blink and miss an inning and a half.
Browning knew that pitching a baseball was not like painting a chapel ceiling in Vatican City. It was laying the ball in there and letting your defense earn its wings. We loved Browning for that.
I’m beginning to like Eric Milton more and more. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I was a big Tom Browning fan back in the day.
As for pitching to contact: I’d like to hear your opinions on the concept. I’d also like to see some analysis from the sabermetrically-inclined about whether this is a good philosophy. How does Voros McCracken‘s DIPS theory fit into this?