OK, my intention in what I'm about to post is not to be a jerk, but this "Peterson was gassed" narrative needs a bit more clarification.1st Half ERA - 3.062nd Half ERA - 6.34Yup, definitely gassed . . . but you know, maybe before we say that we should check out some other things.1st Half 4-seam average velocity - 92.62nd Half 4-seam average velocity - 91.9Hmmm, well I guess the FB did decline a little bit . . . yup, definitely gassed. Let's confirm that.1st Half Pitching+ 952nd Half Pitching+ 98OK, well Pitching+ is a crappy metric that doesn't work . . . still, kind of strange the velocity didn't change much and, by publicly avaliable metrics, the "stuff" actually got better in the second half.Is there ANY other explanation for what could have happened?1st Half GB/FB - 2.292nd Half GB/FB - 2.241st Half Hard% - 35.8%2nd Half Hard% - 37.9%So strange . . . what was coming out of his hand was basically the same, and the batted ball profile, although slightly harder and a tiny bit more in the air, certainly couldn't have accounted for his ERA doubling . . .What else?1st Half FIP - 3.422nd Half FIP - 3.601st Half LOB% - 76%2nd Half LOB% - 59.5%1st Half BABIP - .2922nd Half BABIP - .360Now, I know there are a number of people here who think defense doesn't matter. You just get better pitching because defense doesn't matter. You get pitchers who are good enough to just strike everybody out and then you don't need to catch the ball behind them at all.But what if defense did matter?What if, for a pitcher like David Peterson, who can spend an entire season basically throwing the ball at the same quality and giving up basically the same contact . . . but in half that season, those balls get converted to outs and happen in advantageous sequences and in the other half of the season, those balls don't get converted to outs and tend to get bunched together, creating a whole lot of crooked innings that knocks him out of games much earlier then expected and balloons that ERA?Would that be a possible explanation other then he was gassed?

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OK, my intention in what I'm about to post is not to be a jerk, but this "Peterson was gassed" narrative needs a bit more clarification.1st Half ERA - 3.062nd Half ERA - 6.34Yup, definitely gassed . . . but you know, maybe before we say that we should check out some other things.1st Half 4-seam average velocity - 92.62nd Half 4-seam average velocity - 91.9Hmmm, well I guess the FB did decline a little bit . . . yup, definitely gassed. Let's confirm that.1st Half Pitching+ 952nd Half Pitching+ 98OK, well Pitching+ is a crappy metric that doesn't work . . . still, kind of strange the velocity didn't change much and, by publicly avaliable metrics, the "stuff" actually got better in the second half.Is there ANY other explanation for what could have happened?1st Half GB/FB - 2.292nd Half GB/FB - 2.241st Half Hard% - 35.8%2nd Half Hard% - 37.9%So strange . . . what was coming out of his hand was basically the same, and the batted ball profile, although slightly harder and a tiny bit more in the air, certainly couldn't have accounted for his ERA doubling . . .What else?1st Half FIP - 3.422nd Half FIP - 3.601st Half LOB% - 76%2nd Half LOB% - 59.5%1st Half BABIP - .2922nd Half BABIP - .360Now, I know there are a number of people here who think defense doesn't matter. You just get better pitching because defense doesn't matter. You get pitchers who are good enough to just strike everybody out and then you don't need to catch the ball behind them at all.But what if defense did matter?What if, for a pitcher like David Peterson, who can spend an entire season basically throwing the ball at the same quality and giving up basically the same contact . . . but in half that season, those balls get converted to outs and happen in advantageous sequences and in the other half of the season, those balls don't get converted to outs and tend to get bunched together, creating a whole lot of crooked innings that knocks him out of games much earlier then expected and balloons that ERA?Would that be a possible explanation other then he was gassed?

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