January 24, 2004
Cooler Heights
The Rockies have signed Shawn "The Wilting Man" Estes to a minor league contract. It shouldn't be too hot for him there.
Estes' specialty is the ground ball, which will come in handy at homer-friendly Coors Field if he makes the team. Since the start of the 1997 season, he has induced a major league-best 1.24 ground balls per nine innings.
In an interview with Basebal Musings last year, Bill James notes that
Whitey Herzog thought sinker ballers were the right pitchers for Coors Field. We'll see if it works out.
Let's see, 1.24 ground balls per nine innings. And every nine innings he probably has about 38 balls in play.
Sounds to me like that's a major league worst for ground balls per nine innings!
Maybe this explains some of the Rockies pitching woes.
Estes' specialty is falling behind hitters. The groundballs are a distant second.
I don't get it. Is that some sort of typo? 1.24 ground balls per nine innings? What am I missing?
