He's the biggest punching bag I've seen on SoSH this past year with more than a handful of posts wishing him off the roster. Rationale for keeping the 31 year-old Ort on the roster--despite mediocre in-game performance--is summarized in this The Athletic piece from last September. Tl;dr: he throws really hard with lots of movement, and they don't want to risk losing the next Jeffrey Springs or Paul Sewald.
But my reason for trying to turn the tide on Ort sentiment today in particular: his Stuff+ numbers are popping so far this year. Stuff+ is exhaustively explained by Driveline here and its predictive usefulness (in relatively small samples) is shown more succinctly by Eno Sarris here. In short, a 100 pitch is league-average, 125 is great, and 150 is elite. Looking at Eno's list updated yesterday for all four of Ort's appearances, his Stuff+ numbers look like this:
4-seam: 136.4 on 86 pitches
Slider: 113.5 on 21 pitches
And his Location+ on the 4-seam and slider are 107.8 and 92.2, so about league-average there.
This is what Cora means when he keeps referring to Ort's stuff keeping him on the roster. For context, the first big-name relievers off the top of my head with fastball/slider combos and their per pitch numbers from 2022:
Andres Munoz: 4-seam 120.3, Slider 131.3
Paul Sewald: 4-seam 146.2, Slider 116.6
Joe McFoney*: 4-seam 122.1, Slider 112.6
Josh Hader: Sinker 122.3, Slider 114.5
Pete Fairbanks: 4-seam 181.9, Slider 116.1
Ryan Helsley: 4-seam 159.9, Slider 135.5
Ryan Brasier for comparison, not a big name (outside of SoSH): 4-seam 113.9, Slider 102.8
*Joe McFoney is 2022 Kaleb Ort. See my point!
But my reason for trying to turn the tide on Ort sentiment today in particular: his Stuff+ numbers are popping so far this year. Stuff+ is exhaustively explained by Driveline here and its predictive usefulness (in relatively small samples) is shown more succinctly by Eno Sarris here. In short, a 100 pitch is league-average, 125 is great, and 150 is elite. Looking at Eno's list updated yesterday for all four of Ort's appearances, his Stuff+ numbers look like this:
4-seam: 136.4 on 86 pitches
Slider: 113.5 on 21 pitches
And his Location+ on the 4-seam and slider are 107.8 and 92.2, so about league-average there.
This is what Cora means when he keeps referring to Ort's stuff keeping him on the roster. For context, the first big-name relievers off the top of my head with fastball/slider combos and their per pitch numbers from 2022:
Andres Munoz: 4-seam 120.3, Slider 131.3
Paul Sewald: 4-seam 146.2, Slider 116.6
Joe McFoney*: 4-seam 122.1, Slider 112.6
Josh Hader: Sinker 122.3, Slider 114.5
Pete Fairbanks: 4-seam 181.9, Slider 116.1
Ryan Helsley: 4-seam 159.9, Slider 135.5
Ryan Brasier for comparison, not a big name (outside of SoSH): 4-seam 113.9, Slider 102.8
*Joe McFoney is 2022 Kaleb Ort. See my point!
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