MLB Advanced Analytics: CSW Rate

New metrics are popping up all over these days. It’s an exciting time to be a fantasy baseball manager. The team over at Pitcher List has been workshopping one such metric they refer to as Called Strikes plus Whiffs, or CSW. Divide the result by total pitches and it gives you CSW Rate or CSW%. It accounts for called strikes, swinging strikes, and foul tips into the glove but excludes foul balls. You’ve likely seen plenty of reference to swinging strike rate. CSW% takes things a step further incorporating the other “best” strikes of called strikes and fouls into the glove. They are the harmless strikes. Pitchers that can generate the most of them should be the most effective pitchers. To get the full breakdown give Alex’s Intro To CSW a read. The main take away from his rundown of CSW% is that it’s more strongly correlated to SIERA than SwStr% for starting pitchers. Suffice to say if you put stock in SwStr% than CSW% deserves a place in your stat rotation.

We can draw a number of conclusions from CSW%. It should confirm the pitchers with strong performances and offer some hope for an underperforming one. Here’s the CSW% top 25.

We can also look at the starters struggling to fool batters at the bottom of the leaderboard.

Continue to broaden your fantasy horizons and incorporate new metrics like CSW%. You’ll stay ahead of leaguemates and be better able to evaluate your roster. In trade negotiations, you’ll also be better armed to come out ahead. Pitching is more challenging to hit on than ever this season. Do your homework and nail down the guys with the best stuff.