When trying to make sense of early-season baseball trends, walks and strikeouts are a good place to start. Walk and strikeout rates stabilize quickly, giving us a better chance of locating a reliable signal.
Tuesday, we meandered about some hitters. Today's assignment: the pitchers.
The unlucky sign should be flashing with Chris Sale, who carries a 6.75 ERA despite the best K/BB ratio in baseball. The usual culprits are at play: a .386 BABIP and an unlucky 57.3% strand rate. The ERA estimators say Sale has pitched to an ERA in the high 2s or low 3s.