I am just going to do a quick post tonight. That being said, there have been a couple of developments that have been released by Pitcher List that I have gotten excited about and wanted to share with Royals baseball fans who aren’t familiar with Pitcher List and the features that they have on their PL+ and PL Pro subscription membership packages.

For those who are not aware, I am currently a writer for Pitcher List and have been writing for the site since about 2021. I primarily contribute to the Going Deep section, which specializes in deep analytical dives into players and/or trends. However, I also wrote a regular “Batter’s Box” column for the Fantasy Baseball section which recapped the best hitters from the previous day.

Just recently, I penned a Going Deep post on Ken Waldichuk, a pitcher for the A’s who could be due for a breakout season in 2023, should he get the right opportunity in the Athletics rotation this season.

The A's are looking for someone to be the "ace" of the rotation in 2023. Kevin O'Brien (@RoyalReportKev) dives into Ken Waldichuk's profile and if he could assume that role https://t.co/Ug49ucTBek

— Nick Pollack (@PitcherList) February 20, 2023

While I wanted to promote my most recent article for Pitcher List (I feel my old grad papers took less work), that is not the sole purpose of this post. I also wanted to talk about a new metric exclusive to PL that was recently released, and how I plan to incorporate this metric in a series of short posts about Royals starting pitchers, leading up to Opening Day.

That metric is PLV, which stands for Pitch Level Value. The metric is very similar to Eno Sarris’ Stuff+ metrics, as it gauges baseball events not by its results (which is typical for run value on Baseball Savant), but rather by the pitch’s quality itself.

Here’s a primer article about PLV, the metrics that stem off of PLV like PLA, which is PLV translated on an ERA basis, quality pitch percentage, and hit luck.

What is PLV?

Here's a primer on the latest stat that is transforming how we do baseball analysis.

A pitch quantifier that allows us to analyze events based on the *pitch*, not the result.

QP%, Hit Luck, Hitter Performance, it's all here.https://t.co/FRy6t7XUy9

— Nick Pollack (@PitcherList) February 22, 2023

The post is a pretty thorough piece, so make sure you have time to really dig into all of Pollack’s work. You certainly will garner a lot of takeaways about PLV, and all the nuances regarding the metric. Furthermore, it will definitely make you question what you have traditionally constituted as a “quality” pitch, and what is a “bad” pitch, especially on a sabermetric and analytical end.

Not surprisingly, taking a look at all this new PLV data of Royals starting pitchers has definitely opened my eyes a bit and made me modify what to expect from particular Royals starting pitcher candidates in 2023 and beyond.

And thus, I will be writing posts taking a look at specific Royals pitchers and their 2023 outlook. They will mostly center on the data from PLV, but I also will support it with other supplemental data from Baseball Savant, which is a more well-known resource with Royals fans when it comes to advanced metrics.

To give you a glimpse of what my first post will look like, here’s a look at Brad Keller, who will be the first pitcher analyzed in this series, and his PLV chart from 2022.

That’s a lot of color and numbers. But what does it mean? Is that a good sign for Keller in 2023? Or are there signs to be concerned about in that graphic?

First off, read the post on PLV from Pollack, who was just named FSWA Baseball Writer of the Year.

Baseball Writer of the Year
Nick Pollack@PitcherList

— FSWA (@FSWA) February 23, 2023

After you do that, come back to this blog and stay tuned for my post in the next day or two, as I take a deeper dive into what Keller’s PLV metrics could mean for his impact on the Royals’ pitching staff this season.

Credit: Jim Cowsert-USA TODAY Sports