How do you judge the quality of a pitch?Not by velocity alone. Yankees right-hander Nathan Eovaldi owns the second-fastest fastball among starting pitchers this year, yet his fastball wouldnt make anyones top-five list. And Royals starter Yordano Ventura?has?been struggling quite a lot for a guy with easy 95 mph cheese.Not by movement alone, either. Rangers lefty Martin Perez has a sinker in the top five in horizontal movement, Mariners veteran Hisashi Iwakuma has a show-me curve he sometimes breaks out that has top-10 horizontal movement, and Joe Ross changeup has top-five horizontal movement for a right-handed change (though he rarely throws it). These all might be OK pitches, but they arent league-leading pitches.The best researchers of our time are throwing complicated stats -- spin rates and velocity differentials, among others -- into the machine to try to better their ratings of pitches. While their work continues, theres an easy way to look at pitches right now: results.Not results on balls in play, which are subject to the whims of the odd glove, the unraked infield or the weird bounce. Lets instead look at the pitches that best get whiffs and also grounders. One gets you closer to a strikeout, and the other limits damage on balls in play. My research has suggested that whiffs are about twice as important as grounders, so the basic formula for pitch quality here is two times relative whiff quality plus one time relative grounder quality. Using Z-scores, we can sum these up, while limiting our finalists to pitches thrown at least 150 times so far this year.Back in January, I ranked the top pitches in baseball in 2015, with Zach Brittons sinker topping the list. Now its time for a 2016 midseason update. First, here are the top 10 overall: Willie Stargell Jersey Large .C. -- Rodney Hood connected from all over the court while freshman Jabari Parker was busy swatting shots and scoring in transition. Cheap Pirates Jerseys . The giant slalom world champion slipped during her first run in the morning, landing on her back and then twisting forward before getting her leg caught in the protective material on the side of the slope. http://www.custompiratesjersey.com/ . Once again, DeLaet finished tied for second at a PGA Tour stop on the weekend, this time at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The pride of Weyburn, Sask. Custom Pirates Jerseys . - Derek Wolfe says hes finally healthy after suffering a seizure in November that doctors now believe was related to the spinal cord injury he suffered in the preseason. Custom Pirates T-shirts .C. -- Al Jefferson joked that he feels he can score from anywhere on the court. LOS ANGELES -- Hall of Fame linebacker Mike Singletary will work with the Los Angeles Rams defense this season, returning to coaching after a two-year absence.Singletary revealed the plans in a radio interview Tuesday, and the Rams later confirmed the arrangement.Los Angeles coach Jeff Fisher hasnt defined a role for Singletary, who is likely to be an adviser to the defense.Singletary was the San Francisco 49ers head coach ffrom 2008 to 2010, going 18-22.dddddddddddd He was a linebackers coach with the Minnesota Vikings from 2011 to 2013 before spending the past two years out of coaching.He played 12 seasons for the Chicago Bears, winning a Super Bowl while becoming one of the best middle linebackers in NFL history. ' ' '
