Is Maldonado getting signals from the dugout? A theory…
I have often noticed Maldonado looking directly into the Astros dugout for several seconds between pitches before calling a pitch with Pitchcomm. The broadcasts don't afford the opportunity to observe him between pitches every time, but when it is possible to see Maldonado between pitches, it appears he consistently looks into the dugout. I think he is receiving information from Josh Miller (or someone else) via signals.
Tons of data exists on every hitter about how they have performed against certain pitches in certain counts. It would be fairly easy these days to prepare a "card" on every hitter that says "in 0-2 counts, this hitter's lowest batting average is against the change-up", or "in 2-0 counts, this hitter has the highest whiff rate against curveballs" or "in 2-2 counts, this hitter has his highest OPS against fastballs". You get the idea.
If Josh has the card, he can quickly and easily see what the algorithm says is the best pitch to throw to a certain hitter in a certain count.
The signaling can take a variety of forms. Clearly, I am only speculating with no evidence. But here's how it could work: Maldy looks into the dugout and makes eye contact with Josh. If Josh then looks down at his notes, the data says fastball is the best pitch. If Josh looks left, the data says change-up is best, and so on. Then Maldy can call the pitch that the data supports. He can also choose to override it and call a different pitch, if for example the data supports throwing a change-up but Maldy thinks the pitcher's change-up has been subpar that day.
This theory would also dovetail with what we have been told about Maldy's exhaustive research and planning "on the plane" if he is helping prepare the cards for each hitter.
Thoughts? Has anyone else noticed this?
submitted by /u/innerman4
[link] [comments]