RESEARCH: Effects of short-term workloads on relief pitcher value

How much does recent workload affect relief pitcher performance?  Can we use knowledge of these effects to decide what pitchers to rest or roster in daily formats?

Methodology

Using game logs from 2002 through 2017, we’ll study effects of recent workload on relief pitcher performance, primarily using BPV in aggregate for the group.

First Look

For the first pass, we want look simply if there is an effect on performance of the number of days rest since the player last pitched.  Below we chart BPV as well as WHIP, HR/FB, & SwK:

Immediately the results seem counterintuitive. All the metrics get worse with more rest! Could this be some kind of usage bias? Are good pitchers used on short rest more often?

To test this theory, we filter all...

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