Brian Bannister is a smart guy. He's long been aware of the role that statistics play in baseball. After his rookie year in 2007 where Banny had a 3.87 ERA, he realized his BABIP was an unsustainable .266, he was vocal about that and how he'd have to change some things to keep up his performance. The next year (last year) Bannister tried improving his peripherals (k/9, bb/9, etc.) knowing those have the greatest affect on his performance. It didn't work out to well as his ERA ballooned to 5.76. By trying to increase his stirkeouts by using his fastball more, Bannister fell on his face giving up tons of homers.
This year he's kept up his saber-friendly work and so far the results have paid off- he has a 3.76 ERA relatively in line with his 4.03 FIP. Listen to this great interview if you want hear what he changed this year, but if not I'll give you the crux of it. Brian Bannister has looked at his PitchFX and now uses that to help his performance. Rather than try to help his peripherals and strike more guys out, he ditched his 4-seam that was an extreme fly ball pitch (leading to the homers), and has replaced it with a cutter and a power change to get more ground balls. According to the PitchFX data, his power change has the same vertical movement as Brandon Webb, and is the reason behind his 48.4 GB%. Banny knows that BABIP isn't sustainable, but that GB% is, which will go a long way in keeping him at the big leagues.
The humor in all of this is that Brian Bannister is more knowledgeable about statistics than his own GM. Dayton Moore has gone on record as saying he doesn't care about defensive stats. Brian Bannistery uses xFIP, BABIP, and PitchFX data to mold himself into a usable major league pitcher. I'm not sure if Dayton Moore has ever looked at PitchFX data, any fielding independent pitching statistic, or even knows what BABIP stands for. Brian Bannister may be the only player who has a real grasp on this stuff, and he plays for maybe the only GM who doesn't, who woulda thunk it?
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