Flanagan: Bannister: I’m the same pitcher I’ve always been

And therein lies the flippin’ problem.

But Bannister says his confidence isn’t shaken.

“Any time you’re not pitching well, your confidence isn’t great,” he said. “But if you look at me, I’m the same guy. It’s just my fly-ball and home-run ratio is up. “It’s like flipping a coin. Everyone knows that you got a 50-50 chance of heads or tails. But maybe during the course of a baseball season, you flip it and it comes up heads seven or eight times. But over a million times, it’s going to come back to about a 50-50 ratio.”

Bannister also believes that he’s in a stretch in which he hasn’t had much luck.

“A guy that worked at JP Morgan was doing a project on sports and the stock market and games in general, and what had more influence, skill or luck,” Bannister said. “He had this huge timeline. The most skill was chess where luck had the least influence. Then it was running, golf and tennis, and then you get to baseball right in the middle.

“At the other end is Vegas casino games and the stock market. Really interesting.

“In terms of baseball, even the best teams need some luck. You have to have skill but you have to have luck, too.”