The Cards still have a lot of talent.
I do like that they are beating up on bad pitching unlike last year. Grichuk seems much more relaxed moved down in the lineup. Just give me a new number 3 hitter.
Maybe a .315, .398, 26 HR guy.
The Cubs are 20-6
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The Cards still have a lot of talent.
I do like that they are beating up on bad pitching unlike last year. Grichuk seems much more relaxed moved down in the lineup. Just give me a new number 3 hitter.
Maybe a .315, .398, 26 HR guy.
Except that he doesn't hit like that from another spot in the lineup for some strange reason. There was a pretty good leadoff guy in Oakland at one time that hit HR's but they didn't move him from that spot.
These guys didn't exactly need help elsewhere in the lineup. Marp would Marp wherever he is in the lineup. His time outside the leadoff doesn't have a big enough sample size to be legitimate.
I agree with all that. The pitching had to take a step back. Last year was spectacular and we lost Lackey and Lynn. I do enjoy the high scoring offense after the last two years of struggling.
Prior to last night Marp had the most ABs with RISP on the team. Would he get more in the 3 hole? You'd like to think he would. If not then your 1 and 2 guys aren't getting on as much as your 7,8,9 guys. Lol.
I think the defensive downfall is directly related to Oquendo's balky knees. He's been that coach for years.
I think the defensive downfall is directly related to Oquendo's balky knees. He's been that coach for years.
Has there been an update on Peralta's return? It's nice to see patch Adams spraying the ball to all fields again.
He wasn't when he hit elsewhere and HE says he's like the leadoff spot better. He seems to be producing quite well there why do you insist on screwing that up. Rickey Henderson did it for years and hit lots of HR's too. He also stole lots of bases, but we all know that's not important because some metric geeks tell us so.These guys didn't exactly need help elsewhere in the lineup. Marp would Marp wherever he is in the lineup. His time outside the leadoff doesn't have a big enough sample size to be legitimate.
He has 60 total PA's (not official AB's) in the 3-4-5 holes in his career. While he might prefer to hit leadoff, it's more prudent to drop him to a run producer spot. That said, the fact Diaz continues to hit 8th (or 9th when DH is in play) is a bigger gaffe. Hard for Matheneging fans to explain that one.
I don't look at cyber stats stuff but all I've ever heard is they say stolen bases do not help you win games or something silly like that.
Granted I'm not as well versed on the sabes stuff as NM and Cards...but I've honestly never heard this from sabes.
Because to my knowledge.....it's not a thing.
The push is a more generalized base running rather than just steals.....as in taking extra bases.
As a frequent viewer of MLB shows, yes I have no life, I think generally the Sabre-freaks look at stolen bases in a risk-reward fashion. As in if you don't have an extremely high percentage of successful steals, it's not worth the risk.
But wouldn't you consider that common sense? If you can't steal....quit trying to run? That doesn't take much saber knowledge.
If you can run....Billy Hamilton.....and you can steal the base, do it. You give your team a higher chance at scoring. All the saber stuff is doing is calculating is your ability (or lack of) to help your team succeed
I didn't make any judgments. I was just repeating what I have seen. I have a catalog of the Bill James baseball abstract for most of the 1980s and part of the 90's. I've been following his stuff for a very long time for entertainment. He is the godfather of most of this stuff.
Using it to HELP you make decisions is great.
But turning every decision during the game and every discussion on mlb tonight into a math issue just isn't fun for me.
I really don't care that Mike Leake works with the 20th quickest pace in the majors or the average speed of balls hit by Grichuk is 98.7 mph or the average lefty pitcher pitching off the stretch gets the ball to homeplate in 2.9 seconds. They are turning baseball into information overload. I used to love watching really fast runners like Willie McGee go first to third but I don't care how many seconds it took. The art of baseball is beautiful to watch. The science is fun to learn when you play or coach. Math nerds completely dominating every conversation won't attract kids to baseball or keep me watching.
The point is that there is a break-even point for the decision and that managers and players were doing it pretty stupidly when they started doing the analysis. The break-even varies by situation, which is one of the big points.
The analysis boom kicked off during the steroid era, when the break-even point was high because the value of a base becomes lower as OBP and SLG are higher.
Stolen bases are increasing in value again as run scoring declines.
The #1 thing we have learned from sabermetrics about offense is that outs are bad, and you should do things that avoid them.
It sounds like common sense, and it is, but how do you apply that knowledge in terms of game management? The answer is to manage differently than the average person was doing 25 years ago.
There's a big difference between being inundated with data as a viewer and using data to make decisions as a baseball operations person. I agree with your point.
Back in the early 1980s I started off as a computer programmer and loved it. Then as time went on in the environment in which I worked they standardized everything we did and robbed people of a lot of the freedom to be creative. It wasn't as much fun.
I can imagine that managing isn't nearly as fun in 2016 as it was for Whitey Herzog or Billy Martin. Everything is probably in a flow type chart telling Matheny what to do on every decision (I exaggerate on purpose). Hell they have ipads in the dugout now. Management by App.
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