Sat Stats/Baseball

 

                             

Sat Stats/Baseball

Last night was the fourth no-hitter of the season. One of those no-hitters was by Joe Musgrove.

Theo Epstein became the youngest general manager (GM) in the history of MLB, when the Boston Red Sox hired him at the age of 28 in 2002. In 2004, the Red Sox won their first World Series championship in 86 years and won another championship in 2007.

On October 21, 2011, he resigned from his job in Boston to become president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs won the 2016 World Series, their first World Series championship in 108 years. In 2020, Epstein stepped down as president of the Chicago Cubs.


This year he joined Major League Baseball as a consultant "regarding on-field matters." Epstein will focus on determining how various rule changes might affect the game. He'll work with baseball analytics experts from the Commissioner's Office and the 30 MLB clubs.

Epstein said, "The executives like me who have spent a lot of time using analytics and other measures to try to optimize individual and team performance have unwittingly had a negative impact on the aesthetic value of the game and the entertainment value of the game in some respects. We need to find a way to get more action in the game, get the ball in play more often, allow players to show their athleticism some more, and give the fans more of what they want."

Some problems he noted recently:

25% of at-bats end in strikeouts. That is comparable to Sandy Kofax or Nolan Ryan at the peak of their games.

The average time between pitches in the 1970s was about ten seconds; now it is about 60.

A fan watching a game will wait on an average of 4 minutes before he sees a ball in play. Just in play.

The average fastball is 94 mph. There is no need for a pitcher to pitch deep into a game; everybody in the bullpen can throw over 94.

The game is slower, the competition has shifted more to batter-pitcher, away from any idea of team competition. Management can hide their decisions in their adherence to analytics. And the quality of play has faded into statistical generalities. Last night I saw a team with the bases loaded not score. The following inning a man was picked off first--and he got back safely! On the next pitch, he was picked off again.

And this doesn't consider the nomadic nature of the players and the disparity of team quality caused by the disparity of investment and baseball management skill.

That Epstein was hired at all implies a lot about baseball's anxiety.