Thanksgiving Update

I figure now is as good a time as any to update ya'll on everything. Except, ironically Thanksgiving. I'm sorry if this title was misleading, but there will be very little (if any) actual Thanksgiving content in this post.

Sorry to disappoint.

Ok, so reality. Well in the past 3ish months since i've made any sort of writing i've been...busy. Yup. Busy. My first semester of college started in August, though technically I am a sophomore, it was my first.

This fall I took a full-load of classes and had my first collegiate Cross-Country season. I knew I'd have to deal with both of those activities during the summer, and they'd keep me busy. What I didn't anticipate was my internship with the school's baseball team. Which was an opportunity I knew I needed to seize the second that I found out it was even an opportunity.

I was Baseball Operations Intern for the Stetson Hatters for most of the Fall. I've had various duties within all areas of team management. Not many (if any) of which involved baseball analytics of any sort. I think I might have a more analytic role with the team when the spring and college baseball season actually starts. Either way it will be good experience for when I start to look for work in professional baseball.

Currently, I'm working on my application for the Yoseloff scholarship to attend the 2013 SABR Analytics Conference in Phoenix in March. I'm also teaching myself to use various database programs that will help me when I actually start to do my own research. Which I promise will be better than my previous efforts. If only because I actually understand statistics, understand current baseball theories and will understand useful software. I've always wanted this site to be a place for me to publish my own research and now I actually see myself headed in that direction in the near future.

I'm optimistic about this blog. I know the whole point of blogging is to constantly produce content, something I haven't exactly been able to do thus far. A lot of the past year has just been me trying to learn as much as I can. I think that will be something that I always will need to do, but now I think I'm catching up on reading and I'm almost ready to make the jump to making. Obviously, any real chance I get with a professional team will take precedence over my own research and thus this blog. But likewise, whenever this blog will further my goals and improve my chances with a professional team I will be working on improving this blog.

I'll keep ya'll updated on whatever happens.

Quick Note

Last few days have been kinda crazy. I haven't had much time to write or even think about baseball. In a few days I will have the promised Felix Hernandez PITCHf/x piece. I will compare his perfect game to his other 2012 PITCH f/x data.

Trying to find some sort of difference between perfect Felix and really good Felix.

HITf/x Analysis: Felix Hernandez Perfect Game

Earlier today Felix Hernandez tossed a Perfect Game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Here is the HITf/x analysis of his game....

The Orioles and Manny

The Baltimore Orioles are one of the biggest surprises in MLB this year. As of writing this they are 62-53 and are in position to win the 2nd Wildcard. A good season, especially considering that they were thought to be a much lesser team. In fact none of the ESPN experts expected the Orioles to make the playoffs! This is not to say that the Orioles HAVE made the playoffs...in fact it looks fairly unlikely. They have a run differential of -49 runs, they rank 20th in terms of runs scored and 22nd in Runs allowed. Basically the Orioles should not be as good as they are, they've been greatly helped by going 22-6 in one-run games and 12-2 in extra inning games. Sure the Orioles have a 62-53 record and are 4th in the league in Home Runs, but it really doesn't look like the Orioles are as good as we've seen so far this year. But that is why they are interesting.

No one thought they would be good, they have been good; but when you really look at it they haven't been good. If you look at the Oriole's roster you can't help but be unimpressed. MLBDepthCharts.com shows the Orioles with 3 Lefty/Righty Platoons (2b,1b,LF) not a bad strategy, the platoon effect IS real. However, using that many platoons means that there aren't any true everyday starters that would be better at hitting Lefties than would your typical Right handed replacement guy. The players the Orioles rely on to carry the offense are good players. Matt Wieters is around his career .325 wOBA once again of course Wieters is one of the top defensive players are one of the most important defensive positions, but I think it's fair to say he hasn't justified the hype he received as a rookie. The Orioles have seen a breakout year by Adam Jones that has helped compensate for the rather awful pitching. Wei-Yin Chen is the Orioles best Starting Pitcher on the year, but his 4.17 FIP and decent rates tell us he is a good pitcher, but not extraordinarily good in relation to other Major League pitchers. He is the type of pitcher you'd like to have as a #4 starter, but he is the best the Orioles have to offer.

Do Pitchers Care About Wins?

I'm sure they do. Well sort of...They obviously want their team to win. CJ Wilson isn't going to actively cheer for his team to lose, nor is Anibal Sanchez, Jon Lester, Matt Harvey etc.

But that isn't what I'm talking about, I'm talking about Pitcher Wins. Do pitchers care about being credited with wins?

As I've mentioned earlier, and as most of you already know; Pitchers are credited with a "Win" when they leave the game while their team is in the lead and the team manages to hold the lead and win the game. It is a fairly silly statistic because it does not directly correlate to a pitcher's performance, but does that mean pitchers don't care about getting them?

I also guess that I'm talking more about Starting Pitchers than I am Relief Pitchers. Wins for a RP is an even more erratic stat than it is with Starting Pitchers, though that does kinda further my discussion. Do Relief Pitchers care about getting a win. I mean a player like Craig Kimbrel currently has a 0-1 W-L record. Yet he is having an outstanding season, in fact due to his role on the Braves as their Closer a win likely means he blew a save which i'm sure he is disappointed about. The Save statistic and the role of a closer is a topic for another discussion all together, but i'm sure Craig realizes he is having a good year and he doesn't need to be credited with wins to know this.

College.

So in the coming days I will begin my time at College.

***DISCLAIMER: I know most of you have figured out by now that this is NOT a post directly about baseball, but as I've said before. This blog is not and will not be exclusively baseball related content. This post is one of the few posts that will write here at BMB that will deal with more of my personal life...aspects that will hopefully interest you as a reader and/or be helpful for others that have an interest in doing what I want to do.**** End of Disclaimer.

(Continued after the break)

Perspectives of Baseball

Earlier today I read an article by Michael Jong of Fishstripes (here) that got me thinking about all the different ways of viewing the game of baseball. In his article about the Miami Marlins current Front Office, Michael cited this breakdown of what "Sabermetrics" is.

(From Bradley Woodrum of Fangraphs, linked above)

I thought this was a pretty good breakdown of baseball. Baseball is the combination of Business, Scouting and Statistics. A good Front Office uses Scouting and Statistics to determine which players they want, and they understand and deal with the business aspect of the sport. You know, Sabermetrics. 

This got me wondering what others understand and utilize in their evaluation of what they see in baseball. Fans, or a strong majority of them, understand how to play baseball. They know how to win at baseball, they ultimately "get it". 

So what creates the drastic departures in thinking?