Baseball: Re-play it again, Bud
MLB has announced major changes to instant replay and reviews for the coming season.
Best of all, they say there will be more replays shown on the video boards at the ballparks. That was one of my biggest knocks on Target Field, especially the first couple years. The routine pop-up would be shown again, but any play with even a hint of controversy was even’t acknowledged, videographically speaking.
For the most part, there aren’t that many plays in baseball that need to be reviewed. But because it is such a sequential game – every minor action changes the situation for the next play – it is important to get the calls correct so the game can proceed as it should.
The downside of replay is that it deflates the dramatic moment. In the NFL, if there’s a crucial play that’s close, it doesn’t pay to get excited about it, because you know it will be reviewed and you won’t know for three minutes yet if the result is what you want it to be.
Baseball will now have the same challenge. But baseball is already a slow enough pace that pausing to get a call correct might not be nearly as noticeable an interruption as in football.
We’ll see . . . and then we’ll see it again.
Mouth-watering Omaha Steaks
Showing posts with label MLB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MLB. Show all posts
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Monday, October 28, 2013
World Series: sleepless in St. Louis
With the Red Sox holding a 3-2 lead going back to Fenway, it’s been three straight nights of tardy bedtimes.
But it’s been a great show. Not always perfect baseball, but exciting baseball. Games ending on obstruction calls and pick-offs. The Red Sox making errors almost every game, but getting the clutch hits when they need them.
The World Series is especially great to watch on TV (free TV!) because of detailed coverage with numerous camera angles. There are countless replays showing the spin on the ball, the bats vibrating as they make contact with a pitch, you can count the gray hairs in the pitcher’s beard.
The pitch tracker shows how often the home plate umpire misses the call, which has been surprisingly often. It goes both ways – both teams, balls instead of strikes, strikes instead of balls – so I guess it evens out at least.
Most enjoyable is being able to enjoy the sport for the sport itself. It took me decades to learn not to hate certain sports teams. Somehow, the more I hated them, the better they did.
Now, I might or might not have a rooting interest, but have settled down to the point of being able to like just about every team. My cheering this week is for the Series to go a full 7 games.
The final out means no more baseball until next spring, and another long winter is nearly upon us.
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I vaguely remember a few years ago when the baseball coverage would show the statistical chance of success in each current situation – for example, how often a team would score, say, with a man on first and one out in the eighth inning. This feature disappeared as quickly as it surfaced – I suspect, because it ruined the game for fans.
Baseball is about hope – hope that something good will happen in each situation even though the chances are somewhat remote. There’s a chance of a home run on every pitch, but if you figure out how often a home run actually occurs, it’s not very often (it appears to be safely under 1 percent). I suppose it’s like if at a casino, you were clearly informed before each bet how much the odds are against you. That’s no fun.
But it’s been a great show. Not always perfect baseball, but exciting baseball. Games ending on obstruction calls and pick-offs. The Red Sox making errors almost every game, but getting the clutch hits when they need them.
The World Series is especially great to watch on TV (free TV!) because of detailed coverage with numerous camera angles. There are countless replays showing the spin on the ball, the bats vibrating as they make contact with a pitch, you can count the gray hairs in the pitcher’s beard.
The pitch tracker shows how often the home plate umpire misses the call, which has been surprisingly often. It goes both ways – both teams, balls instead of strikes, strikes instead of balls – so I guess it evens out at least.
Most enjoyable is being able to enjoy the sport for the sport itself. It took me decades to learn not to hate certain sports teams. Somehow, the more I hated them, the better they did.
Now, I might or might not have a rooting interest, but have settled down to the point of being able to like just about every team. My cheering this week is for the Series to go a full 7 games.
The final out means no more baseball until next spring, and another long winter is nearly upon us.
--------
I vaguely remember a few years ago when the baseball coverage would show the statistical chance of success in each current situation – for example, how often a team would score, say, with a man on first and one out in the eighth inning. This feature disappeared as quickly as it surfaced – I suspect, because it ruined the game for fans.
Baseball is about hope – hope that something good will happen in each situation even though the chances are somewhat remote. There’s a chance of a home run on every pitch, but if you figure out how often a home run actually occurs, it’s not very often (it appears to be safely under 1 percent). I suppose it’s like if at a casino, you were clearly informed before each bet how much the odds are against you. That’s no fun.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Sports: World Series winners
How hard is it to get to the World Series and win it?
This year, we’ll have a team that will win its third title within 10 years, whether it’s either the Red Sox or Cardinals.
If we look at the last nine seasons, several teams repeat appearances while a few others show up once and then are gone. Here would be the standings:
NATIONAL:
San Francisco 2-0
St. Louis 2-1
Philadelphia 1-1
Colorado 0-1
Houston 0-1
AMERICAN:
Boston 2-0
New York Yankees 1-0
Chicago White Sox 1-0
Tampa Bay 0-1
Detroit 0-2
Texas 0-2
So in that list, we notice:
• St. Louis is in its 4th World Series in 10 years
• of those that made it in consecutive years, the Phillies split while the Rangers lost both times.
• Detroit is 0-2, and just missed getting there again this year
• Texas at 0-2 was the victim of the Cardinals’ storybook comeback in 2011, twice down by two runs and at the last strike before rallying to tie, again fall behind, and then win
• The storied Yankees have made it only once in the last 10 years.
• The high-paid Dodgers came close this year but didn’t make it. The low-paid A’s haven’t made it to the Series but have been in the playoffs often.
This year, we’ll have a team that will win its third title within 10 years, whether it’s either the Red Sox or Cardinals.
If we look at the last nine seasons, several teams repeat appearances while a few others show up once and then are gone. Here would be the standings:
NATIONAL:
San Francisco 2-0
St. Louis 2-1
Philadelphia 1-1
Colorado 0-1
Houston 0-1
AMERICAN:
Boston 2-0
New York Yankees 1-0
Chicago White Sox 1-0
Tampa Bay 0-1
Detroit 0-2
Texas 0-2
So in that list, we notice:
• St. Louis is in its 4th World Series in 10 years
• of those that made it in consecutive years, the Phillies split while the Rangers lost both times.
• Detroit is 0-2, and just missed getting there again this year
• Texas at 0-2 was the victim of the Cardinals’ storybook comeback in 2011, twice down by two runs and at the last strike before rallying to tie, again fall behind, and then win
• The storied Yankees have made it only once in the last 10 years.
• The high-paid Dodgers came close this year but didn’t make it. The low-paid A’s haven’t made it to the Series but have been in the playoffs often.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Book review: Ball Four
In honor of the World Series, a baseball book: "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton.
This is an old one, which was highly controversial in its day. Written primarily in diary form, Bouton tells the day-to-day stories from throughout the 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros. (The Pilots existed for only one year, becoming the Milwaukee Brewers the following season.)
Although it blew the lid off the baseball world at the time, it does show players as human beings going through the stress, drudgery, excitement – all the ups and downs of a several-month long season – and including the late nights, drinking, swearing, fights, contract issues, etc. Everything that happens behind the scenes, but in those days, as not acknowledged publicly.
I remember that I read it as a kid then, but nothing particular came back to me, other than the names of many famous players who were the stars at the time.
Some of the best lines:
• Pilots manager Joe Schultz: “It’s a round ball and a round bat and you got to hit it square.”
• Pitching coach Johnny Sain: “The world doesn’t want to hear about labor pains. It only wants to see the baby.”
• Baseball second-guessing: “If a guy can’t hit the curve ball, keep throwing the damn things until he proves to you he can hit it” followed by “ You can’t keep throwing a guy the same thing. He’s bound to hit it.”
• And along those lines, pitching scouting reports often talk about a player being a good first-ball hitter. “I want to hear somebody say ‘Good third-ball hitter. Likes to hit that third pitch.’ Then I’ll have learned something.”
• Greg Goossen, doing a Casey Stengel impression: “We got a kid here named Goossen, twenty years old, and in ten years, he’s got a chance to be thirty.”
This is an old one, which was highly controversial in its day. Written primarily in diary form, Bouton tells the day-to-day stories from throughout the 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros. (The Pilots existed for only one year, becoming the Milwaukee Brewers the following season.)
Although it blew the lid off the baseball world at the time, it does show players as human beings going through the stress, drudgery, excitement – all the ups and downs of a several-month long season – and including the late nights, drinking, swearing, fights, contract issues, etc. Everything that happens behind the scenes, but in those days, as not acknowledged publicly.
I remember that I read it as a kid then, but nothing particular came back to me, other than the names of many famous players who were the stars at the time.
Some of the best lines:
• Pilots manager Joe Schultz: “It’s a round ball and a round bat and you got to hit it square.”
• Pitching coach Johnny Sain: “The world doesn’t want to hear about labor pains. It only wants to see the baby.”
• Baseball second-guessing: “If a guy can’t hit the curve ball, keep throwing the damn things until he proves to you he can hit it” followed by “ You can’t keep throwing a guy the same thing. He’s bound to hit it.”
• And along those lines, pitching scouting reports often talk about a player being a good first-ball hitter. “I want to hear somebody say ‘Good third-ball hitter. Likes to hit that third pitch.’ Then I’ll have learned something.”
• Greg Goossen, doing a Casey Stengel impression: “We got a kid here named Goossen, twenty years old, and in ten years, he’s got a chance to be thirty.”
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Sports: getting popped by the cable bubble
I’m not in the right group. I stubbornly refuse to pay for television – either cable or satellite – so I just don’t fit.
Most of the time, free tv over the broadcast airwaves is satisfactory, since I don’t have enough time to watch a lot of sports anyway. But now, with most of the Major League Baseball playoffs only on cable, I’m left on the outside, having to go to someone else’s house, a sports bar, or just track scores online.
Here’s a long but interesting article about the “sports cable bubble.”
To sum it up, a lot of pepole who don’t care at all about sports are being forced to pay for them through their cable packages. You have buy a “bundle” of programming which most likely includes some channels you don’t want. For some people, that is sports.
But by making all those people pay for sports even if they don’t want it, there is so much money coming in that even average professional athletes can earn millions of dollars a year.
It also means that the pay-tv companies are so profitable that they can force more and more programming into a paid-only format, like what is happening with MLB now. Enough people pay, either willingly or through forced bundles, that those like me don’t have many freebies left anymore.
It’s a balancing act for big-time sports to have enough of your product shown free on tv to get enough interest from enough people that enough of them will pay for it so you don’t have to give it away anymore. Unfortunately, the scales are tipping way in their favor right now.
Most of the time, free tv over the broadcast airwaves is satisfactory, since I don’t have enough time to watch a lot of sports anyway. But now, with most of the Major League Baseball playoffs only on cable, I’m left on the outside, having to go to someone else’s house, a sports bar, or just track scores online.
Here’s a long but interesting article about the “sports cable bubble.”
To sum it up, a lot of pepole who don’t care at all about sports are being forced to pay for them through their cable packages. You have buy a “bundle” of programming which most likely includes some channels you don’t want. For some people, that is sports.
But by making all those people pay for sports even if they don’t want it, there is so much money coming in that even average professional athletes can earn millions of dollars a year.
It also means that the pay-tv companies are so profitable that they can force more and more programming into a paid-only format, like what is happening with MLB now. Enough people pay, either willingly or through forced bundles, that those like me don’t have many freebies left anymore.
It’s a balancing act for big-time sports to have enough of your product shown free on tv to get enough interest from enough people that enough of them will pay for it so you don’t have to give it away anymore. Unfortunately, the scales are tipping way in their favor right now.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Sports: baseball uniforms
Here’s an interesting question on the “controversial” topic of baseball uniforms from MLB:
My preference falls with the guy who says let the home team choose first, and then the visitors need to pick something contrasting.
Whites and grays are fine, but get old after awhile. I do like the occasional switch into some colored tops. But even though it doesn’t affect the game, when both teams wear the same colors, it’s just not as good to watch.
In any sport, it’s nice to have differing uniform colors. Once in awhile even in football or basketball, the “white” uniform will be so loaded with other colors, the contrast between teams is lost. Dominant red vs. blue, green vs. gold, or whatever is best whenever possible.
What I really dislike is the overdone “throwback” uniforms. They tend to be really ugly. Maybe if the home team wore them for an occasion honoring something, but don’t make the visitors do it, too! Once every three yeas or so, a throwback mixes it up a bit, but otherwise stick to regular uniforms and either put more talent on the field or lower ticket prices.
My preference falls with the guy who says let the home team choose first, and then the visitors need to pick something contrasting.
Whites and grays are fine, but get old after awhile. I do like the occasional switch into some colored tops. But even though it doesn’t affect the game, when both teams wear the same colors, it’s just not as good to watch.
In any sport, it’s nice to have differing uniform colors. Once in awhile even in football or basketball, the “white” uniform will be so loaded with other colors, the contrast between teams is lost. Dominant red vs. blue, green vs. gold, or whatever is best whenever possible.
What I really dislike is the overdone “throwback” uniforms. They tend to be really ugly. Maybe if the home team wore them for an occasion honoring something, but don’t make the visitors do it, too! Once every three yeas or so, a throwback mixes it up a bit, but otherwise stick to regular uniforms and either put more talent on the field or lower ticket prices.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Follow-ups: Mauer, Moneyball
Joe Mauer got a concussion Aug. 19. On Sept. 4, I predicted he wouldn’t play again this season. On Sept. 24, the Twins said so too.
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Ten years later, the Oakland A’s are still at it, and in the playoffs. Swingin’ A’s describes their new “Moneyball” approach: the platoon system. Another great look into making statistics work favorably.
With the A's success this year, here are a couple more looks from MLB and even Japan.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Book review: Moneyball
Baseball is heading into its prime time of pennant races so a couple baseball book reviews are in order.
Moneyball: this is about 10 years old but I just found it. Didn’t know there was a book (by Michael Lewis), just a movie.
The subject, of course, is about the Oakland A’s achieving success with a low payroll by emphasizing lesser valued stats such as on-base percentage and slugging percentage in evaluating players. That and specifically looking for under-valued players while getting rid of high-priced ones that aren’t proportionately better at getting on base and avoiding outs.
Some examples:
Saves – a slightly above average pitcher can come in for the ninth with bases empty and succeed most of the time. Once established as a “closer,” he’s worth millions. Then it pays to sell/trade him for something of value, and develop another one.
Given the minimum salary requirements and assuming at least 49 victories by even the worst of major league clubs, how much money is spent on each victory above that threshold? Doug Pappas calculated in the three years prior to the book, the A’s paid only about $500,000 per win while teams like Baltimore and Texas paid nearly $3 million for each victory. Not surprising, the only other team in six figures was the Twins at about $675,000 per win.
Voros McCracken took on pitchers’ worth by looking at what pitchers can control: preventing home runs, preventing walks, and preventing balls in play by striking out batters. Once the ball is hit, he proved, there is quite little the pitcher can do about it – measured over a long period, the stats bear out that there’s lot of luck involved (the scorching line drive right at the shortshop vs. the broken bat bloop that falls just inside the foul line). Sort of puts a damper on the Twins’ pitch-to-contact approach.
AVM Systems also dove into the aspect of measuring luck and players’ actual performance in each event on the field. Example: bloop to left field with known-to-be-slow left fielder with runner on second and two out. Knowing the fielder is slow, the runner takes off and scores. The record shows the batter succeeded, the pitcher failed, and the runner and left fielder were present. More fairly, the pitcher (who made a great pitch) and runner (who used the situation to score) succeeded while the batter (should-have-been-an-out hit) and the left fielder (didn’t get to the ball) failed.
Over the length of a 162-game major league season, stats can predict general outcomes. In a short series of a few games, “the playoffs are a crapshoot.”
Side note: A’s general manager Billy Beane, who was and is the decision-maker based on his staff’s detailed analysis, was a member of the Twins ‘87 championship team as well as the A’s ‘89 World Series winners.
Next up: Three Nights in August
Moneyball: this is about 10 years old but I just found it. Didn’t know there was a book (by Michael Lewis), just a movie.
The subject, of course, is about the Oakland A’s achieving success with a low payroll by emphasizing lesser valued stats such as on-base percentage and slugging percentage in evaluating players. That and specifically looking for under-valued players while getting rid of high-priced ones that aren’t proportionately better at getting on base and avoiding outs.
Some examples:
Saves – a slightly above average pitcher can come in for the ninth with bases empty and succeed most of the time. Once established as a “closer,” he’s worth millions. Then it pays to sell/trade him for something of value, and develop another one.
Given the minimum salary requirements and assuming at least 49 victories by even the worst of major league clubs, how much money is spent on each victory above that threshold? Doug Pappas calculated in the three years prior to the book, the A’s paid only about $500,000 per win while teams like Baltimore and Texas paid nearly $3 million for each victory. Not surprising, the only other team in six figures was the Twins at about $675,000 per win.
Voros McCracken took on pitchers’ worth by looking at what pitchers can control: preventing home runs, preventing walks, and preventing balls in play by striking out batters. Once the ball is hit, he proved, there is quite little the pitcher can do about it – measured over a long period, the stats bear out that there’s lot of luck involved (the scorching line drive right at the shortshop vs. the broken bat bloop that falls just inside the foul line). Sort of puts a damper on the Twins’ pitch-to-contact approach.
AVM Systems also dove into the aspect of measuring luck and players’ actual performance in each event on the field. Example: bloop to left field with known-to-be-slow left fielder with runner on second and two out. Knowing the fielder is slow, the runner takes off and scores. The record shows the batter succeeded, the pitcher failed, and the runner and left fielder were present. More fairly, the pitcher (who made a great pitch) and runner (who used the situation to score) succeeded while the batter (should-have-been-an-out hit) and the left fielder (didn’t get to the ball) failed.
Over the length of a 162-game major league season, stats can predict general outcomes. In a short series of a few games, “the playoffs are a crapshoot.”
Side note: A’s general manager Billy Beane, who was and is the decision-maker based on his staff’s detailed analysis, was a member of the Twins ‘87 championship team as well as the A’s ‘89 World Series winners.
Next up: Three Nights in August
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