Basebology (The Study of Baseball): Finally

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Finally

It's the bottom of the eighth inning. The New York Yankees lead the Atlanta Braves by a score of 6-3. Brain Bruney is pitching for New York. He's been good this year, but tonight he starts out the inning by walking Chipper Jones. Not to worry, he promptly strikes out Brian McCann and induces a groundball to first from Garret Anderson.

Then things go south. Bruney walks Casey Kotchman and then gives up a run scoring single to Jeff Francoeur. Suddenly, it's 6-4 with two on and two out. The go ahead run is coming to the plate. The Yankees have been scuffling. They can't afford to let this one get away. So...

They go get Mariano Rivera.

YES!

YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!

Why wait!? He's rested! He's awesome! He can get four outs! Don't let him rot while the game slips away. Go get him. You have him pitch to Kelly Johnson right now. Not tomorrow. Not next inning. Now.

And the result?

Mo struck him out.

Then he struck the next guy out.

Game over.

6 comments:

Robert Lynch said...: I was watching. It was awesome. 'Nuf said.; June 24, 2009 at 9:23 PM
James said...: I think Mo's AB got me more excited than the win.

That guy's got a mean cut.; June 24, 2009 at 10:03 PM
Robert Lynch said...: Did you also see the clip ESPN showed of him catching balls during BP? I guess the man likes to grab his glove and, like I say, catch BP. And while it was funny to see, I didn't entirely like the idea of the greatest closer of all time crashing into the outfield wall because he wants to catch BP. Maybe he swings a little too?

The best part though was when an interviewer asks Rivera if he thinks he could play center field and he sort of grins and nods his head. My first thought was the idea of having a pitcher in the outfield switch back and forth with a pitcher on the mound, but unfortunately that won't work because when don't you want Rivera in the game?; June 25, 2009 at 10:23 AM
John Lynch said...: I was indeed aware of Mo's predilection for shagging flies in advance of the game. I figure that he's in such great shape, we might as well let him do what he's been doing. It seems to work.

Rivera the hitter, unfortunately, is 0-5 in his career (including postseason).; June 25, 2009 at 11:01 AM
D.Cous. said...: I think you should add a tag to your posts entitled "when to play Mariano Rivera," and then when you realize that 90% of your posts are about this, you should consider renaming your blog :); July 1, 2009 at 6:35 AM
John Lynch said...: Touché.; July 1, 2009 at 7:28 AM

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Key Stats

ARP
Adjusted Runs Prevented

ARP measures the amount of runs that a relief pitcher prevented from scoring above what an average relief pitcher would have prevented. ARP is adjusted for the situation in which the pitcher was used.

ISO
Isolated Power

ISO is the ratio of extra bases that a player has accumulated to the number of at bats he has received. ISO is essentially a player's SLG minus his batting average. This has the effect of giving a player credit only for extra base hits. ISO is not a useful measure of player value on its own, but is a very effective measure of a player's extra base ability.

OBP
On Base Percentage

OBP is the ratio of the number of times a player reached base safely to the number of opportunities he had to reach base. It effectively measures a player's skill at not making outs. Since outs are a teams most precious commodity, OBP measures perhaps the most valuable and fundamental skill a player can have.

OPS
On Base Plus Slugging Percentage

OPS is a crude metric that simply sums a player's on base and slugging percentages. It is probably the most popular non-traditional measure of overall batting performance due to its simplicity. However, it has drawn criticism from performance analysts for its inaccuracy relative to other advanced metrics and because it works by adding two numbers with different denominators together to produce a conceptually meaningless quantity. It is best used as a quick and dirty estimator of batting prowess.

SLG
Slugging Percentage

SLG is the ratio of total bases that a player has accumulated to the number of at bats he has received. It is essentially a weighted batting average that gives a player more credit for extra base hits.

UZR
Ultimate Zone Rating

UZR is a defensive metric that uses play-by-play data to determine how good a player's defense is. On Fangraphs, it is denominated in runs saved above average.

VORP
Value Over Replacement Player

VORP measures the amount of runs that a player contributed above what a "replacement player" at the same position would produce. VORP considers only offensive contributions.

WARP
Wins Above Replacement Player

WARP measures the amount of wins that a player contributed above what a "replacement player" at the same position would produce. WARP considers both offensive and defensive contributions.

WXRL
Win Expectancy added above Replacement adjusted for Lineup

WXRL measures the amount of wins that a relief pitcher contributed above what a "replacement player" would produce. WXRL differs from WARP because it is adjusted for both the game situation in which the pitcher was used and the hitters that the pitcher faced.

Basebology (The Study of Baseball)

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Finally

6 comments:

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