Happy Opening Day 2013!
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Editor
Very clever, Andy!
But, treating it literally, aren’t those behaviors mutually exclusive? Just look at the 9th inning of this game:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ARI/ARI201209200.shtml
A new guy started the 9th, followed by 4 changes during the inning. The last 4 guys all faced 1 batter. And not a run was scored.
Editor
BTW, in light of Bud Black’s frantic moves in that game, I had to chuckle at this passage from a Tyler Kepner column titled “Padres Know Too Well the Fragility of Pitching”: What has happened since Black’s playing days? “We’ve done it,” Black said. “We’ve done it to the game. We’ve done it to pitching. Us, meaning managers, pitching coaches, organizations. We just don’t condition them to do it, physically or mentally. “In the ’80s, I never knew how many pitches I had on a given night. I had no idea. In ’84, I threw 257 innings, made 33 starts,… Read more »
Well, that was his point. He CAN’T do anything about it. You can’t just flip a switch and tell a pitcher, “Go out and pitch nine innnings tonight, and don’t worry about the pitch count. Our bullpen’s tired, so I don’t care if you throw 170 pitches, just stay out there.” That’s not going to work.
I agree with Black: it’s going to take a long time to undo this thing, if it can ever be undone.
Editor
Yes, bstar, I get that Black can’t just change the culture through his decisions on in-game pitching changes. My point is, here he is stating clearly that he views the modern obsession with pitch counts as a problem that should be addressed. He includes managers in the group responsible for the current culture. So shouldn’t that be followed immediately by stating what he is doing, or trying to do, within his own organization, to try to change that culture, even in baby steps? The contrast I drew between Black’s quote and his own game moves was a gross oversimplification. And… Read more »
That’s the fallacy of baseball right? Most innings, runs don’t get scored. You can pat yourself on the back based on an overly small sampling size or you can delve into the deeper understanding of statistical analysis. It’s this truth that gives us sabrmetrics. The contradiction of the short term outcomes to the long term trends is like nothing else in sports.
At least where I’m livin’, this winter hasn’t been all that harsh and cold and dreary. But it sure has been long.
Maybe it’s because Spring Training started early because of the WBC, but it seems like they’ve been playing meaningless games for six weeks now. Get on with it already.
I can’t wait.
Now…if we can only get that Autin guy to bring his “A” game to Game Notes… 😉
Fresh from the NY Times for Opening Day, Tyler Kepner on the topic of older HHS posts, the increase in strikeouts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/sports/baseball/swing-and-a-mystery-why-strikeout-rates-are-soaring.html?hp&_r=0
