From what I've learned this semester in the way of social media tools and how they enable people to exist in cyberspace, I've come to realize just how advanced we've become as a culture. I believe the culture that we belong to is the one that has regular access to the Internet and who uses it regularly for both personal and business purposes. For this class, we've had to use a few different web tools that I have never used before. I've come to realize their uses and limits, and think of better ways to use them. Going one step below the practical nature of the tools, we've learned a lot about the theory behind sharing information in the public domain and I've come to realize the difference between writing for an audience and publicly sharing my work. I feel like when your share your work with everybody and everybody can form their own opinions on your opinions, then there is a dilution in the quality of critique of the work. Therefore, there is a certain responsibility that is waived once your work hits the public forums. Why should the author who pens the information be subjected to a harsher scrutiny than the people who read and comment on it? That is the nature of information once it hits the Internet: if the work is not specialized and appeals to the masses, then it should be shared in a public domain, but since it is going to be analyzed every-which-way, there ceases to be a reason for why it should be stripped of any non-confirmed reporting/non-fact-based opinion. The future of internet media is clearly publish-then-edit due to the immense potential of thought evolution that this process creates.
Now, for the specific things that I now know how to negotiate better due to this course:
**I have had much experience writing on Blogspot in the past as well as using MySpace, Facebook, etc, but now I'm beginning to see the significance of using Netvibes as a way to congregate my material on one page. I feel like we could have used Netvibes a bit more, perhaps by setting up our own pages like we did for the first Wiki assignment. I think that would also give a nice glimpse into the personalities of our peers.
**Aside from Wikipedia, I had never used a Wiki before. I did not realize how much went into the creation and development of such an immense (yet seemingly simple) project. I think where Wikipedia succeeds, our Shirky project failed a little bit. Wikipedia is dependent on people caring about the subject matter and wanting to put a stamp on the online publishing world. I think if the Shirky project was a semester-long project where we were graded on the presentation of the pages (i.e. if we paid much more attention to content instead of mainly just the process), then it would have benefited us more in the long run. As part of the generation who will be spending much of their lives revolutionizing cyberspace content, I feel that a three-month-long project working together solely through an Internet-based venture will help us tremendously in practicing the organization and planning skills that will be required of us in the future and in our professions.
**I think an Advanced level of this course would be most intriguing. I would take it this summer even though I would already have graduated, and I do not think that I'm alone in this.
I'm glad that we were able to experiment writing blogs based on whatever issue we were interested in. I hope I adequately described the conflict between MLB (the owners) and the MLBPA (the players) in regards to the methods of attributing value to salary arbitration-eligible players. Players end up becoming prisoners of the teams because of the sharp decline their value takes when they are incorrectly awarded Type A status. I feel like there is an amalgamation of interests that should be discussed during the next CBA talks after the current agreement expires on Dec 11, 2011. I was able to develop the ideas that I set forth in this blog into a paper for my graduate Sociology course on Wealth Stratification, and I have since sent that paper to a number of people on several MLB teams, in hopes that I can land a baseball operations internship for the spring. This blog was the perfect medium to begin crafting my ideas because of the promise of visibility in the public domain. While I felt no reason to be accountable for my opinions, I did want to exhibit a certain level of accuracy in order to appear as knowledgeable as I believe I am. Writing for an audience but not limiting viewership surpassed any expectations for my writing and analytical skills - and isn't personal development a key component of a revolution?
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
In Summation, but not in closing
As the first decade of the 21st century comes to a close, Major League Baseball has many choices to make to direct the new era of baseball. With an ever-increasing intellectual fan base brought on by the technology innovations in the past ten years, MLB has the ability to shape the game that will maximize its attractiveness in every market by giving teams the freedom to run themselves as they see fit. This starts with the ability to evaluate and compensate talent in new ways with more sophistication than in previous collective negotiated agreements. The need for this kind of evolution coincides with advanced baseball analysis philosophy permeating into mainstream media. Employing the recommended changes to the new collective bargaining agreement will allow both owners and players to maximize on their performance. It is vital to the relationship between both that respect is given to each side during the negotiations so that progress is made to solidify these changes in MLB policy. This blog has shown how much sense it makes for both sides to reconfigure the MLB Draft and Free Agency system in order to increase the level of competitiveness and revenue for all of the organizations in the league.
WAR, What is it Good For?
The statistics chosen leave a lot to be desired. The current system assumes that a hitter can only be valuable if he has a high OBP and hits many home runs, and that a pitcher must accumulate a lot of wins and strikeouts, and have a good ERA. The study of analyzing baseball statistics – sabermetrics and the associated sabermetricians who analyze the data – has been developing more progressive metrics every year as an on-going process to develop correct notions in the art of properly critiquing baseball. (Halverson & Halverson, 2008) Tango et al. have developed a metric called Fielding-Independent ERA (FIP) that takes team defense, the stadium’s park design and a constant for the league into account along with the pitcher’s ERA to determine how many earned runs are purely the pitcher’s faults. When discussing pitchers in different leagues and on different teams, it is no longer acceptable to use their ERA – as that measurement has been deemed obsolete by the improved FIP. As an anecdote, the 2009 American League Cy Young winner, Zack Greinke, was quoted after winning the award: “That’s pretty much how I pitch, to try to keep my FIP as low as possible.” (New York Times, 11/18/2009) By correcting for the number of innings pitched, it will be possible to show a more complete picture of value for pitchers. Hitters have a similar stat called Weighted Runs Created (wRC) that involves using a player’s OBP to show many runs that player produced with his bat. By breaking down traditional measurements and developing them into more sophisticated metrics, it is possible to bridge the gap between conservative and progressive thought in Major League Baseball and bring change to the currently antiquated free agency system.
The league may still argue that the statistics currently used are actually proper ways of analyzing players and may reject the proposed system of using more complicated sabermetrics such as FIP and wRC to determine the production of each player. However, there is another equation that is more widely discussed in mainstream sports coverage media than the lesser known FIP and wRC. That equation is known as Wins Above Replacement, or WAR. (Hakes & Turner 2009) WAR is a metric developed by Baseball Prospectus that essentially computes the number of runs a player creates with his bat and saves with his glove, and then determines how many wins that player is worth to his team above a replacement-level player (a replacement player is set to zero wins). Among the potential free agents, there are 26 Type A's, 52 Type B's, and 102 unranked. Table #2 shows the WAR values for the top twenty-six of the three types of free agents (A, B, unclassified) available this offseason.
Table 2.
Free Agent Class Average Wins Above Replacement (WAR)
Type A (top quintile) 4.6
Type B (top half of second quintile) 4.9
Type B (bottom half of 2nd quintile) 1.5
Unclassified (bottom 60%) 2.9
The ubiquitous nature of the WAR values depicts the ineffectiveness of the current MLB free agent system to determine the true value of players. To have such a system that ranks players based on obsolete, archaic and irrelevant stats shows how disorganized MLB leadership is. More than this, these facts show how the MLBPA is actively (though not intentionally) preventing its players from obtaining the contracts that they deserve.
The league may still argue that the statistics currently used are actually proper ways of analyzing players and may reject the proposed system of using more complicated sabermetrics such as FIP and wRC to determine the production of each player. However, there is another equation that is more widely discussed in mainstream sports coverage media than the lesser known FIP and wRC. That equation is known as Wins Above Replacement, or WAR. (Hakes & Turner 2009) WAR is a metric developed by Baseball Prospectus that essentially computes the number of runs a player creates with his bat and saves with his glove, and then determines how many wins that player is worth to his team above a replacement-level player (a replacement player is set to zero wins). Among the potential free agents, there are 26 Type A's, 52 Type B's, and 102 unranked. Table #2 shows the WAR values for the top twenty-six of the three types of free agents (A, B, unclassified) available this offseason.
Table 2.
Free Agent Class Average Wins Above Replacement (WAR)
Type A (top quintile) 4.6
Type B (top half of second quintile) 4.9
Type B (bottom half of 2nd quintile) 1.5
Unclassified (bottom 60%) 2.9
The ubiquitous nature of the WAR values depicts the ineffectiveness of the current MLB free agent system to determine the true value of players. To have such a system that ranks players based on obsolete, archaic and irrelevant stats shows how disorganized MLB leadership is. More than this, these facts show how the MLBPA is actively (though not intentionally) preventing its players from obtaining the contracts that they deserve.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Making sense of it all
Over the past four weeks, I have been analyzing the current state of affairs in MLB. I have empirical evidence that shows why the current system needs to be changed, developed a new metric for ranking the free agents and have shown the paradox existing in MLB today with its utilization of advanced media technology. With the current Collective Bargaining Agreement set to expire on Dec 11, 2011, it is imperative to discuss these topics now so they are out in the open.
Shirky says that just because something is published online, that does not mean that it is intended to be heard by everybody. But in this case, eavesdropping will put pressure on the traditional culture of MLB to embrace the benefits of accelerating some of their policies to adopt current technology and thought. That's why I intend to update this blog after the course finishes and publish it publicly.
Updates coming soon..
Shirky says that just because something is published online, that does not mean that it is intended to be heard by everybody. But in this case, eavesdropping will put pressure on the traditional culture of MLB to embrace the benefits of accelerating some of their policies to adopt current technology and thought. That's why I intend to update this blog after the course finishes and publish it publicly.
Updates coming soon..
Do Not EatThese Wings
The man on the right is not messing around. They are hot. They will make you sick for days and leave a burnt hole in your stomach for at least 72 hours. Do not eat the suicide wings from Buffalo Cantina.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Payroll and Performance
The arbitrary nature of the statistics and governing rules surrounding free agency need to be abolished. There has been a major push for progressive, intelligent research on players' values over the past forty years. It is unacceptable any longer to formulate business strategy on archaic rules especially when those rules are unpredictable, as we have seen in the aforementioned Yankees case.
The examples of favoritism in MLB are polarizing the teams and beginning to eliminate the lower-class from playoff contention. In the second-half of the 2000s, there was a 7% increase in the number of lower middle-class and upper middle-class teams to make the playoffs than during the previous five years. Also, there has been 10% less lower class teams to have made the playoffs in the most recent five years than in the first half of the decade. A more important ratio is that the upper and upper middle-class teams have accounted for over 83% of the total playoff teams in the 2000s. These numbers continue to build on the Weisman and Chatterjee (2002) paper that displayed the correlation of payroll and performance to the increase of likelihood of postseason entry.
From this blog’s data analysis, it has been shown that as teams spend more money, they will increase their chance for berths in the playoffs. The policies instituted by the new CBA do not need to give added benefit to upper payroll tiered teams.
The examples of favoritism in MLB are polarizing the teams and beginning to eliminate the lower-class from playoff contention. In the second-half of the 2000s, there was a 7% increase in the number of lower middle-class and upper middle-class teams to make the playoffs than during the previous five years. Also, there has been 10% less lower class teams to have made the playoffs in the most recent five years than in the first half of the decade. A more important ratio is that the upper and upper middle-class teams have accounted for over 83% of the total playoff teams in the 2000s. These numbers continue to build on the Weisman and Chatterjee (2002) paper that displayed the correlation of payroll and performance to the increase of likelihood of postseason entry.
From this blog’s data analysis, it has been shown that as teams spend more money, they will increase their chance for berths in the playoffs. The policies instituted by the new CBA do not need to give added benefit to upper payroll tiered teams.
Free Agency Part 2 - Crazy in play
By examining the following example of the free agency system in play, I will demonstrate why the system needs to be changed.
There are rules in place to guard against a team giving up too much in the draft for signing more than one free agent. Last winter, the Yankees signed Mark Teixeira (Type A), CC Sabathia (A) and AJ Burnett (A) to long-term contracts. Under the rules of Free Agency, these players were all ranked by Elias and it turned out that Teixeira was ranked higher than CC, who was ahead of Burnett. Therefore, when the Yankees signed Sabathia on Dec. 10, 2008, the Brewers were in line to receive the Yankees' first-round pick as compensation. But when the Yankees signed Teixeira a month later, due to his higher ranking, the Angels were actually awarded that first-round pick and the Brewers only a second-rounder. To compound this was that AJ Burnett was also signed, but since he was lower than the other two players signed by the Yankees, the Blue Jays were only awarded a third-round selection for letting him walk.
This is the kind of action that shows me how MLB is protecting the proliferation of its richer and more marketable teams. Only the richer teams are going to be able to afford to sign multiple Type A free agents. Not only are the Type A free agents generally the better players, but the teams that sign them usually have the most money and build a bulk of their roster through free agency rather than through their farm systems. Therefore, they are in a position to give up their first- and second-round picks. Even considering this, MLB allows for the exact teams who can afford to lose their draft picks to actually keep them, almost as a sort of bonus for improving their roster!
I would also think that if the Brewers thought that they could only get one draft pick for Sabathia instead of two, that they may not have given up their top prospect (Matt LaPorta) for CC. I have to believe that the Blue Jays would almost certainly have traded Burnett away the the in-season trade deadline if they knew that they were going to only receive a third-round draft pick for AJ's services. The best part about all of this is that MLB is essentially saying that based on all of these irrelevant statistics, some free agents are better than others, and so the teams losing the players (not the teams that sign the players) are forced into being penalized by the governing body.
There are rules in place to guard against a team giving up too much in the draft for signing more than one free agent. Last winter, the Yankees signed Mark Teixeira (Type A), CC Sabathia (A) and AJ Burnett (A) to long-term contracts. Under the rules of Free Agency, these players were all ranked by Elias and it turned out that Teixeira was ranked higher than CC, who was ahead of Burnett. Therefore, when the Yankees signed Sabathia on Dec. 10, 2008, the Brewers were in line to receive the Yankees' first-round pick as compensation. But when the Yankees signed Teixeira a month later, due to his higher ranking, the Angels were actually awarded that first-round pick and the Brewers only a second-rounder. To compound this was that AJ Burnett was also signed, but since he was lower than the other two players signed by the Yankees, the Blue Jays were only awarded a third-round selection for letting him walk.
This is the kind of action that shows me how MLB is protecting the proliferation of its richer and more marketable teams. Only the richer teams are going to be able to afford to sign multiple Type A free agents. Not only are the Type A free agents generally the better players, but the teams that sign them usually have the most money and build a bulk of their roster through free agency rather than through their farm systems. Therefore, they are in a position to give up their first- and second-round picks. Even considering this, MLB allows for the exact teams who can afford to lose their draft picks to actually keep them, almost as a sort of bonus for improving their roster!
I would also think that if the Brewers thought that they could only get one draft pick for Sabathia instead of two, that they may not have given up their top prospect (Matt LaPorta) for CC. I have to believe that the Blue Jays would almost certainly have traded Burnett away the the in-season trade deadline if they knew that they were going to only receive a third-round draft pick for AJ's services. The best part about all of this is that MLB is essentially saying that based on all of these irrelevant statistics, some free agents are better than others, and so the teams losing the players (not the teams that sign the players) are forced into being penalized by the governing body.
Free Agency Part 1 - The Crazy
Under the current system, players eligible for free agency are ranked by an outside source (Elias Sports Bureau) based on several measurements. There are three tiers of FA players: Type A (top 20% of the class), Type B (the next 20%) and unclassified. If a player is awarded Type A status and does not resign with his most current team, then the team with which he does sign gives either its first- or second-round pick (depending on the record of the new team) to the team who lost the player AND that team is awarded a "sandwich pick" (an extra round in between the first- and second-rounds). If the player is given Type B status and doesn't resign, then his former team is awarded just the sandwich pick.
In a three-part post, let's take a look at the most pressing problems with the free agency classification system:
1. The Classification System
The Classification system is bogus on two accounts: it ranks every MLB player, including rookies and other players not eligible for free agency, by accumulating certain, arbitrary stats, over the previous two years. Here are the stat categories used for each of the five position groups.
The second issue with Elias' rankings is that it ranks every player in MLB so the free agents are not only being compared to its own class, but also in relation to the general population of MLB players. In theory, the top 20% could all be players that are not free agents, and so that year could not have one player worthy of two first round picks. To have such a system that ranks players based on obsolete, archaic and irrelevant stats and to organize the free agent rankings with a mixture of eligible and non-eligible players just shows how disorganized MLB leadership is.
The crux of this matter is that the value of free agents directly influences the long-term plans of MLB organizations and affects the financial outlook of each organization that has hundreds of employees. In order to perform good business, MLB must adopt a change in their free agency metrics to value players as accurately as possible.
In a three-part post, let's take a look at the most pressing problems with the free agency classification system:
1. The Classification System
The Classification system is bogus on two accounts: it ranks every MLB player, including rookies and other players not eligible for free agency, by accumulating certain, arbitrary stats, over the previous two years. Here are the stat categories used for each of the five position groups.
- 1B/OF/DH: PA, AVG, OBP, HR, RBI
- 2B/3B/SS: PA, AVG, OBP, HR, RBI, Fielding percentage, Total chances at designated position
- C: PA, AVG, OBP, HR, RBI, Fielding percentage, Assists
- SP: Total games (total starts + 0.5 * total relief appearances), IP, Wins, W-L Percentage, ERA, Strikeouts
- RP: Total games (total relief appearances + 2 * total starts), IP (weighted slightly less than other categories), Wins + Saves, IP/H ratio, K/BB, ERA
The second issue with Elias' rankings is that it ranks every player in MLB so the free agents are not only being compared to its own class, but also in relation to the general population of MLB players. In theory, the top 20% could all be players that are not free agents, and so that year could not have one player worthy of two first round picks. To have such a system that ranks players based on obsolete, archaic and irrelevant stats and to organize the free agent rankings with a mixture of eligible and non-eligible players just shows how disorganized MLB leadership is.
The crux of this matter is that the value of free agents directly influences the long-term plans of MLB organizations and affects the financial outlook of each organization that has hundreds of employees. In order to perform good business, MLB must adopt a change in their free agency metrics to value players as accurately as possible.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Instant Replay shot down in Chicago
With the recent announcement from the GM Meetings in Chicago this week that MLB will not be extended instant replay for the 2010 season, it has become apparent that MLB is not attempting to better itself in the slightest. When the executive VP of baseball operations in the Office of the Commissioner says the following - "I think commissioner Selig is going to look at the entire umpiring structure and he's going to seek ways to enhance the entire structure" - as a way to rationalize the irrational decision by Bud Selig, it only shows me how distantly out of touch the leaders of MLB truly are. I do not believe that the comment above makes any sense. The idea that instant replay will not enhance the structure of umpiring leads me to believe that Selig thinks that instituting instant replay is somehow going to make the use of umpires obsolete, thereby putting his friends out of jobs. The only human element that we should remove is Selig, and hopefully soon.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Instant Replay - Balls and Strikes
I think one of the relatively new technological innovations that major TV networks have invented - the K-Zone - can be used formally by MLB to accurately call balls and strikes during live games (and act as a replay mechanism). K-Zone is a computer graphic that charts the movement of the baseball as it leaves the pitcher's hand and travels across the plate. It can be programmed to depict the movement and speed of the ball, and also where it hits on the 2-D plane that represents the strike zone of a batter (its dimensions can also be manipulated to change as the height and batting stance of each subsequent hitter changes).
Umpires will still need to exist because there will be a small percentage of error associated with the graphic. They will still call the games, but if there is a major error, the MLB official manning the K-Zone viewing center in the media box above the field will be able to relay that information through a headset to the home plate umpire. Managers and coaches will also be able to call for instant replay on their own a certain amount of times per game, per pitcher. Obviously, the pace of the game can be affected grossly if managers call for a replay too much, so MLB should determine how many times a game a large error is made per game by an umpire and adjust the number of challenges allowed by a manager to fit that number. But umpires will still call the games as they have been for years and all of these replays should not add more than a few extra minutes to each game, even if each manager exhausts all of its instant replay opportunities.
If the league truly cares about protecting the integrity of the game, then it will find a common resolution between caring for the fans' calls for accuracy and the umpiring crews' votes for preserving their own integrity. Not to say that we do not need the human element in MLB, but it should not come at the expense of getting calls right.
Let's get the ball rolling
Here's a brief overview of some issues I plan to tackle in the coming weeks:
1. Recommended slot in the draft should become mandatory slot.
Teams do not care about a recommended slot price. The slot price was engineered to give teams an idea as to what the appropriate price should be for a player - but that doesn't matter in negotiations since that a non-mandatory price is not leverage against agents. A stern lecture from Bud Selig as the penalty for going over slot to a team's general manager is hardly cause for concern when trying to sign its 1st round draft pick to a six-year deal. I'm sure Billy Beane put the phone down and let Selig jaw on for a few minutes when he doled out the highest 4th round money ever to C Max Stassi (to prevent Stassi from going to UCLA). If you want teams to follow a slot price, do what they do in the NBA: MAKE IT MANDATORY. This leads me to the next point that:
2. Draft spot means nothing.
Players slide down the draft board based on a number of reasons: agent, likelihood of entering college, makeup, etc. But without a mandatory slot, some players (like Shelby Miller in 09) will still receive vastly more money than their neighbors due to where they would have been drafted if not for their choice in agent.
Other recent issues with MLB:
3. A 5-game suspension is NOT the same for hitters and pitchers
Kevin Youkilis and Rick Porcello were suspended this season for 5 games for their roles in a minor bench-clearing fracas. Youk thought Porcello threw at him intentionally and so he charged the pitcher only to be body-slammed to the Earth by the 20 year old (even more bizarre since Youk had a better center of gravity and weighs a good twenty pounds more, though most of that could be in the birdhouse of a chin-beard. I digress.).
Each player was suspended for 5 games but since Porcello is a pitcher and usually pitches every 5 games, the the Tigers were able to sub in another pitcher for Rick and let him go with an extra day of rest on his next turn. The Red Sox, however, were without Youkie's services for almost a week. The way that hitters and pitchers are suspended is never equal and there needs to be a change made in the next CBA. Below is my idea for an amendment:
A. Assume every hitter will play 162 games and each pitcher will make 32 starts. Make the suspensions based on the percentage of games/starts that will be missed by each player instead of just the sheer number. So in the case above, if Youk is going to be suspended for 5 games (3% of his games), MLB needs to ensure that Porcello is suspended for the same amount of starts (= 1 start).
B. It is easy to make sure that a hitter misses the appropriate time; he simply won't play. Pitchers are a little trickier since the rotation can be manipulated in such a way that enables a suspended player to not miss a start, thereby not hurting his team. There needs to be a way to ensure that a pitcher actually misses time from the team otherwise the suspension is essentially moot from the team's standpoint. But by suspending both yet leaving them on the active roster, a team leaves an open spot on the active roster. This is why I suggest placing suspended players (both hitters and pitchers) on a Suspended List that acts as a Disabled List in that the team can call up a player to fill the open spot on the roster left by the suspended player. If a pitcher is suspended for 1 start, he must remain on the SL until three (or four, depending on if the team requires a fifth starter at that point in the season) of his rotation mates have pitched in front of him.
So for example if Porcello is suspended for one start, and he just pitched on Aug. 25, he would be suspended for Aug 26, 27, 28, 29, miss his start on the 30th and not be eligible to pitch again until Sept 4th. The Tigers would place him on the SL so they could replace his open spot on the roster and then they could activate him on Sept 4th and remove his replacement from the roster.
C. Time on the suspension list for hitters will amount to a loss of a paycheck for time spent on the list, but not so for the pitchers. If a hitter is suspended for 5 games, he will spend 5 games on the SL and forfeit his paycheck for 5 games. If a pitcher is suspended for the pitcher equivalent of 5 games (i.e. 1 start), he will forfeit one start check but be required to spend the appropriate time on the SL.
This is just one creative way of fixing the problems associated with suspending players. Would love to hear questions/comments from others.
1. Recommended slot in the draft should become mandatory slot.
Teams do not care about a recommended slot price. The slot price was engineered to give teams an idea as to what the appropriate price should be for a player - but that doesn't matter in negotiations since that a non-mandatory price is not leverage against agents. A stern lecture from Bud Selig as the penalty for going over slot to a team's general manager is hardly cause for concern when trying to sign its 1st round draft pick to a six-year deal. I'm sure Billy Beane put the phone down and let Selig jaw on for a few minutes when he doled out the highest 4th round money ever to C Max Stassi (to prevent Stassi from going to UCLA). If you want teams to follow a slot price, do what they do in the NBA: MAKE IT MANDATORY. This leads me to the next point that:
2. Draft spot means nothing.
Players slide down the draft board based on a number of reasons: agent, likelihood of entering college, makeup, etc. But without a mandatory slot, some players (like Shelby Miller in 09) will still receive vastly more money than their neighbors due to where they would have been drafted if not for their choice in agent.
Other recent issues with MLB:
3. A 5-game suspension is NOT the same for hitters and pitchers
Kevin Youkilis and Rick Porcello were suspended this season for 5 games for their roles in a minor bench-clearing fracas. Youk thought Porcello threw at him intentionally and so he charged the pitcher only to be body-slammed to the Earth by the 20 year old (even more bizarre since Youk had a better center of gravity and weighs a good twenty pounds more, though most of that could be in the birdhouse of a chin-beard. I digress.).
Each player was suspended for 5 games but since Porcello is a pitcher and usually pitches every 5 games, the the Tigers were able to sub in another pitcher for Rick and let him go with an extra day of rest on his next turn. The Red Sox, however, were without Youkie's services for almost a week. The way that hitters and pitchers are suspended is never equal and there needs to be a change made in the next CBA. Below is my idea for an amendment:
A. Assume every hitter will play 162 games and each pitcher will make 32 starts. Make the suspensions based on the percentage of games/starts that will be missed by each player instead of just the sheer number. So in the case above, if Youk is going to be suspended for 5 games (3% of his games), MLB needs to ensure that Porcello is suspended for the same amount of starts (= 1 start).
B. It is easy to make sure that a hitter misses the appropriate time; he simply won't play. Pitchers are a little trickier since the rotation can be manipulated in such a way that enables a suspended player to not miss a start, thereby not hurting his team. There needs to be a way to ensure that a pitcher actually misses time from the team otherwise the suspension is essentially moot from the team's standpoint. But by suspending both yet leaving them on the active roster, a team leaves an open spot on the active roster. This is why I suggest placing suspended players (both hitters and pitchers) on a Suspended List that acts as a Disabled List in that the team can call up a player to fill the open spot on the roster left by the suspended player. If a pitcher is suspended for 1 start, he must remain on the SL until three (or four, depending on if the team requires a fifth starter at that point in the season) of his rotation mates have pitched in front of him.
So for example if Porcello is suspended for one start, and he just pitched on Aug. 25, he would be suspended for Aug 26, 27, 28, 29, miss his start on the 30th and not be eligible to pitch again until Sept 4th. The Tigers would place him on the SL so they could replace his open spot on the roster and then they could activate him on Sept 4th and remove his replacement from the roster.
C. Time on the suspension list for hitters will amount to a loss of a paycheck for time spent on the list, but not so for the pitchers. If a hitter is suspended for 5 games, he will spend 5 games on the SL and forfeit his paycheck for 5 games. If a pitcher is suspended for the pitcher equivalent of 5 games (i.e. 1 start), he will forfeit one start check but be required to spend the appropriate time on the SL.
This is just one creative way of fixing the problems associated with suspending players. Would love to hear questions/comments from others.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Grandfather Time
I enjoy reading that people prefer preserving the pace of the game over the correctness of the calls made during it. It's this type of misdirection that is plaguing the League. The integrity of baseball will be solidified once the Office of the Commissioner does everything in its power to emphasize that the pace of the game is nothing without accuracy.
“I think my position has been clear,” Selig said. “This is a game of pace. I’m worried a lot about that.”
This quote is at the centerpiece of my argument against Major League Baseball - its priorities are so skewed that even during the playoffs, people spend too much time discussing the errors of play-calling and mis-managing than the actual game itself. Proper tools to diagnose the match-ups (i.e. better statistical analysis tools) and less of a reliance on umpires to make calls will open up the game to more praise and preserve its integrity, not destroy it.
“I think my position has been clear,” Selig said. “This is a game of pace. I’m worried a lot about that.”
This quote is at the centerpiece of my argument against Major League Baseball - its priorities are so skewed that even during the playoffs, people spend too much time discussing the errors of play-calling and mis-managing than the actual game itself. Proper tools to diagnose the match-ups (i.e. better statistical analysis tools) and less of a reliance on umpires to make calls will open up the game to more praise and preserve its integrity, not destroy it.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Destiny of the 2009 Yankees
Before we delve into general themes affecting the league, I thought we could take a look at a current event - the playoff scheduling and how it is favoring the New York Yankees in these 2009 Playoffs. However, I think that it is important to note that the league office is not favoring the Yankees for the Yankees' sake, but rather it purposely and willfully designed the playoffs to its liking by giving the team with the best regular-season record a substantial advantage over its LDS opponent.
Initially, the fact that the Twins had to play their first playoff game the night after playing their tie-break game in Minnesota led me to believe one of two things: either the league purposely devised the schedule to favor the Yankees (for a slew of reasons, potentially: being the team with the best regular season record, attracting the most amount of revenue, easiest to market due to their rich history, etc) or MLB inadvertently set up its playoff schedule to favor them. I was hopeful enough in MLB that it was shrewd enough to give every playoff team an equally fair chance to advance throughout the post-season, but after reviewing the data, I have no other opinion than the playoffs have been molded to give the Yankees the best possible chance to make it to the World Series. Of course, games have to be played, and the players have to perform, but from looking at the scheduling, it has been shown that MLB specifically designed these playoffs to give the team with the best record the best chance of advancing in each of their series'.
The American League Division Series ends five days before the American League Championship Series begins, whereas there were only three days in between the NLDS and NLCS. Even if the ALCS had gone four games, they still would have started a day later than the NLCS. This in and of it self is not a problem, but when you couple it with the fact that the first two games of the NYY - Min series had a break in between them (Oct. 7, 9) even though both games were playing at Yankee Stadium. No other LDS series has a day of rest in between two games that were played in the same city.
The reason there was a day off was because MLB gave the Yankees the option of starting their playoff series against the Twins the day after the tie-break, and that empty day in their schedule was designated a "rest day" for Minnesota who essentially started their playoffs with the tie-break game on Tuesday Oct. 6.
Quote from ESPN.com (sourced below):
"The Yankees could have waited until one hour after that game to pick when they wanted to begin, but made the call about an hour before the first pitch."
It did not make a difference to the Yankees who they would be playing - they knew that the day after the tie-break game, they would be playing a team who had just played a win-or-die game the night before and had traveled 1500 miles on a charter flight to Yankees Stadium just hours before the opening pitch while they, the Yankees, were able to comfortably relax in their own homes and mentally prepare for the game on three days rest.
Home-field advantage is the only prize that the best regular-season team is awarded in any other major sport in North America, and that is an enormous gift in and of itself. Each series is begun in the best team's city, and if the series extends long enough, the last one or two games are also held in that city. Since teams generally win more than half of their games at home during the regular season, the theory is that home-field advantage will make it tougher for the underdog team to win a series facing that obstacle. This dynamic creates drama and different strategic approaches for both sides.
Not surprisingly, the Yankees trounced the Twins on Oct. 7, 7-2. The Twins actually scored first, but then ran out of gas after the 5th inning, and the Yankees scored 5 runs in the last 5 innings.
Sources: MLB.com 2008 Playoff Schedules Announcement, MLB.com 2009 Playoff Schedule, ESPN.com: Yankees know when they will play
Initially, the fact that the Twins had to play their first playoff game the night after playing their tie-break game in Minnesota led me to believe one of two things: either the league purposely devised the schedule to favor the Yankees (for a slew of reasons, potentially: being the team with the best regular season record, attracting the most amount of revenue, easiest to market due to their rich history, etc) or MLB inadvertently set up its playoff schedule to favor them. I was hopeful enough in MLB that it was shrewd enough to give every playoff team an equally fair chance to advance throughout the post-season, but after reviewing the data, I have no other opinion than the playoffs have been molded to give the Yankees the best possible chance to make it to the World Series. Of course, games have to be played, and the players have to perform, but from looking at the scheduling, it has been shown that MLB specifically designed these playoffs to give the team with the best record the best chance of advancing in each of their series'.
The American League Division Series ends five days before the American League Championship Series begins, whereas there were only three days in between the NLDS and NLCS. Even if the ALCS had gone four games, they still would have started a day later than the NLCS. This in and of it self is not a problem, but when you couple it with the fact that the first two games of the NYY - Min series had a break in between them (Oct. 7, 9) even though both games were playing at Yankee Stadium. No other LDS series has a day of rest in between two games that were played in the same city.
The reason there was a day off was because MLB gave the Yankees the option of starting their playoff series against the Twins the day after the tie-break, and that empty day in their schedule was designated a "rest day" for Minnesota who essentially started their playoffs with the tie-break game on Tuesday Oct. 6.
Quote from ESPN.com (sourced below):
"The Yankees could have waited until one hour after that game to pick when they wanted to begin, but made the call about an hour before the first pitch."
It did not make a difference to the Yankees who they would be playing - they knew that the day after the tie-break game, they would be playing a team who had just played a win-or-die game the night before and had traveled 1500 miles on a charter flight to Yankees Stadium just hours before the opening pitch while they, the Yankees, were able to comfortably relax in their own homes and mentally prepare for the game on three days rest.
Home-field advantage is the only prize that the best regular-season team is awarded in any other major sport in North America, and that is an enormous gift in and of itself. Each series is begun in the best team's city, and if the series extends long enough, the last one or two games are also held in that city. Since teams generally win more than half of their games at home during the regular season, the theory is that home-field advantage will make it tougher for the underdog team to win a series facing that obstacle. This dynamic creates drama and different strategic approaches for both sides.
Not surprisingly, the Yankees trounced the Twins on Oct. 7, 7-2. The Twins actually scored first, but then ran out of gas after the 5th inning, and the Yankees scored 5 runs in the last 5 innings.
Sources: MLB.com 2008 Playoff Schedules Announcement, MLB.com 2009 Playoff Schedule, ESPN.com: Yankees know when they will play
Friday, October 9, 2009
Play Ball
Welcome to Stranded on First, a blog designed to cover how Major League Baseball can widen its fan base by adopting a variety of technological advancements aimed at improving the quality of the game. I am a very big fan of the sport itself and of the MLB, and while baseball is notoriously called our nation's pastime, its popularity has decreased in this country. I intend to discuss many topics that will show the beauty of the game but also show how MLB can adopt changes to escalate the popular interest in MLB to the apex of our nation's sports world. The game itself is pure - pitcher vs hitter, manager a manager, timeless rivalry vs fledging opportunity - but what MLB is lacking is an evolving strategy of marketing, advertising, statistical analysis, game management control and a high standard of announcing that can transform the League into an unparalleled force of sports excellence. With an impending NFL lockout looming for 2010 and the MLB collective bargaining agreement (CBA) set to expire after the 2011 season, the powers to be in the Office of the Commissioner have just over two years to formulate and introduce new ideas to the MLB Player's Association (aka "The Union") for adoption into the new CBA and subsequently, the league.
I plan to show how outdated introductory aspects of the game are (such as a player's boxscore) and how they can be improved. As I cover more topics, I will gradually increase the complexity of the issues and go deeper into specialized facets of the game and of the way that it is broadcast. The League has always been about history and tradition - and while my recommendations will bring about change, they will create a more favorable sport that will attract a larger audience and enhance it, allowing for future generations to respect the game more and be more excited for it. The future is now and it is imperative for the game to instill these developments into the League's long-term plans for ever-lasting living history.
I plan to show how outdated introductory aspects of the game are (such as a player's boxscore) and how they can be improved. As I cover more topics, I will gradually increase the complexity of the issues and go deeper into specialized facets of the game and of the way that it is broadcast. The League has always been about history and tradition - and while my recommendations will bring about change, they will create a more favorable sport that will attract a larger audience and enhance it, allowing for future generations to respect the game more and be more excited for it. The future is now and it is imperative for the game to instill these developments into the League's long-term plans for ever-lasting living history.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)