Comments on: Singleton Said What?

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:36:18 +0000

To update, I nearly pulled my hair out last night when Chris Singleton decided to argue that Kirby Puckett was the greatest player of the Minnesota Twins/Washington Nationals franchise instead of Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, and most of all, Walter Johnson. Kurkjian’s head nearly exploded.

To defend himself, Singleton pointed out that the league wasn’t integrated back then, which CLEARLY explains how Walter Johnson compiled the greatest pitching career of all time.

By: Grayson

Grayson — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:46:21 +0000

Yes, but it’s all interdependent. Increased contact would almost certainly come at the expense of power. If there was a way Adam, or any Three True Outcomes guy really, could put the ball in play at a higher rate while still averaging over two bases per hit, I’m sure they’d have found it by now. Dave Kingman tried it in the second half of his career to mixed results, although age and wildly inconsistent K rates make that hard to gauge. Gorman Thomas shaved some Ks at one point to no measurable difference. Steve Balboni consistently lowered his Ks from ’84 to ’88 while retaining all of his power, however his BABIP dipped coincidingly although perhaps not so coincidentally and the end result was negative. Same thing with Rob Deer, and also Pete Incaviglia. Whatever Adam’s doing has worked for him very well up to this point, so my advice is don’t change a thing.

By: Eric Seidman

Eric Seidman — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:26:13 +0000

birtelcom,

The point isn’t to bash them because we’re “smarter.” My point is that the analysts don’t even look like they’re trying. They are fighting to come off smooth and the actual analysis suffers.

Singleton’s comment, as you mentioned, and as I mentioned in this actual post, the idea that if Dunn didn’t strike out as much he could put more balls in play is not poignant to bring up because he IS Adam Dunn. This IS Adam Dunn. If he didn’t strike out as much and put more balls in play he’d be a much better hitter.

I agree that taking the comment in that context makes more sense from a non-stupid standpoint, but it’s describing a hypothetical that won’t happen. I like to analyze what IS happening, not what could happen if a few factors weren’t at play.

By: birtelcom

birtelcom — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:03:57 +0000

Before getting too sabermetrically self-congratulatory about how dumb mainstream media types are, maybe we should try to understand where this sort of statement comes from and why it is made so often about Adam Dunn and other high strikeout guys. To do that, just think for a second about the obvious truth of the following statment: If Adam Dunn could have put the ball in play in some of the many PAs in which he struck out (while maintaining his performance in those where he has not been striking out), he would have a higher OBP and SLG. I assume we can all agree on that. Yes, it is true that Adam Dunn is a good enough hitter that despite frequently failing to put the ball in play he manages to maintain well above average SLG and OPS numbers. But it is undeniable that if he had the ability, while maintaining his power and eye in that portion of his PAs he has not been striking out, to also adjust his technique when appropriate so as to convert some of his Ks into balls in play, he would be even better. if we think about what we hear in those sabermetrically correct terms, maybe the comments are not so dumb after all.

By: James K.

James K. — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 20:56:25 +0000

@ Rajmond

I think this original post refers to Chris Singleton, the BBTN commentator, and not Ken Singleton, the Yankees announcer on the YES Network. Ken isn’t as bad as Chris.

However, Michael Kay sucks.

By: Jibs

Jibs — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:38:37 +0000

Singleton also said on BBTN that of all 2nd basemen in the league, Pedroia is the best since his uniform gets the dirtiest.

It seems obvious that he’s been planted by ESPN to rile up the FJM types for some buzz.

By: Rajmond

Rajmond — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:03:41 +0000

Living in New Jersey, I’ve had the displeasure of being subjected to large doses of Singleton and Michael Kay. As smooth as they both are on the microphone, they really do say some dumb stuff. Aside from their blind defense of Jeter’s range, they’ve also asserted with confidence that getting to face pitchers instead of designated hitters adds “at least 30 or 40 strikeouts” to an NL pitcher’s seasonal line and used this rationale to impugn Jake Peavy in particular.

That’s great and everything, but given that the typical NL pitcher faces around 50-55 pitchers over a full season and that DHs strike out around 18% of the time, pitchers would have to strike out nearly 100% of the time in order for the 40 strikeout advantage to be true. They could have mentioned the overall weakness of pitchers or the lesser quality of NL hitters to support their argument that NL pitchers have it easier than AL pitchers, but instead they chose to use strikeouts in particular and offered up such a ridiculous number that it’s impossible to respect any opinions they may have on the topic of baseball.

For what it’s worth, Peavy faced an average of 60 pitchers a year from 2005 to 2007 and struck out 43% of them while striking out non-pitchers 25% of the time, so that’s 11 extra Ks a year from getting to face pitchers instead of position players.

By: Josh

Josh — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:30:29 +0000

like the end-of-year awards, you can’t get too worked up about the knuckleheads on ESPN.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:41:45 +0000

All the ex-MLBers are frustrating. Olney, Kurkjian, and occasionally Phillips are the only ones that are actually insightful.

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:47:30 +0000

“generic announcer-talk that exhibited next to no knowledge of what he was discussing”

I’ve been anti-Singleton since he first started on the show, which I watch fairly frequently. I agree that he presents himself and his insights more professionally than the average anchor on the show, but I think the above quote is a pretty spot on description of 99% of what he says. His smoothness and demeanor will fool you, until you actually think about what he just said and realize how idiotic and illogical it is. He makes me cringe nearly every time he’s on the show.