Comments on: Player Attitudes and Applied Sabermetrics

By: Geordie Keitt

Geordie Keitt — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 03:13:24 +0000

Encouragingly, Jayson Werth is fine batting second, and apparently it was his idea. Click my name for the Washington Post article linking to this article.

By: J. B. Rainsberger

J. B. Rainsberger — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 15:08:44 +0000

I wonder what LaRussa did to help Edmonds feel comfortable batting second?

By: Toffer Peak

Toffer Peak — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 05:05:31 +0000

Can’t believe that no one else responded earlier since the saber community already did exactly that. Tangotiger created Shutdowns and Meltdowns for relievers who gain or lose 0.06 WPA in an appearance. Fangraphs then implemented it on their site last spring.

For reference, last years leaders in Shutdowns were: Soriano, Soria, Wilson, Bard and Feliz. The leaders in Meltdowns were: Clippard, Qualls and Masset.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/shutdowns-meltdowns/
http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=rel&lg=all&qual=y&type=3&season=2010&month=0

By: tbad

tbad — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 19:53:49 +0000

We don’t like to talk about that game. I had almost completely blocked it from memory.

By: Double D

Double D — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:14:36 +0000

Your example of Jason Heyward is technically valid, but look at the Phillies from 2010. They often batted Chase Utley (their best hitter) 2nd, Polanco third, Howard fourth. They will tell you they did this in order to split up the two big lefty bats, but it has the same effect as you are mentioning. Hell, Utley even batted 2nd when he came up from the minors in 05-06, as he was still developing and was blocked by a veteran stud in Abreu. This is the same situation Heyward was in last year (Jones/McCann batting 3rd). When Jones finally retires, Heyward will bat 3rd as many expect.

Face it, it will take much more than a handful of runs per year to force the organizations’ hand and change their tactics.

By: neuter_your_dogma

neuter_your_dogma — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:36:06 +0000

It is a pervasive attitude among ball players. Recently, Mike Schmidt said the Phillies have to do a better job of playing “small ball.” If by “small ball” he means walking more and taking extra bases threafter, then cool. But I didn’t get that vibe from his comments.

By: hotspur

hotspur — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:09:57 +0000

Many players get paid cold, hard cash based on PAs.

Batting 2nd instead of 4th will get you ~(2/9* games played) more PAs.

If their agent tells them those 30-35 PAs will make them more likely to get a $100k+ check, I think they’ll listen.