1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

2013 MLB postseason running thread

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by LongTimeListener, Sep 30, 2013.

  1. NDJournalist

    NDJournalist Active Member

    Right, but even now about half the teams (at least) ignore trying to find these inefficiencies. Even the Oakland A's tried bunting with Josh Reddick the other night. I'm sure Billy Beane was pissed.
     
  2. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    There's always the problem of warm-up. Warming up a reliever to potentially come in at unpredictable times in a game isn't easy.
     
  3. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Yeah, that's a good point. It's not Strat-O-Matic.
     
  4. NDJournalist

    NDJournalist Active Member

    True. But in that situation, Kimbrel was already warm.
     
  5. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    The bunting thing has become an article of faith for stathead fans almost as badly as RBIs are for older fans.

    Sac bunting isn't nearly that bad. There's a lot of assumptions that go into studying the effect on run expectancy, including the odds of getting on base on a defensive mistake or just not getting the bunt down at all.

    Depending on which set of assumptions you use and which variables you account for, you can get the calculator to tell you anything from them being a slight negative to a very slight positive. Either way, you'd have to be bunting a hundred extra times a year for the difference to be meaningful.
     
  6. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    I've learned to ignore Sonner's trolling, although a Nationals fan trolling the Braves right now makes about as much sense as a Braves fan trolling the Dodgers.
     
  7. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    After Puig's double, the Dodgers had their 6-7-8 hitters coming to the plate. None of them hit over .280 or showed a whole lot of power. (Uribe had 12 HRs, three in one game.) If Kimbrel comes in and gets those three outs, he (or a lesser reliever) still has to finish the ninth against the top of the order.

    And Uribe was bunting. Certainly you wouldn't waste Kimbrel on a bunter. And you wouldn't bring him in once the count got to 0-2 either. That's a situation that favors any pitcher. He made a mistake and left that pitch up. Shit happens.

    It didn't work out, but that wasn't the situation for Kimbrel at all.
     
  8. JackReacher

    JackReacher Well-Known Member

    Apparently not.
     
  9. Moderator1

    Moderator1 Moderator Staff Member

    It is an interesting theory - eager to see which manager puts it into practice first.
    F.P. Santangelo can be full of hot air but I enjoy listening to him. Gotten to know him a bit, very good guy and he makes some good points. During one Nats game, I can't remember the specifics but Tyler Clippard came in and cleaned up a significant mess in the eighth. F.P. immediately started wailing against the traditional save. "The box score will show the save to Soriano if he closes out the ninth, but that was the save right there. Two on, one out, no damage. That's where the game was saved."

    So maybe they allow some scoring flexibility? But that's an argument for another day.

    It isn't like the Braves had been struggling with their setup men. Carpenter and Varvaro (do I have that right?) had excellent years, maybe co-MVPs of that team given what they had to replace. It had been working for them so why change it? It just didn't work this time.
     
  10. JackReacher

    JackReacher Well-Known Member

    Ripken again addresses the possibility of him managing.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2013/10/08/cal-ripken-responds-to-jayson-werth-about-nats-manager-job/

    Dude wants in. And I hope someone gives him a chance. Just not the Nats. Then again, I'd probably talk myself into it within 5 seconds of his hire.
     
  11. NDJournalist

    NDJournalist Active Member

    It was Avilan who had a successful season. Varvaro was left off the postseason roster.

    I'm not normally one to rattle on about the psychology of the game, but both rookie pitchers the Braves pitched this series (Teheran, Alex Wood) were terrible and Carpenter, though not a rookie, was terrible in his first postseason experience.

    Does that mean anything? Maybe they were tired, I'm not sure. But Kimbrel's been in the postseason before and I don't think anything gets to him.
     
  12. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    I thought about the fact that the Braves had so many young/rookie pitchers, and then I remembered Gerrit Cole, Alex Cobb and Michael Wacha all pitching their asses off in the postseason in the last week.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page