700 congrats to Albert Pujols
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he has been on a heater for like 2 months,right? unreal.
Fountain of Youth type run.
Just a week ago, I allowed this thought enter into my head: âIf the White Sox can sweep Cleveland this next series, they actually have a chance to win the division.â Now it looks like they may end the season 15 games behind Cleveland.
Iâm guessing the same would apply to someone in MN, but substituting âtwo weeksâ, âTwinsâ, and â20 gamesâ. Yikes.
i have not paid a lot of attention this season. but for a time, the twins were doing fine. they have been in reverse for quite a while now. so terribly out of it
Not gonna happen. I didnât account for MN playing the White Sox. Someoneâs gotta win.
Miserable Mitch White starting for the Jays tonight against the Yankees. Judge should get his 61st tonight.
Lotâs of Yankee games making my local TV these days.
It seems that the collective decision is to just walk Judge every plate appearance, so you donât end up on the news as the guy (or team) that gave up #61 or #62.
Sort of interesting: some guy went through and counted the # of baseball ops analysts/data scientists/researchers each team has per their 2022 media guides and websites. He then charted vs payroll.
Interesting to see how much most teams are investing in analytics personnel now. Does this make the As anti moneyball now though?
NYY not included because they donât publish their front office personnel other than top executives
Judge walked four times last night but I think there were 10 pitches in the strike zone along with the 16 balls in those four at-bats. He is getting pitches to hit.
This is mildly interesting, but not really useful.
1 very smart guy might be able to do the analysis of a dozen low level guys and get more useful insights. So the body count isnât paramount to me.
What is more interesting to me is the dispersion of payrolls. There should be a 150M minimum spend and a 200M spend. The Dodgers spending 6:1 what the Aâs spend is bad for the league.
Do you think the data analysts know what the pitchers are using on their hands to affect spin rates?
Well not a whole lotta games have much in the way of playoff implications so every National TV broadcast that can is trying to be the one to broadcast Judgeâs 61st and 62nd.
Explain, please.
First, define âbad for the league.â Seems the league has existed with this disparity for decades (possibly over a hundred years), without any loss of teams, and owners that want to make money are making money. Iâd rather owners spend the money they make on their teams and not on new yachts.
Might need a regression analysis to see what the contributions of player payroll and analyst payroll are on the number of regular season wins over several seasons. That might induce teams to spend more on analytics and no so much on players.
The Braves have no sacrifice bunts this season. The record for fewest number of sacrifice bunts for a full season is 4. (Note in the 60 game mini season 3 teams had no sacrifice bunts)
You donât want me to explain the ratio, right?
The league is weaker than it could be because payroll disparity causes a lack of competition.
The Dodgers and Yankees are the best teams because they spend the most money to acquire the players with the best talent. Iâd rather the playing field (pun intended) be more level.
Teams spending less than 100M cannot be good teams. I know Cleveland seems to be violating my rule, but I think their success is more about how poor their division is this year, not how they can really compete with the NYY, BRS, LAD, etc. Just because the correlation between salary and wins per 162 games is not a perfect 100% doesnât mean the correlation isnât quite positive and quite pervasive.
And, the money is not rolling in because of it?
Promotion/Relegation is a better answer. Let some billionaire Des Moines owner compete for a shot in the PLB (Premier League Baseball). But that would expose the shitty teams as shitty teams, a reflection of the shitty owners.
One solution is to limit the length of contracts. Spendthrift teams overspend not merely on per-season rates but also on length, which can often result in paying a playerâs salary for another team.
(Reminds me of the scene in âMoneyballâ where Beane reminds Justice that The Yankees are paying his salary, not The Aâs.)
Angels are in the shitter because they over-spent on contract length for Trout.
I would prefer that contract lengths shall be no longer than five years. Now, a team can always work with the player to add a year to the contract after each year. Or not.
Spending doesnât guarantee success but it sure put the thumb on the scale. Of the 12 teams projected to make this years playoff here is how they rank in payroll according to Cotâs:
Dodgers 1
Mets 2
Yankees 3
Philles 4
Padres 5
Braves 9
Houston 10
Toronto 11
St. Louis 13
Seattle 22
Tampa 23
Cleveland 27
The 4 teams in the top 12 in payroll NOT in the playoffs
Red Sox 6
White Sox 7
Angles 8
Giants 12
The money train is starting to seriously slow down.
The average age of someone who watches a baseball game is 57.
Young sports fans are gravitating toward other sports.
Youth participation in baseball is down.
The game is too slow. Scoring is down. Fans want more action.
The game is boring: Too many walks and strikeouts and low batting averages.
Judge gets 61, unless there is a Canadian to American discount on HRs north of the border.
If it dies, too bad.
Any fixes are simply delaying the inevitable.
I mean, we donât have fights to the death (well, intentionally) by slaves anymore.
Pro/Rel is the way.