you should, he is the driving force behind modern baseball theory. reading some of his stuff might make the game more interesting. here is an idea of the kind of things he says: http://www.baseball1.com/bb-data/bbd-bj1.html
I like this pitching coach. I don't like walks. Walks kill. Walks tempt umpires too much. Walks put defensive players on their heels. If the defense is reasonably solid and we can make it through the season without the rash of injuries we've seen in some recent years, I gotta think this team's gonna be pretty good. :tigbas: On a semi-related college baseball note...The University of San Diego took 2 of 3 from the Longhorns over the weekend at the Dell. UT's playing 8 home games at the Dell due to renovations at Disch-Falk. Tickets are $7, there ain't no bad seats, and there's plenty of parking. Stanford's coming in on Feb. 16th for a series. Gonna try to catch one of those. College baseball is better than snuff, although equally dusty.
His explanation of the "defensive spectrum" is interesting. One only has to look at Craig Biggio to attach at least some validity to his assertion.
My favorite James topics are on: Clutch Hitting (the myth of) Base Stealing (why its usually useless) Closers (why the role and players are overrated) He makes compelling arguements for all three topics, and he has me sold on the clutch hitting myth.
i read last year that some sabermetricians were rethingking their stance on clutch hitting, i will look around for the article it was interesting. my conclusion from reading various articles is that base stealing is great if you steal above a rate of 80%, othewise never do it. any player stealing bases at rate under 80% is killing his team. the most notable bill james thing in my mind is the value of OBP. the player with a 280 batting average and 290 OBP is killing his team and should be cut immediately.
regarding clutch hitting: bill james calls it an "open question" here: http://www.sabr.org/cmsfiles/underestimating.pdf penn student claims his evidence shows clutch hitters exist http://origin.www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=793
Geez, I thought I had accomplished a lot when I learned how to score a game. I see the younger generation of baseball fans has again left me behind. Thanks for the insight to these new theories/ideas (at lease they are new to these tired old eyes). I guess I have some reading and catching up to do. I'll be interested to see is how our pitchers respond to the new coaches, coaching methods and training in terms of injuries. It seems like we have had an inordinate amount of pitchers with arm problems the last few years. I may be wrong – maybe our pitcher/injury ratio is around average, but it has always bothered me. Since you fellows are more versed on these new (at least to me) theories, is there any reported correlation showing them reducing injuries? ldskule:
Fabulous thread!!!!!!!!!! And like the guys have posted, this is nothing knew. The idea is to get batters to hit your pitch. Cut down on pitch counts, get the ball in play quickly to keep your fielders on their toes, don't get down in the count where you have to grove a fastball and of course walk as few batters as possible. Go look at Greg Maddux's best games, he usually struck out about 4 batters and walked none. Threw about 85 pitches and the players were on their way home after a couple of hours.
It really is! Mr. james (and others of course) is the main reason I love baseball so much.... well, okay, not the MAIN reason, but a huge one nonetheless. As far as Rooney's philosophy: I think it's great. No matter how absurd it may sound, at least the guy has a philosophy and is actively teaching it. These guys are teachers of the game and THAT, my friends, leads to success. Oh and for the record, I do not think that offensive pitching is absurd at all. On the contrary, I think it will fit in well with the pitching we have this season. Only problem is getting the pitchers to buy into it. Mr. Furbush... hmmm?
Hey, I'm fired up. I was tired of the Smoke and Skip philosophies in pitching. Everyone should remember the 0-2 counts automatically got pitches down and out way out of the strike zone for the next two pitches. It was almost a guarantee that the 5th pitch was going to be crucial. I hated 0-2 counts. Any difference now, I'm all for it.
