I am reading Big Data Baseball about the 2012 Pirates and their use of statistical data in evaluating catchers. It was argued just how important framing is and how a good framer can save their team .5 runs a game.

 

I then remembered how we employed Avila and Navarro last season. They ranked as two of THE WORST framers in the game costing us 50 runs throughout the season.

 

Do the Sox employ data analysts? Why the hell didnt we attempt to bolster our strength (pitching)? Did they buy into that old crap that they work well with pitchers and TWTW?

Well, having a GOOD pitcher framer (Flowers) who couldn't hit at all didn't make us good. So I guess they decided to go 180 and ignore pitch framing in favor of better hitting catchers to try that theory, and it didn't work either.

But while we are on the topic of stats that boggle the mind, I wasn't sure where to drop this info, but I found out via another dumb DH vs. No DH argument with someone that the Sox had the best hitting pitchers in baseball last year, but a pretty large margin. A terribly small sample size, but they had something like a 78 wRC+ or something. Most teams had a NEGATIVE wRC+. lol. That Albers double and the Raunado HR really did some work for our overall numbers. Hah.

The problem is that umpires have adjusted in the last couple of seasons...they're now being much tougher or "fairer" on the guys like Martin and Cervelli who were previously cleaning up in this category.

 

By 2015 and definitely 2016, the ability to exploit this "market inefficiency" was already somewhat mitigated.

 

 

http://www.azsnakepit.com/2016/12/9/138896...cks-jeff-mathis

Here's an article more fully explaining its impact on the DBacks philosophically.

Do the Sox employ data analysts? Why the hell didnt we attempt to bolster our strength (pitching)? Did they buy into that old crap that they work well with pitchers and TWTW?

 

 

The Sox' veteran acquisitions almost uniformly under-performed after acquired:

Samardzija

Robertson

Melky (good in 2016; not good in 2015)

Navarro

Frazier

Shields (inexcusable; I'd still like to see the scouting reports that proclaimed "all is well" after the Seattle disaster.)

 

Only Duke and really Avila performed to expectations.

 

And then there were the strange acquisitions: Kahnle, signing Justin Turner to a $1.5 million contract ( 6.5 ERA and

 

And then there was Gonzales, a great get...the freebie acquisition outperforms the players they pay for.

 

And then Flowers actually hits a little bit after he leaves town.

 

A mix of bad luck and poor scouting/use of analytics I suppose.

Edited December 31, 20169 yr by GreenSox

The Sox' veteran acquisitions almost uniformly under-performed after acquired:

Samardzija

Robertson

Melky (good in 2016; not good in 2015)

Navarro

Frazier

Shields (inexcusable; I'd still like to see the scouting reports that proclaimed "all is well" after the Seattle disaster.)

 

Only Duke and really Avila performed to expectations.

 

And then there were the strange acquisitions: Kahnle, signing Justin Turner to a $1.5 million contract ( 6.5 ERA and

 

And then there was Gonzales, a great get...the freebie acquisition outperforms the players they pay for.

 

And then Flowers actually hits a little bit after he leaves town.

 

A mix of bad luck and poor scouting/use of analytics I suppose.

 

You can go back further to see National League veterans the Sox acquired that failed badly. Dunn, La Roche, Peavy to an extent, Griffey.... It makes you wonder if they did any NL scouting at all.

 

You can go back further to see National League veterans the Sox acquired that failed badly. Dunn, La Roche, Peavy to an extent, Griffey.... It makes you wonder if they did any NL scouting at all.

 

Eaton and Carlos Quentin, to name two. Sergio Santos from the same organization.

 

DeAza from the Marlins.

 

Floyd from the Phillies. Jim Thome. AJ with the Giants. Cliff Politte from the Cards. Ozuna, too.

 

 

Eaton and Carlos Quentin, to name two. Sergio Santos from the same organization.

 

DeAza from the Marlins.

 

Floyd from the Phillies. Jim Thome. AJ with the Giants. Cliff Politte from the Cards. Ozuna, too.

 

A lot of those guys don't really qualify as "veterans." And Thome had a ton of success in the AL first.

A lot of those guys don't really qualify as "veterans." And Thome had a ton of success in the AL first.

 

They've had an issue signing free agents from the NL...but to argue we should call it a trend that bears watching because we've had a string of failures and thus should avoid the NL is not the solution, either.

 

Clearly we can scout certain aspects of leagues, such as younger or "flawed" players. But it's not like we've done great with a lot of the AL veterans at the same time. Robertson and Cabrera, for example, both would need salary sent along to deal tothem to almost any organization.

 

And Griffey is an NLer as much as Thome is an NLer...due to their formative time with the Mariners and Indians.

 

 

Finally, Duke, Frazier and Jennings all held up most of their value...and Jennings increased his. Putnam, before the injury, another one, albeit crosstown.