One of the great things about baseball is its numbers. And one of the worst things about baseball is its numbers when they’re crunched, pureed and sorted into esoteric measurables.
They’re called analytics, a nine-letter word if ever there was one.
Today we present opposite ends of the data-driven spectrum, starting with rookie Phillies manager Gabe Kapler, who was booed by Philadelphia fans on opening day for hooking starting pitcher Aaron Nola after 68 pitches — even though he had a 5-0 lead and had held the Braves to three hits in 5 1/3 innings. Reason being: Data suggesting that batters perform better against starting pitchers on their third time through the lineup.
The pitcher who relieved Nola served up a home run to the first man he faced. The Philly bullpen allowed a combined seven runs on six hits in 3 1/3 innings. The Phillies lost. Imagine how bad it would have been had Kapler not been packing his slide rule.
Kapler is sticking to his new-age dogma, and the natives are getting restless. Said Phillies outfielder Nick Williams to cbssports.com, “The computers are making the decisions.”
They’re also manning the broadcast booth. Full disclosure: I don’t watch near as much baseball as I once did. I recently tuned in to a Giants-Dodgers game on ESPN and could scarcely fathom the dialog. I grew up listening to announcers as storytellers, offering legend and lore as well as the descriptions and accounts of the game. Three of them, Russ Hodges, Lon Simmons and Bill King, are in the Hall of Fame. None of them ever uttered a word about Wins Above Replacement.
Which would be a cool name for a band, by the way. But I digress.
All I heard from the three ESPN brainiacs that evening was a recitation of launch angles, exit velocity, pitch counts, pitch velocity. I swear to you on the periodic table of the elements, one batter was singled out because he had the third-hardest average swing during the last three innings of a game in the majors last season. That’s not conversation fit for a Giants-Dodgers game.
Then there is Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost — World Series winner and pride of Dublin. On Monday, Yost was observing his team’s game against the Seattle Mariners with tools of the trade that stood managers in good stead for decades:
They’re called eyes.
With his team leading 9-0 in the sixth inning, Yost, summoning the experience gleaned in 21 years as a major league player and manager, concluded pitcher Jakob Junis was laboring. He mentioned his hunch to coach Dale Sveum, pride of Pinole, who informed Yost that Junis was throwing a no-hitter.
“I was paying attention to the score, but I wasn’t paying attention to how many hits they had,” Yost told the Associated Press. “I looked up and saw he had a no-hitter and I was completely oblivious to it.”
Yost let Junis go until he allowed a hit in the seventh, and the Royals won 10-0. So no harm done. In fact, this will make a great story on a TV broadcast some day assuming the announcers can find a few seconds of air time that isn’t dedicated to data.
