Knuckle Curve » moneyball

Vive Le Moneyball

Geoff Young — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:14:04 +0000

Eric Seidman at Statistically Speaking is liveblogging his re-reading of Moneyball. Yeah, that’s pretty much what it sounds like:

I am going to spend today re-reading Moneyball and live-blogging what does and does not happen, chapter by chapter. I could wait until the end and just post a progressive review, but I feel it will be much more genuine if I write as I go instead of merely taking notes and relying on my memory (my friends call me a robot due to my ability to quickly and efficiently memorize things).

Get on over there and check it out yourself. It’s a lot quicker and easier than re-reading the book.

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Angus Interviews Alderson

Geoff Young — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 19:47:30 +0000

Jeff Angus at Management by Baseball has written a couple of informative articles on San Diego Padres CEO Sandy Alderson. The discussion centers around Alderson’s management techniques and includes interviews with the man himself.

I love this riff on Michael Lewis’ Moneyball (aff link):

The revelations in Moneyball actually helped the A’s competitiveness. That’s because when other team owners read the book, many leaned on their own front offices to emulate the deeds (managing walks) but not the intent (finding an undervalued approach and optimizing against it temporarily) of what Oakland had done. And managing walks lost its special value because so many teams pursuing that kind of talent forced the price of it up.

People still get this wrong all the time, and I can’t figure out why…

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Twins Pitchers: Out of Control?

Geoff Young — Sat, 19 May 2007 17:54:44 +0000

One of the chapters in my book, the Ducksnorts 2007 Baseball Annual, examines strategies teams like the A’s and Twins have employed to remain successful over the past several years. The A’s are fairly well chronicled in Michael Lewis’ Moneyball, but what about the Twins?

One thing I discovered about the Twins is that their pitching staff tends to force the opposition to put the ball in play. They’ve surrendered the fewest walks in the American League in each of the past three seasons, and they’ve finished no worse than third in that category since 2001.

This year, however, the Twins find themselves in the middle of the pack. Through May 18, six teams have allowed fewer walks than the Twins.

Minnesota Twins Walk Rates, 2001-2007
Year	BB/9	Rnk	AL Avg	Win%
Stats courtesy of ESPN, through May 18, 2007.
2001	2.78	2	3.23	.525
2002	2.73	3	3.26	.584
2003	2.48	2	3.17	.556
2004	2.63	1	3.34	.568
2005	2.14	1	3.02	.512
2006	2.23	1	3.19	.593
2007	3.31	7	3.42	.463

We’re only a quarter of the way through the season, and it’s not like this is the only reason Minnesota is struggling. That said, the Twins appear to be straying pretty far from something that has helped give them an advantage over the past several years.

I wonder how much of this is due to the retirement of strike thrower extraordinaire Brad Radke. More importantly, I wonder if the Twins can get their mojo back before it’s too late. In the AL Central, there is precious little margin for error. Now would be a real good time to stop walking batters and start winning games.

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