PxP: 9th Inning, When Managers Rise To Shine

I covered some of the things you are mentioning in the previous article, take a look

I made an attempt to cover it with the second part of that sentence (“or starters who are not fresh or healthy enough to be actually starting”), but I think that falls short of explaining all the effects of pinch hitting. Thanks.

;-)

is much more enthralling watching in person than on television. The whole changing line is elegant (at the NHL level).

It bears repeating for those who didn’t see the earlier one.

The circles represent which bases are occupied by runners. The three numbers represent average expected run value for the inning, with zero, one, or two outs.

Sorry and thanks to iglew for jumping in. I’ll label all the charts better.

I really filtered only the data that applies to the close games. I did a poor job of labeling the charts, though, and making it clear. I’ll fix that now.

Actually, one chart even states that explicitly — the one with the percentages — where the footer says “9th inning, neither team ahead by more than a run”. The one with both the general and the ninth inning run expectancies gives an implicit hint – if you cross compare it with the first chart in the article, you can see that rExp for 0 on, 0 out matches that of 9+(1R).

most of it is just good-faith rubbing.

However, as far as your comparisons go, I believe football and basketball coaches have much more to do in the preparation of the game than baseball managers do. There is just so much more individualism in the shape and form of team play of football and basketball teams. I am just watching Oregon Ducks and their hurry-up offense destroy UCLA. I am a fan of Boeheim and his zone. Remember the pick and rolls of Malone and Stockton way back then? These are the things that you have to prepare your team for as a coach.

When was the last time a baseball team really did something different? Something that truly differentiated them from other teams? LaRussa batting the pitcher eighth? If there were a team comprised only of speedy bunters who bunt 80% of the time or something like that, then yeah, you would have to prepare for them. But not as it is.

There are, of course, different individual personalities in baseball, too – most notably pitchers. It’s different facing Wakefield than it is Beckett, but there is hardly a different strategy to it, not on the team level, not the one that baseball manager has to prepare. The hitting coach might give a few tips before the game, but that’s basically it.

It is probably because baseball is the least “teamly” of all team sports that I can think of — it is just a series of individual confrontations with minimal team element to it — that the manager’s role as a teacher and a team preparation strategist is also rather small.

This definitely does not go to say that baseball managers are not important, and I will gladly admit that I am in no way capable of judging the difficulty of their job on a high professional level, nor measure the influence they have on their teams.

but I don’t know about over the career.

I don’t know the answer. If you mean over career, I don’t think I can check that easily. But, if you mean a single game, I think I could research on that within the “pitch count” research I’m planning to do. I added the poll, btw. – perhaps you guys are interested in picking the next topic.