Mack's Apples - 10-8-17 - David, Field of Schemes, Joba, Moneyball, Baseball Power Surge

Good morning.

David  –

Photo by Mack Ade

It really made me sad to wake up on October 6^th to find out that the Captain had more back surgery.

I’ve had that back surgery so I know what he’s trying to accomplish. Mine was determined to be successful, but I didn’t hop the 7 train after that and run out to the hot corner to take ground balls.

I guess David can do as many surgeries as he wants… his insurance policy covers them one hundred per cent. Still, I can’t help but think his delayed retirement settlement is costing this team serious money that could be used to pay for a replacement at… oh… let’s see…THIRD BASE!

I understand he has no desire to manage, but loves being a Met. This has bench coach all over it for me.

Come on David. Get er’ done.

Field of Schemes 

          

Baseball Think Factory –  The city of Kansas City is funding a study of at least four potential sites for a downtown baseball stadium for the Kansas City Royals, according to documents obtained by The Star… [Kansas City Manager Troy] Schulte said the studies started after the Downtown Council approached City Hall about the feasibility of downtown baseball. Schulte added that he agreed to help fund a study to consider whether the four sites would work so that the city could plan ahead if the idea gained momentum… Potential obstacles for downtown baseball include parking and how to pay for it. Schulte said initial estimates for a stadium were north of $450 million. Those details, he added, have not been studied in depth.

Joba Chamberlain - 

It’s easy to forget what a phenomenon Chamberlain was when he came up to the Yankees midway through the 2007 season. A first-round pick and a big, burly fireballer, he debuted with 16 scoreless innings and finished the year with an absurd 0.38 ERA and a 5.67 K/BB ratio. That’s what made it all the more shocking when he completely fell apart in the eighth inning against Cleveland.

           

Moneyball –

The AMC television channel had ‘Moneyball’ on October 4^th and I totally enjoyed watching one of baseball’s greatest movies again.

As we all know as Mets fans, Sandy and Company come out of this true story and the concept of ‘getting on base trumps defense’, or OBP (on base percentage) was the concept used by Billy Bean, the Red Sox brain trust under Bill James, and so on and so on.

So how did this work for Alderson, Bean, and James?

Well, it did get Boston a World Championship a couple of seasons after this one portrayed in this movie for Oakland, but Sandy and Billy are still chasing the dream.

And what about building the 2018 team around our highest OBP leaders?

Here they are –

1.     OF Michael Conforto              .384

2.     OF Brandon Nimmo                .379

3.     C Kevin Plawecki                     .364

4.     OF Yoenes Cespedes               .352

5.     IF Astrubel Cabrera                .351

6.     IF Jose Reyes                             .315

7.     IF Wilmer Flores                      .307

   (look familiar?)

And what about first base you ask… don’t ask (Smith: .262)

Baseball Power surge -  

It looks like the great  baseball power surge mystery has been solved –

To be sure, the league-wide impact of tweaking the ball’s aerodynamics is small. According to Lindbergh and Lichtman, who note that their experiments are not definitive, the seam height and circumference changes only appeared in 2016, well after the midyear adjustment in 2015 that kicked off the home run surge (that part of the increase is likely attributable to increases in the balls’ bounciness). It’s likely that many factors are contributing to the ongoing spike in home run rates, including hitters adjusting their approaches and favorable weather conditions, but we now have a compelling explanation for the bulk of the spike.