Joe Sciambi: Building a Better Broadcast

[Dreamscape]

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/ar...rticleid=10101

I believe this is a free column. Great column on how, as a broadcaster, he can help the fans begin to look at more informative numbers rather than the simple counting stats they grew up with. Also, a superb story on Chipper Jones.

[BigWorm]

wow now I feel like even more of an *******. thanks dream. is there a book that will teach me all of this new age stats? i don't want to sit on the sidelines anymore.

[jamminHANES]

FanGraphs.com is the source to all good baseball stats. The biggest problem with the newer stats aren't the mathematics, its finding out what is good and not good. If a person who doesn't know the average OPS then they do not know how to properly compare it and the same can be said for most other new age statistics.

[jlcct]

Originally Posted by BigWorm

wow now I feel like even more of an *******. thanks dream. is there a book that will teach me all of this new age stats? i don't want to sit on the sidelines anymore.

Here, this might help.
http://saberlibrary.com/

[jlcct]

I started going over some of our team statistics and I noticed a couple things. I thought I'd share since it's pretty interesting.

wOBA is the same as OPS except that OPS weighs slugging percentage the same as on-base percentage where on-base percentage is actually much more valuable than slugging. So wOBA reflects the values proportionately. Every starter on our team has an above average wOBA. League average is .335. Only Francoeur, Kotchman, Church and Kelly Johnson were below average with Francoeur being way below average. And they are all gone

wRAA tells you the number of runs a player contributes to their team above what an average player would contribute. Again all our starters are above average except Francoeur, Church, Kelly Johnson and Garret Anderson...gone!

I know we've been talking about addition by subtraction for a long time now but I wasn't aware of just how much dead weight we were carrying. A LOT.

[jamminHANES]

The problem is that those players were bat and the players we have replacing them have been good, but the players we lost have been good in the past as well.

Prado has been great for the Braves but he has to be the player that worries me the most offensively and defensively. He has very poor defensive numbers at second base and he has never came into a season with the job in his hands, he was used off and on just as the case with Matt Diaz. We saw what happened when we gave Diaz the every day job, and I am definitely worried about the same thing happening to Diaz.

[jlcct]

I copied a couple definitions here from Sabermetrics Library.
O-Swing%: The percentage of pitches a batter swings at outside the strike zone.
Z-Swing%: The percentage of pitches a batter swings at inside the strike zone.
Z-Contact%: The percentage of pitches a batter makes contact with inside the strike zone when swinging the bat.

This is where Prado stands for these numbers.

O-Swing% ~ 20.7% That stands as a decent number compared to the rest of our guys. Only Chipper was a good bit better at strike recognition.

Z-Swing% ~ 57.8% This is the lowest number of our starters. I'm not sure how to judge this. Maybe he sits on a certain pitch and isn't willing to adjust. I'm not sure.

Z-Contact% ~ 94.0% This is an extremely high percentage. Like I said earlier maybe he sits on his pitch. When he gets it he doesn't miss.

wOBA ~ .355 (again league average is .335)

wRAA ~ 10.9 which is right up there with Yunel and Chipper.

As for his defense at 2B I disagree. UZR has him just a tad below average but barely according to UZR. About the same as Yunel. The guys killing us are Chipper and the now ghost of GAnderson. I guess I worry a little about him remaining a threat but I feel that way about every sophmore (can I call him that). Nothing about his numbers scare me. The production he provides for what he makes certainly seems worth it.

[Freddy_Ballgame]

Keep in mind that any statistical analysis is based on past performance. None can give a foolproof projection of the future. They make interesting conversation but they're still simply projections. This does not imply or suggest that some stats aren't more accurate representations of in-game performances, just that all they do is suggest a potential peformance.
I had to add this, I forgot to post it in the original - I did enjoy most of Sciambi's broadcasts, and I did like that he brought the more popular numbers into the broadcasts. Like many others did, Sciambi and Simpson struggled at times to keep their broadcasts fresh, but I enjoyed them most of the time. I'm already stocking up on Tums anticipating Chip Caray's arrogance this season. Pass the barf bags!

[Lauren T.]

Psst... his name is Jon, not Joe.

[Dreamscape]

Originally Posted by Lauren T.

Psst... his name is Jon, not Joe.

He has a first name?

[Lauren T.]

Originally Posted by Dreamscape

He has a first name?

I prefer "Boog".

[Dreamscape]

One of the fangraphs guys went into one of Chipper's lines about how he tends to swing at first pitches when facing guys he does not want to fall behind.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/17131

Very interesting information.

Well, I think so, at least. Time to slither back to my Mom's basement and play some WOW.

[quick]

Originally Posted by jlcct

I copied a couple definitions here from Sabermetrics Library.
O-Swing%: The percentage of pitches a batter swings at outside the strike zone.
Z-Swing%: The percentage of pitches a batter swings at inside the strike zone.
Z-Contact%: The percentage of pitches a batter makes contact with inside the strike zone when swinging the bat.

This is where Prado stands for these numbers.

O-Swing% ~ 20.7% That stands as a decent number compared to the rest of our guys. Only Chipper was a good bit better at strike recognition.

Z-Swing% ~ 57.8% This is the lowest number of our starters. I'm not sure how to judge this. Maybe he sits on a certain pitch and isn't willing to adjust. I'm not sure.

Z-Contact% ~ 94.0% This is an extremely high percentage. Like I said earlier maybe he sits on his pitch. When he gets it he doesn't miss.

wOBA ~ .355 (again league average is .335)

wRAA ~ 10.9 which is right up there with Yunel and Chipper.

As for his defense at 2B I disagree. UZR has him just a tad below average but barely according to UZR. About the same as Yunel. The guys killing us are Chipper and the now ghost of GAnderson. I guess I worry a little about him remaining a threat but I feel that way about every sophmore (can I call him that). Nothing about his numbers scare me. The production he provides for what he makes certainly seems worth it.

As far as Chip and O swing%, I think we can all agree the umps give him lots of close pitches because he is Chipper. Kinda skews the numbers, I would guess. Is there a SABR stat for "Gets calls cause he is a future HoF veteran"?

[Dreamscape]

Originally Posted by quick

As far as Chip and O swing%, I think we can all agree the umps give him lots of close pitches because he is Chipper. Kinda skews the numbers, I would guess. Is there a SABR stat for "Gets calls cause he is a future HoF veteran"?

Irregardless, zone stats don't consider whether the pitch would have been called a strike or ball. But as it pertains to your question, Baseball Prospectus did a study a couple of years back on the strikezone and what pitchers were getting the benefit of the doubt as far as a standard zone went and the same for hitters. As far as that goes, it's actually the opposite. Chipper doesn't get the calls you'd expect that he would get and he takes strikes that he considers balls and doesn't get the benefit of the doubt.

I'd probably argue that hitters who have a good eye will take a lot of borderline pitches because, while they probably consider most of them out of the strikezone, they know they can't do enough damage with it.

[quick]

Originally Posted by Dreamscape

Irregardless, zone stats don't consider whether the pitch would have been called a strike or ball. But as it pertains to your question, Baseball Prospectus did a study a couple of years back on the strikezone and what pitchers were getting the benefit of the doubt as far as a standard zone went and the same for hitters. As far as that goes, it's actually the opposite. Chipper doesn't get the calls you'd expect that he would get and he takes strikes that he considers balls and doesn't get the benefit of the doubt.

I'd probably argue that hitters who have a good eye will take a lot of borderline pitches because, while they probably consider most of them out of the strikezone, they know they can't do enough damage with it.

Interesting. I could swear Chip gets more boderline calls than say, Matt Diaz. I am going to have to chart some games this year and do my own study. I have watched a ton of games and felt Chip, at least over the last few years, has gotten an edge on borderline calls, not that there is anything wrong with that, as a Braves fan.

The wide availability of those statistical computer programs has made statisticians of so many. Just incredbile.