FanGraphs Audio: Dave Cameron Analyzes All Transactions

by
December 1, 2015

Episode 613
Dave Cameron is both (a) the managing editor of FanGraphs and (b) the guest on this particular edition of FanGraphs Audio, during which edition he discusses the signings of Chris Young the Outfielder by Boston, of J.A. Happ by Toronto, and of Jordan Zimmermann by Detroit.

This edition of the program is sponsored by Draft, the first truly mobile fantasy sports app. Compete directly against idiot host Carson Cistulli by clicking here.

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Audio after the jump. (Approximately 38 min play time.)

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Carson Cistulli has published a book of aphorisms called Spirited Ejaculations of a New Enthusiast.

3 Comments
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joser
10 years ago

Strictly from a fan-involvement / entertainment point of view, having fewer teams writing off their upcoming season because they’re “rebuilding” and have no shot (however luck-driven) of making the postseason is a good thing, yes?

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Bung Fan
10 years ago

Bung Hole Park just signed with the Twins….yippee.

-1
soaktherich
10 years ago

I present you a classic example of where all the numerical data in the world doesn’t really help you understand a player, compared to actual eyeballs scouting. You didn’t have to be a professional scout to watch Jackie Bradley strike out at an alarming rate in his first year or so of big league plate appearances and see quite clearly that he couldn’t catch up to a big league fastball on the inside part of the plate. Indeed, you didn’t even need to watch — you could just listen to the Red Sox radio commentators saying “Well, that’s strike three and Jackie still can’t catch up to that inside fastball.” But the Red Sox kept running him out there for his defense and he therefore piled up more big league ABs and Ks than most players would while trying to learn how to hit that pitch well enough to get pitchers to stop throwing it. Most would’ve been sent back to AAA much sooner. By the second half of 2015, he had fixed that problem and crushed pitchers who continued to try to throw it by him, mostly because he knew it was coming. Then in Sept., pitchers stopped throwing that pitch and started getting him out on other pitches, prolly in part b/c he was still looking for the inside heater.

That’s what happened and DC could’ve saved himself five minutes of speculating about what kind of hitter Bradley will be based on numbers like 72% swing-and-miss if he had a simple scouting report in front of him. The short answer is that no one knows how Bradley will do from now on b/c the pitch that used to kill him no longer does, so you can essentially throw that number out the window. Bottom line: numbers are one tool but without other tools to complement them, you end up with a hammer and you see the whole world as nails.

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