Let’s Talk About Detroit Tigers Baseball

by
October 31, 2018

The Detroit Tigers have a rich history. The franchise has claimed 11 American League pennants and four World Series titles since being established in 1901. An “Olde English D” has emblazoned the jerseys and caps of numerous all-time greats.

The fan base is reliably loyal. The club is coming off a pair of 98-loss seasons, and there hasn’t been a championship to celebrate since 1984, but people in Detroit, and throughout the state of Michigan, continue to show their support. They love their Tigers.

In celebration of the iconic franchise, I asked a cross section of people within the game if they could share their thoughts — and perhaps a few anecdotes — on baseball in Detroit.

———

Michael Fulmer, Tigers pitcher: “With the new renovations and Little Caesars Arena, it’s cool to have all four major sports teams in a four-block radius. And I feel that Detroit is a diehard baseball city. Michigan as a whole. The fans are unbelievable. They’ll let you know when you’re doing good, and they’ll also let you know when you’re not doing so good. That’s OK. You can’t blame them for that. They want us to win, and we’re doing everything we can for them. But they are sticking with this team through thick and thin. They’re excited about the younger players. The feedback we’ve gotten, and the high energy we’ve gotten from this team, is cool to watch.

“Mr. Kaline and Alan Trammell bring a lot of history. Willie Horton. Those guys are around the clubhouse quite a bit, and it’s really cool to be able to talk those guys. They’re legends. I grew up hearing those names, so to be able meet them in person and talk baseball with them… it’s really cool.

“Jack Morris isn’t around as much as some of the other guys, but I have talked to him a few times. They’re obviously retiring his number this year, and last year I got to catch a first pitch he threw out. That was pretty cool, too.”

Dave Dombrowski, former Tigers GM: “It’s a great baseball city. It’s a historic franchise — Detroit is one of the original baseball cities — with a lot of great players in different eras. Detroit supports all sports, including baseball. The fans are very passionate. They love their Tigers.

“I remember when I first took the job. They weren’t drawing very well, but people who had known the city for a long time were telling me what a sleeping giant it was. That’s because of the love people had for the team. And that’s what it turned out to be.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to win a championship while I was there. We won everything short of that a couple of times. But again, the fans are very supportive. You see Tigers memorabilia items everywhere. They welcome the old-timers, the guys who were part of the franchise in the past.”

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Which Managers Could Still Fake It as a Player?

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October 31, 2018

At roughly the 10-minute mark of Dan Szymborski’s most recent appearance on FanGraphs Audio, that same guest proposes — partly in response to Game Three of the World Series and partly as an installment in the chronicles of the absurd — a rule change that, if adopted, could have some implications for how teams think of a coaching staff. Specifically, he suggests that, in those games where a team has exhausted its full complement of hitters — such as the Red Sox did during their 18-inning marathon against the Dodgers — that a manager should be allowed to take the field for his club. Although he doesn’t say it, the same could presumably be true on the pitching side, as well.

The sight of a manager actively involved in a game wouldn’t be unprecedented, of course. While utilized rarely over the past half-century — and not in any real way since Pete Rose served in that capacity for the Reds from 1984 through 1986 — player-manager was a pretty common job title in the earliest days of the game.

Recent seasons have provided managerial surrogates, of course. During the final years of his career, Jason Giambi played the part of friendly uncle just as much as he did pinch-hitter. One could say the same for Julio Franco and Matt Stairs and Jim Thome. Chase Utley was referred to as “dad” by teammates for the bulk of the 2018 season. Bartolo Colon is older than a number of actual managers.

While some players have persevered into their early 40s, Rose’s performance reveals why there’s probably little demand for a player-manager proper in the current version of the game. By his third year on Cincinnati’s roster, the 45-year-old Rose was able neither to hit nor run nor field at a major-league level. Those are, one notes, basically all the ways in which a ballplayer can create wins for his team. Nor does this even account for all the ways the manager’s role has evolved in 30 years. With the volume of data made available by front offices, coaches of all sorts have had to develop skills that would be foreign to many of their predecessors.

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Kiley McDaniel Spooky Chat – 10/31/18

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October 31, 2018
12:12

Kiley McDaniel: Coming to you from Florida for one last time, it’s Kileychat
12:14

Mets: We hired an agent…. WTF? honestly, I don’t see how even a regular GM would see anything but a full teardown as the only option.
12:18

Kiley McDaniel: The Brodie Van Wagenen hire is definitely one drawing some conversation around the game. It’s definitely not normal to have a GM that is recused from talking contract extension with your best player. The game has also changed so much in the last 5-10 years and agents have almost no exposure to all of these new facets.

I’m not saying they/Brodie don’t understand the stats we talk about here, but you’ll need to staff up/direct an R+D department, know their blind spots, hire scouts, hire coaches, etc. Not every GM is good at this, but how can we expect BVW to be good at this right away with no prior exposure to any of it, working with people he essentially doesn’t know? We also don’t know what sort of personnel decisions he’ll make, whom he’ll hire/fire in the front office…there’s just a lot of questions.
12:19

Kiley McDaniel: He could be good–I don’t want to be cast as knocking the hire just due to lack of information about him–but it just seems like an odd decision and one that’s impossible to judge for awhile.
12:19

Walter O’Malley : Which is worse for pitcher health? Throwing 100 mph or throwing 100 pitches?
12:20

Kiley McDaniel: 100 mph. That’s the biggest known cause of arm injuries. Rest between starts would go way ahead of pitches per start in terms of importance for predicting injuries. There’s a reason relievers get used 2-3 days in a row and blow out more often.

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Contract Crowdsourcing 2018-19: Kikuchi and Rosenthal

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October 31, 2018

Free agency begins soon! As in other recent offseasons, FanGraphs is once again facilitating this offseason a contract-crowdsourcing project, the idea being to harness the wisdom of the crowds to the end of better understanding the 2018-19 free-agent market.

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Job Posting: Wareham Gatemen Baseball Internships

by
October 31, 2018

Please note, this posting contains multiple internship opportunities with Wareham Gatemen Baseball (Wareham, MA) of the Cape Cod League.

Position: Baseball Operations – Scouting

Description:
The Wareham Gatemen Organization is currently seeking three highly motivated, energetic, and talented individuals to serve as scouting interns. Position begins date of hire and runs through August 15, 2019 (or when season ends; including playoffs). The Scouting interns will work with the GM and coaching staff on general scouting and advanced scouting duties throughout the season.

Reports to: General Manager

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

  • All Scouting interns will work with the GM and coaching staff to learn the ins and outs of scouting. Interns will need to bring their own stopwatch, clipboard, notebook and 3-ring binder, and the 2019 Baseball America Directory. Interns will progress from learning the mechanical breakdowns of each position to writing full scouting reports on CCBL players. By the end of the summer, each intern will have a foundation in amateur scouting to pursue a career in scouting, player development or general baseball operations.
  • Review scouting materials and complete assignments on time.
  • Attend all Gatemen games or assigned CCBL games.
  • Adhering to a weekly rotation of job responsibilities.
  • Attend, learn and contribute to daily staff meetings.
  • Work with GM and coaching staff learning the basics of scouting.
  • Learn basics of advanced scouting.
  • Complete scouting reports on opponents and specific players for review by coaching staff.
  • Converse with five MLB scouts per week and write a two-page summary report on conversations.
  • Compile database of MLB scouts on the cape with contact information.

Qualifications:

  • Prior experience working for college baseball program or summer collegiate baseball team strongly preferred.
  • Prior baseball playing experience preferred but not required.
  • Ability to understand and pick up player/game situational tendencies.
  • Must be proficient in Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access)
  • Ability to communicate efficiently with all aspects of the Baseball Operations Department (Scouting, Player Development, Coaching and other Baseball Ops interns).
  • Professional attitude and work ethic with strong interpersonal skills.
  • The ideal candidate must be willing to work longs hours, including days, nights, weekends and holidays.
  • Must currently be enrolled at a college or university in either an undergraduate or graduate program.

Additional Information & Expectations:

  • This is an unpaid internship.
  • Opportunity exists to earn money by doing extra facilities/field work and team laundry (uniforms).
  • Must provide own transportation to games.
  • Housing is not provided but the Gatemen can assist in finding appropriate housing (approximate rental costs $2,750/person for the entire summer) as well as assist finding part-time employment.
  • Must adhere to the Wareham Gatemen organization policies and procedures as well as the Cape Cod Baseball League Code of Conduct.

To Apply:
To apply, please visit this site.

For any questions please email Andrew Lang at baseballops.gatemen@gmail.com.

Position: MLB Scout Liaison Internship

Description:
The Wareham Gatemen Organization is currently seeking a highly motivated, energetic, and talented individual to be the MLB Scout Liaison Intern for the summer of 2019. The ideal candidate will have at least one year’s experience working in a sports team environment. Position begins June 5, 2019 and runs through August 15, 2019 (or when season ends; including playoffs). The MLB Scout Liaison serves as the point person for all MLB scouts who attend games at Spillane Field. You will be the contact for all information the scouts need.

Reports to: General Manager

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

  • Attend all Gatemen home games.
  • Create required roster and stat sheets for every home game using league template.
  • Maintain contact with coaching staff pitching rotation, starting lineup, batting practice times, i/o times and weather delays.
  • Arrive at the field 30 minutes prior to Gatemen batting practice.
  • Provide copies of stat and roster bio sheets for all home games.
  • Update Gatemen scouting twitter account with player information, probable starting lineups, probable starting pitchers and their tandem, injury related information and any other information deemed necessary.
  • Provide scouts with any information they ask for on game day.
  • Maintain the game “velo” chart for the pitching coach at each home game.

Qualifications:

  • Prior experience working for college baseball program or summer collegiate baseball team required.
  • Advanced knowledge of baseball required.
  • Must be proficient in Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
  • Professional attitude and work ethic with strong interpersonal skills.
  • The ideal candidate must be willing to work longs hours, including days, nights, weekends and holidays.
  • Must currently be enrolled at a college or university in either an undergraduate or graduate program.

Additional Information & Expectations:

  • This is an unpaid internship.
  • Opportunity to earn money by doing extra facilities/field work and team laundry (uniforms).
  • Housing is not provided but the Gatemen can assist in finding appropriate housing (approximate rental costs $2,750/person for the entire summer) as well as assist in finding part time employment.
  • Must adhere to the Wareham Gatemen organization policies and procedures as well as the Cape Cod Baseball League Code of Conduct.

To Apply:
To apply, please visit this site.

For any questions please email Andrew Lang at baseballops.gatemen@gmail.com.

Baseball Operations – Player Development

Description:
The Wareham Gatemen Organization is currently seeking four highly motivated, energetic, and talented individuals to serve as Player Development interns. Position begins date of hire and runs through August 15, 2019 (or when season ends; including playoffs).

Reports to: Manager & General Manager

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

  • PD interns will work with the Manager, coaching staff and GM on executing the Player Development Program. Interns will be on the field every day assisting the coaching staff throughout the day with various development related tasks. The Gatemen utilize Driveline TRAQ software to organize the program. Interns will need to become highly proficient with the software. This is a great opportunity for a student manager currently working with a college baseball program to learn how to create, organize, execute and modify player development programs.
  • Set up all equipment and screens needed by coaching staff for all player/team workouts.
  • Set up video cameras for all workouts and games.
  • Operate cameras at direction of the GM & coaching staff during workouts and games.
  • Upload video into TRAQ system.
  • Assist coaching staff with all input into TRAQ.
  • Attend, learn and contribute to daily staff meetings.
  • Attend all Gatemen games.
  • In game charting of data that the GM or coaching staff asks to be collected.
  • Prepare field for home games (dragging/watering infield, working on mound/plate, lining field for game).
  • Ad hoc projects as assigned by coaching staff of GM.

Qualifications:

  • Prior experience working for college baseball program or summer collegiate baseball team preferred but not required.
  • Understanding of typical baseball data structures, and knowledge of current baseball research, statistics and strategy.
  • Prior baseball playing experience preferred but not required.
  • Must be proficient in Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access).
  • Ability to communicate efficiently with all aspects of the Baseball Operations Department (Scouting, Player Development, Coaching and other Baseball Ops interns).
  • Professional attitude and work ethic with strong interpersonal skills.
  • The ideal candidate must be willing to work longs hours, including days, nights, weekends and holidays.
  • Must currently be enrolled at a college or university in either an undergraduate or graduate program.

Additional Information & Expectations:

  • This is an unpaid internship. Opportunity to earn money by doing extra facilities/field work and team laundry (uniforms).
  • Must provide own transportation to away games.
  • Housing is not provided but the Gatemen can assist finding appropriate housing (approximate rental costs $2,750/person for the entire summer) as well as assist finding part time employment.
  • Must adhere to the Wareham Gatemen organization policies and procedures as well as the Cape Cod Baseball League Code of Conduct.

To Apply:
To apply, please visit this site.

For any questions please email Andrew Lang at baseballops.gatemen@gmail.com.

Position: Baseball Operations – Assistant GM

Description:
The Wareham Gatemen Organization is currently seeking five highly motivated, energetic, and talented individuals to serve as Asst. GMs. Position begins date of hire and runs through August 15, 2019 (or when season ends; including playoffs). The interns will assist the GM’s research and development efforts as well as complete three internship based projects. This internship will be focused on data entry and analytics but there will be opportunities to gain valuable experience in other aspects of Baseball Operations.

Reports to: General Manager

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

  • Attend all Gatemen games.
  • Collect, clean and enter data from various sources into data collection system.
  • Collaborate with GM, Field Manager and other interns to design and implement statistical analyses.
  • Keep up to date on current baseball research and new modeling techniques.
  • Assist in designing, developing, testing and implementing models and metrics utilizing appropriate tools and techniques.
  • Each intern will be assigned one of the following internship projects:
  • Develop a metric which demonstrates the baseline value for a successful temporary player in the Cape Cod League. (WAR-like metric)
  • Develop set of metrics for future roster construction and player identification.
  • Develop standard metrics for the CCBL to aid scouting evaluations of overall player performance.

Qualifications:

  • Prior experience working for college baseball program or summer collegiate baseball team preferred but not required.
  • Strong foundation in computational field, such as Statistics, Data Science, Mathematics, Engineering, Analytics or Quantitative Social Sciences.
  • Knowledge of statistical analysis, machine learning and predictive modeling.
  • Understanding of typical baseball data structures, and knowledge of current baseball research, statistics and strategy.
  • Demonstrated experience with database querying (SQL) and preferably statistical software (e.g. MySQL, Microsoft SQL, etc…)
  • Must be proficient in Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access).
  • Demonstrated experience working with Python, R, C++.
  • Ability to communicate efficiently with all aspects of the Baseball Operations Department (Scouting, Player Development, Coaching and other Baseball Ops interns).
  • Professional attitude and work ethic with strong interpersonal skills.
  • The ideal candidate must be willing to work longs hours, including days, nights, weekends and holidays.
  • Must currently be enrolled at a college or university in either an undergraduate or graduate program.

Additional Information & Expectations:

  • This is an unpaid internship but there are opportunities to earn some money doing various field jobs.
  • Must provide own transportation to away games.
  • Housing is not provided but the Gatemen can assist finding appropriate housing (approximate rental costs $2,750/person for the entire summer) as well as assist finding part time employment.
  • Must adhere to the Wareham Gatemen organization policies and procedures as well as the Cape Cod Baseball League Code of Conduct.

To Apply:
To apply, please visit this site.

For any questions please email Andrew Lang at baseballops.gatemen@gmail.com.


FanGraphs Audio: Dan Szymborski Introduces the Offseason

by
October 30, 2018

Episode 841
Dan Szymborski is the progenitor of the ZiPS projection system and a senior writer for FanGraphs dot com. He’s also the guest on this edition of the program, during which he reviews the lessons he did and also didn’t learn during the World Series. Also: the distinction but not the difference between luck and a skill that’s just undetectable. And: a status update on ZiPS projections.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @cistulli on Twitter.

You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or other feeder things.

Audio after the jump. (Approximately 50 min play time.)

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Those Disastrous World Series TV Ratings

by
October 30, 2018

The popularity of baseball is oft-discussed and yet somewhat difficult to measure. We can look at everything from attendance to jersey sales to commercials to revenue and yet fail to reach any real conclusions due to the constantly changing ways in which people consume media and celebrate fandom.

Another measure is television viewership and ratings. Determining the number of people who have enough interest to watch the sport on television should be a relatively good measure of popularity, although even those measures need context to make any sense. On one hand, local television ratings remain strong during the season, indicating relatively widespread support for the game. On the other hand, the ratings for this season’s World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers were not good.

Consider a couple of headlines. Like Boston-LA World Series Struck Out Looking for Fox from the LA Times and like The 2018 World Series was Good for the Red Sox–and Bad for Baseball from The Atlantic. Even commissioner Rob Manfred acknowledged disappointment with the ratings after the first few games.

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Remember the Orioles for What They Were

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October 30, 2018

Very soon — maybe right at this moment! — everyone’s going to be ready to turn the page. Maybe many of you are already there. The 2018 baseball season is over for every team, and for the overwhelming majority of teams, it’s been over for quite a while. What’s the sense of reflecting, when we’re supposed to move ever forward? I get it, I agree, and I’ll get there soon, myself. But, look: I’ve been spending the past month thinking exclusively about good baseball teams. Competitive baseball teams, playoff baseball teams. I wanted to take the chance to write one thing about the worst baseball team that we saw. I had a note here on a piece of paper to address the 2018 Baltimore Orioles.

The Orioles’ final record was the kind of bad that everyone remembers. In the same way it’ll take you eons to forget that the 2003 Tigers finished 43-119, it’ll take you just as long to forget that the 2018 Orioles finished 47-115. The numbers are immortalized in that iconic playoff photo of Andrew Benintendi. The Orioles won 47 games; the Orioles finished 14 more games than that out of first place. Their best month, by record, was July, in which they went 9-16. They didn’t reach ten wins in a single calendar month, and they wound up 11 wins behind the next-worst baseball team in either league. The Orioles had the 15th-worst winning percentage since 1900, and the fourth-worst winning percentage since the end of World War 2.

You know it, I know it, and there’s no sense beating around the bush. The Orioles were a total catastrophe. Buck Showalter and Dan Duquette are both out of a job. But here’s the other thing about these Orioles: They weren’t supposed to be bad. They weren’t supposed to be great, but they didn’t blow things up. Things blew up on their own.

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Meg Rowley FanGraphs Chat – 10/30/18

by
October 30, 2018
2:00
Meg Rowley: Hello and welcome to the offseason chat! Boy oh boy, it sure is the offseason.
2:00
Nick: What do you see the Cubs doing with Addison Russell? What do *you* think they should do?
2:01
Meg Rowley: I think they’ll probably cut and I think that makes good sense.
2:01
Meg Rowley: I was never that hype on him as a player, and now I’m even less in on the guy as a person.
2:01
Meg Rowley: I’m sure he’ll resurface somewhere, but I don’t expect him to play another game for the Cubs.
2:01
Tom in SD: Any chance the Yankees trade Stanton to the Dodgers and sign Harper?

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Ron Darling, Jack Morris, and Tyler Thornburg on Developing Their Change-of-Pace Pitches

by
October 30, 2018

Pitchers learn and develop different pitches, and they do so at varying stages of their lives. It might be a curveball in high school, a cutter in college, or a changeup in A-ball. Sometimes the addition or refinement is a natural progression — graduating from Pitching 101 to advanced course work — and often it’s a matter of necessity. In order to get hitters out as the quality of competition improves, a pitcher needs to optimize his repertoire.

In this installment of the series, we’ll hear from three pitchers — Ron Darling, Jack Morris, and Tyler Thornburg — on how they learned and developed their change-of-pace pitches.

———

Ron Darling, Former All-Star

“When I first started throwing a split, I was one of those pitchers who could never develop a changeup. I was in the minor leagues with Al Jackson, who was a crafty left-hander in his day, and he taught me a screwball. He used to throw one. I got very adept at it, but it made my arm hurt. I had to develop a change-of-pace pitch that didn’t hurt my elbow, and that’s how the split-finger came to be.

“It was an era where the pitch was popular. Roger Craig taught it to a lot of pitchers, but it was a split-finger fastball for those guys. For me it was more of a forkball. It was something soft that I could combine with my fastball and hard curveball.

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