FanGraphs Baseball

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Introduction and #31-32
#30 – #21

Roughly four years ago now, the present author facilitated a crowdsourcing project designed to place a “grade” on each of the league’s television and radio broadcast teams. The results weren’t intended to represent the objective quality or skill of the relevant announcers, but rather to provide a clue as to which broadcast teams are likely to appeal most (or least) to the readers of this site.

The results of that original exercise have been useful as a complement to the dumb NERD scores published by the author in these pages. Four years later, however, they’ve become much less useful. In the meantime, a number of the broadcast teams cited in that original effort have changed personnel. It’s possible that the tastes of this site’s readers have changed, also.

About a month ago, the present author began the process of reproducing that original crowdsourcing effort, facilitating a ballots for this site’s readers. This post represents the third installment of the corresponding results.

Below are the 20th- through 11th-ranked television broadcast teams, per the FanGraphs readership.

But first, three notes:

• Teams are ranked in ascending order of Overall rating. Overall ratings are not merely averages of Charisma and Analysis.
• The author has attempted to choose reader comments that are either (a) illustrative of the team’s place in the rankings or (b) conspicuously amusing.
• A complete table of ratings cast will appear in these pages Friday.

20. Texas Rangers
Main Broadcasters: Steve Busby and Tom Grieve
Ratings (Charisma/Analysis/Overall): 2.9, 2.6, 2.9

Three Reader Comments
• “Busby’s main entertainment value comes from his apparent lack of awareness of obvious double entendre. He has provided many superb sound bites since taking over in the booth, such as the time he described David Murphy’s run of success in the second spot of the lineup as ‘eating that number two hole up.’ A favorite of his is the term ‘fisted;’ when L.J. Hoes fouled a ball off the handle of the bat one day, he said, incredibly, ‘And Hoes got fisted.'”
• “[Grieve] is usually quite likable, and his broadcasting feels a bit like you’re talking to a grandfather about baseball (in the good way). At the same time, though, his analysis and traditional views in regard to numbers feel a bit like you’re talking to your grandfather (in the bad way).”
• “I was spoiled with Josh Lewin for all those years.”

Notes
A number of the broacast teams in this middle range seem to share a certainly quality — namely, that they neither add nor subtract much from the experience of the game. For certain broadcasters, this might actually be regarded as an ideal outcome. Others likely would prefer to curate the viewer’s experience a bit. Whatever the case, the general sentiment among respondents regarding Busby and Grieve is that they do no harm.

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Devised originally in response to a challenge issued by sabermetric nobleman Rob Neyer, and expanded at the request of nobody, NERD scores represent an attempt to summarize in one number (and on a scale of 0-10) the likely aesthetic appeal or watchability, for the learned fan, of a player or team or game. Read more about the components of and formulae for NERD scores here.

Most Highly Rated Game
Tampa Bay at Toronto | 19:07 ET
Odorizzi (44.2 IP, 99 xFIP-) vs. Dickey (48.0 IP, 104 xFIP-)
Apart from whatever merits he possesses as a ballplayer, Jake Odorizzi has this other virtue, too — namely, that his name facilitates a brief, phonetics-based Italian lesson. In the States, Odorizzi is the name of a right-handed pitcher. This is self-evident. In Italy, however, “Odorizzi” is something different. Regard: odiare is the verb “to hate.” Riso, meanwhile, is the singular form of the noun signifying either “laughter” or “rice.” Put together, odio risi (OH-dee-oh REETS-ee) means “I hate rices” or “I hate laughters.” The two sentiments are more useful than one might suppose: the average American tourist finds that communicating his or her distaste for rice and laughter composes about 40% of all conversations.

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A few days ago, in the FanGraphs chat room, there was a little discussion about whether Statcast more favored run production or run prevention. I’m of the mind that having so much information works to the advantage of the pitchers and defenders, myself. I wrote about that a couple Hardball Times Annuals ago. But it’s by no means a settled matter. Someone during our conversation pointed out that, while Statcast is new to us, teams have had access to HITf/x for years, so they probably already had their ideas. Yet, perhaps Statcast makes everything easier. Perhaps more teams are just on board now than before. I don’t know. Many angles are interesting!

There’s something about Statcast that I think might be underappreciated. And it would be true about HITf/x, too, but Statcast is the thing that we get to see, so let’s roll with it. As a demonstration, I’m going to use Jose Abreu, of the White Sox. Abreu hasn’t been terrible, but he hasn’t quite been himself, not yet. Why is that? Could be any number of things, but it could have to do with how he’s been pitched. This is where Statcast can serve a purpose.

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Ben and Sam answer listener emails about trading Mike Trout, David Ortiz’s impending retirement, analyzing scouts, judging batted balls on TV, Clayton Kershaw and more.

Earlier today, I published a post over on the main site digging into Cincinnati’s historically bad bullpen. Within that post, I noted that the Reds’ staff of relievers entered the day with the worst team ERA since 1961, the worst team FIP since 1961, and the worst team home run rate since 1961. The consolation prize, as it were, is that their team walk rate of 11.6% was “only” 1,390th of 1,476.

Well, as I write this post, the Reds’ bullpen’s walk rate is 12.5%, up nearly a full percentage point from this morning, dropping them 70 spots on the all-time leaderboard from 1,390th to 1,460th. It’s the bottom of the seventh in their game in Cleveland, and Reds relievers have retired six batters and walked seven. Also, they’ve made history in the process. More history. More of the kind of history teams and players don’t want to make.

That history looks like this:

In the bottom of the fifth inning, starting pitcher Alfredo Simon was removed from the game and relieved by right-hander Steve Delabar. Delabar walked Jason Kipnis to load the bases and struck out Francisco Lindor. Then, with the bases still loaded, Delabar walked four consecutive batters, effectively hitting a grand slam for Cleveland while re-loading the bases with a fresh set of legs.

I asked FanGraphs researcher Jonah Pemstein to run some numbers on this phenomena, and this is what he found.

This marks just the sixth time in recorded history (dating back to 1974) that a team drew four consecutive walks with the bases already loaded, and the first time in 12 years. The other teams to achieve the feat are as follows:

• Pittsburgh, 5/9/2004
• Texas, 4/19/1996
• Boston, 5/7/1992
• Atlanta, 5/25/1983
• Boston, 8/28/1981

Not only that, but Delabar himself made history. In each of the five previous instances of a team walking four consecutive batters with the bases already loaded, at least one pitching change was made during the streak. The Reds did not make such a change:

Steve Delabar is the only pitcher since at least 1974 to walk 4 straight batters w/ bases already loaded, per FG research (h/t @japemstein)

— August Fagerstrom (@AugustFG_) May 18, 2016

At least they’re making history.

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News broke earlier that the Pirates agreed to a three-year contract extension with Francisco Cervelli. It’s an easy enough story to analyze in isolation, but to really add depth, you can compare and contrast Cervelli and Russell Martin, who was Cervelli’s predecessor. When Martin left the Pirates, it seemed like it ought to have delivered a massive blow, but if anything Cervelli has been the superior catcher since. This year in particular, they’ve shot off in completely opposite directions.

Cervelli’s not someone who’ll hit for power, but in 2016 he’s reached base nearly 40% of the time. And the defense is there, so the Pirates are pleased. The Blue Jays like Martin, and there’s no question he’s one of their leaders, but — well, maybe you haven’t noticed this. I don’t know which things you have noticed. Russell Martin has been one of the worst hitters in baseball. Like, worse than you’d believe. Did you know Erick Aybar has a wRC+ of literally 7? That’s a 7, where a 100 would be average. Martin’s all the way up at 11. The next-worst mark: teammate Ryan Goins, at 22. The Blue Jays don’t have a good record yet, and while that’s because of a number of things, Martin has been horrible. He’s made it tough to be successful around him.

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Yesterday, we tackled the best final seasons for pitchers. Today, let’s tackle the position players, so we can get to the heart of the question of just how good David Ortiz needs to be to crack one of these lists. The rules and breakdowns are the same as before, so I would encourage you to read yesterday’s post to peep those. Once again, big ups to Jeff Zimmerman for data help.

30-39 WAR

Best Final Season, Position Players with 30-39 WAR

Player	Final Season	Age	WAR	Career WAR
Roy Cullenbine	1947	33	4.4	33.8
Chick Stahl	1906	33	3.7	33.1
Tony Cuccinello	1945	37	3.0	32.2
Gil McDougald	1960	32	2.8	39.7
Joe Adcock	1966	38	2.5	34.2
Elbie Fletcher	1949	33	2.4	30.7

The guys on this list are definitely not household names, but there are some interesting, if also tragic, stories here. Let’s deal with the tragic first. There are six players here because one of them, Chick Stahl, committed suicide during spring training of the 1907 season. He had been named the Americans’ (Red Sox) player/manager over the winter, and something drove him to take his own life. This was surely a big loss for the team, as they had been counting on him to help lead them. He was the fifth-best hitter in the game just a couple years earlier in 1904.

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Like many of you, I grew up listening to baseball on the radio. And while I’m now at a ballpark over 100 times each season, and see many games on TV, listening to pictures being painted over the airways remains a wonderful way to follow the action. To me, baseball’s best radio play-by-play broadcasters are gems.

To coincide with the broadcaster rankings currently being released at the site, I asked a cross section of players, coaches, and managers who they enjoyed listening to growing up. I asked some broadcasters as well, for the simple reason that they chose to follow in the footsteps of the voices who helped shape their love of the game.

———

Vince Cotroneo, Athletics broadcaster: “My experience was different. I saw Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek on the Game of the Week. I saw Al Michaels doing games on Monday night. I watched a little bit of the Braves on weekends when they were on TV in Orlando. But in terms of sitting in the car, or having a transistor under my bed, I didn’t have that luxury. I didn’t have Bill King or Vin Scully or Jack Buck or Harry Caray.

“My first full-time job was in 1984, in Lynchburg, Virginia, and that’s when I could hear Jon Miller doing the Orioles. When I got to the big leagues in 1991, all of a sudden I’m around Ernie Harwell and Vin Scully, and I was working with Milo (Hamilton).

“My first year, I went into the press room in Lakeland during spring training. Ernie Harwell was there with Paul Carey and he introduced himself to me. It should have been the other way around. Instead, this grand Southern gentleman was coming over to me. It was surreal. I met Vin at Vero Beach. It was the whole nine yards, where I was seeing greatness in front of me. When Vin goes to work, he paints pictures.”

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