The Sabermetrics Thread

[Quake Griffin]

It was brought to my attention by my esteemed colleague, Neddy, that there isn't enough discussion about SABRs in this forum. For some reason, I imagine most of you here as knowledgeable baseball heads who at least have a decent idea of where players grade out in terms of SABRs. However, seeing as how some MLB teams have more analytics than others, it only makes sense that some people here might understand SABRs more than other and might be able to bring more context to SABRs…when to FIP or xFIP is important, when it isn't. When UZR doesnt tell the story as well for a player etc. etc.

So…for this thread…and I hope the thread sticks around:

Talk about why you love sabermetrics.
Talk about why you don't love them.
Where there's a gray area that sabermetrics can't account for.
Ask questions about them etc. etc.


I'll start.
Much has been made of the pitch framing metrics and it's one of the first things written about Friedman going into the winter.
AJ Ellis sucks at framing. So we trade for Yasmani Grandal who can't throw runners out but is a top 10 framer. Apparently AJ was like -12 runs saved because his framing sucked and Grandal is like +12 (something like that).

anybody wanna opine on whether pitch framing metrics are a big deal on the aggregate?

[Neddy]

still watching the clipper game, but here is a quick glance.

this is the reason why i wanted Hank Conger.

http://www.statcorner.com/CatcherReport.php


here is how to read those stats.

http://www.statcorner.com/exp_Prelimina ... mework.php

[Neddy]

BTW quake, i expect this thread to be completely empty, as i have expressed before.

[Quake Griffin]

Yea, it's lame btu whatever.


so here's my question.
does being a good framer make you a good defensive catcher? does it make you even close?

[Neddy]

Yea, it's lame btu whatever.


so here's my question.
does being a good framer make you a good defensive catcher? does it make you even close?

in short, no. but it helps the team tremendously.

a catcher's defense includes good judgement and timing along with a great arm to throw runners out, as well as everything else that goes in such as game calling, and no longer valid/legal plate blocking, infield shift, etc, ect. you can have a catcher who can absolutely buy strikes but cannot throw worth a damn, and Grandal falls under this case. you can have a brilliant game caller who can't frame worth a ****. Kenji Johima falls under here.

what good framing does is allow balls to become strikes, which helps the team as a whole and mostly the pitching staff. buying a couple of more strikes may not seem much to some but that ability alone can separate an inning from coming to an end versus continuing a rally against your tiring arm on the mound. this ability becomes even more magnified in a short series. AJ sucked badly in this.

now, say a catcher A sports +0.49 more strikes per game versus a catcher B, who is - 0.97. let's say both have started relatively around 100 games, give or take 10. the cather A have over the course of the season have given his pitching staff 50 more strikes which were actually balls. the catcher B on the other hand, has given away 100 strikes and turned them into balls. so in a short 100-ish games these two catchers started for their respected teams, the catcher A has given a whopping 150 more strikes than the catcher B for his pitching staff.

you see the significance?

[Stanford]

i expect this thread to be completely empty, as i have expressed before.

That's because everyone here reads fangraphs anyway.

They have gifs.

[Neddy]

i expect this thread to be completely empty, as i have expressed before.

That's because everyone here reads fangraphs anyway.

They have gifs.

thanks for such profound addition to this current discussion of framing. I hope you well in 2015 and your professional career, if you have one.

[Stanford]

I plan on living with my mom until I graduate high school.