Sabermetrics: Stats guru advising Blue Jays

spiggity01 · Post #1 » by **spiggity01** » Sat Mar 20, 2010 5:31 pm

http://www.thestar.com/sports/baseball/ ... -blue-jays

Looks like the Jays have a new guy to run the numbers and give some tips, in the article it says that he is a "man experts call one of the great baseball statistical brains of our time", whatever that means. Hope this works for the team.

Modern_epic · Post #2 » by **Modern_epic** » Sat Mar 20, 2010 11:26 pm

Yeah, Tom Tango. He is a legend in the field, having invented win probabilities and runs created. He has a pretty good blog, with one other guy.

They didn't bring him in full time, he's just consulting for them. The article mentions that, but doesn't mention that he is also with the Mariners still.

Hoopstarr · Post #3 » by **Hoopstarr** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 12:29 am

Today, about two-thirds of baseball clubs have someone like Tango crunching numbers to determine optimal fielding and hitting lineups, when to call in a reliever, strategies for handling opposing batters and whether to bunt with a man on first in the fourth inning down by two runs on a Tuesday night when it's raining on natural grass.

And yet, they kept Cito Gaston around to be in charge of applying that knowledge.

jalenrose#5 · Post #4 » by **jalenrose#5** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 12:53 am

hah it's sorta like sending RedNeck Cletus to solve a quantum physics problem when you have the oppurtunity to have Stephen Hawking figure it out for you. Bizarre.

Post #5 » by **OldNo7** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 2:49 pm

Hoopstarr wrote:
Today, about two-thirds of baseball clubs have someone like Tango crunching numbers to determine optimal fielding and hitting lineups, when to call in a reliever, strategies for handling opposing batters and whether to bunt with a man on first in the fourth inning down by two runs on a Tuesday night when it's raining on natural grass.

And yet, they kept Cito Gaston around to be in charge of applying that knowledge.

I think it fits perfectly. Bring in Tango now to help make the front office aware of stats that can and will help us in the future. Its not about using those to win now, but make people aware of them. Therefore, it doesnt matter that Cito is the coach because he is just bridging the cap to the next guy. Ultimately, they could use the information when breaking down coaching candidates as well.