Wednesday: Managing Baseball with Analytics

Playoff decisions based on computer analytics and coaches decisions.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
The Yankees have taken the lead on a bloop single
by Aaron Judge that Jared Durant had a beat on
but was diving and the ball went off the heel
of his glove and fell into play, and that allowed
McMahon Grisham to score.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
And it's three to New York in the bottom of
the fifth. We'll keep you posted on that before the
show ends at seven o'clock this evening. All right, I
opened the show today talking about analytics, and I have
said many times on this show that I get a
little bit frustrated with sports fans and sports talk hosts
who questioned play calls and coaches decisions when you've never

(00:44):
done it. If it's something that you've done before and
you were good or bad at it, and you can
relate to them, I understand that you have an opinion,
and that's great. But so when somebody says I questioned
the play calling, how do you know that they you know,
they weren't calling plays that they thought weren't going to work.
And if you're not in the moment of doing that

(01:08):
and understand the reasons why you do things, then I'm
not sure that you can be in a position to
be overly critical of that. Fans are going to always say, well,
you should have run the ball when they passed it.
I mean, let's go back to the Marshawn lynched Super
Bowl when Pete Carroll decided to throw the slamp pattern
instead of just letting Marshon run it in. Even Marshawn

(01:29):
was like flabbergasted in the huddle when that play was
called and he was trying, I guess, to get Russell
Wilson to check to a run and he never did.
And I think that every coach is going to get
second guest and third guest and fourth guest. When the
play works, you're a genius. When it doesn't work, you're
the worst that guy that ever happened. And I understand

(01:52):
that we're moving into a different world now than we
ever have before. When you look at the fact that
everything is based on analytics. We have people who are
working in front offices of football, basketball, and baseball programs
that have never played the game, and especially in baseball.
And yesterday, when Max Freed was pitching a shutout and

(02:15):
got one out in the sixth, here comes Aaron Boone
and I knew he was going to do it. Because
this is Aaron Boone's done for three years or longer. Well,
he likes to take back pitchers out after they've gotten
the first or second out of an inning. He likes
to bring relief pitchers in for one any you know,
for two outs, and then bring somebody else in in
the next inning. And that's how he kind of rotates

(02:36):
the bullpen. And so I understand, I was not surprised
that it happened, but I always I'm not questioning that
he if he was the one that did it, but
I am questioning it if somebody that's never played baseball,
that's got a computer program, an algorithm that says, okay,

(02:56):
Max Freed's done, go get it. I still think baseball
needs to be managed and played with a hunch. I
have a hunch that he's going to get these next
the guys out and get through, get through the seventh inning.
And as soon as he went to the bullpen, I
don't care who you brought in. If you were Boston,
you had to feel good because we haven't been able
to touch this guy for what was it six and

(03:20):
a third would be nineteen ounts. You have not been
able to touch this guy for nineteen ounce and now
you're giving me a chance to see something different, and
confidence wise, as a major league hitter, I would think, well,
at least I don't have to face him anymore. And
when you have a hot relief pitcher like Eraldist Chapman,
you don't want to be behind going into the ninth inning. Now,
the Yankees had opportunities last night after putting three on

(03:43):
with the first three hitters and then strikeout, pop up,
strike out to end the game because they were swinging
for the fences. In that situation, you have got to
tie the game no matter what. I'm okay with a
squeeze bunt. Just don't swing so hard that when you miss,
it's a double or it's a fly a harmless flyball
and a canic hoorn to right field. That to me

(04:05):
is is common sense. And again, if if he were
managing the game and that was totally his decision, then
I'm on on board with it because he's the manager
and he can do what he wants. And I believe
Trevor Story has just tied the game with a home
run he has, sir, so it's it's three three.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
What is this ridiculous helmet thing that he's putting on.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Who's that story? Oh, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Is that Is that the mascot? Shee, Oh, it is
the mascot. Sorry, I don't have the mic on. Yeah,
it is the mascot.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
So so anyway, I I was listening to a stippet
from the Michael Kay Show back in September. Michael Kay
does a talk show on one of the stations in
New York, and he's the TV guy for the for
the Yankees, and he said, understand, Aaron Boone is not
making all the decisions. The the guys are telling him

(04:58):
what to do. Bay on his based on analytics. And
the story has been from Cashman down. If analytics says
do this and you don't and it works, great. If
analytics says do this and you don't and it doesn't work,
you're gonna get a demerit, and you're eventually gonna get fired.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
Oh no demerit, you get sent a time out.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah, double jeopardy.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
Okay, all right, Well, I just again, in the first
hour we talked about that, I heard a little snippet
from from Dan Patrick, and it's the way that I
interpreted it was such a kind of cop out answer
that if you want to say, you and I would
both agree. We're getting into this era of well, everybody

(05:48):
wins participation and hey, that's okay, where you're not going
to take responsibility. It seems like managers don't want to
take responsibility, don't want to go with that like you
say that gut feeling, and hey, if I'm wrong, I
take it on the chin. I messed up. If I'm right,
well it wasn't because of me, it was the computer.
But if the computer gets it wrong, hey my job

(06:11):
should be safe because I'm just going by what the
computer says. That's such a.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Then why do you need the manager in the first place.
If you're just gonna go with what the computer says,
then why do you need a manager? Well, like tell
you why I need a manager, because they're in boone
played baseball, and baseball players like to be managed by
players who play baseball. And while there's decisions to make
on the field, there's also decisions to make off the field,
and there's the camaraderie that you have and the lineage

(06:37):
of player to manager to the next set of players.
Not every player is going to be a great manager,
but every player wants to be managed by somebody that
used to play the game and has some knowledge about
the game that somebody that's never played does not have.
I mean, I never played organized baseball. I don't think
I could manage a team. I don't think even if

(06:58):
I owned a team, I would hire a g him
and a manager and say, go, do what you need
to do to win. But I don't think I would
like to see a manager that takes the analytics into
consideration and then does what he wants to do based
on what he thinks is correct. And to me, that's
the most important aspect. And what we saw yesterday was

(07:19):
one total analytics. Max Freeds throw one hundred and two pitches.
He's gone through six and a third innings. That's all
he's got left. Yes, it's a playoff game. Yes, to me,
I'm pitching n til his arm falls off. He's not
pitching in the rest. He's not pitching in Game two
or Game three. He's not pitching until at least Game
two of the next series. I'm gonna pitch him until

(07:39):
he tells me I got nothing left and uh, and
then go to the bullpen. And the Yankees bullpen has
been suspect except for Bednar for a while, and that
the same thing that you're going to see in Los Angeles.
The Yankee boy, the Dodger bullpen has been suspect for
a long time. That's their achilles heel. Why are you
going to that in a high leverage situation? Uh? When?

(08:00):
And again, it's based on analytics. If it's based on
a true coach's decision, I'm not gonna argue it. But
when I'm sensing it's not because it's happened way too
often and it's failed way too often, But the computer
says this is what's gonna be best for you. And again,
for every fan out there that wants to hang the
coach and fire him, it's if you're going to do that,

(08:22):
then you got to go all the way up to
the general manager who's demanding that they follow the analytics
of the and the investment that they've made in analytics.
All Right, one more segment to go before we wrap
up the day. We'll get into a couple other topics
to finish up the show. It's next. It's the Andy
Everage Show. On the tickets