tOfficially Official 2016 Spring training thread

[donaldson79]

Nice read, with some solid points. Thanks for the post.

 

[Justinkm83]

An in depth study is talked about at the link below. One can get tired head fairly quickly reading the study, but one thing I got was that "Pitchers on average retained 41% of their spring training speed changes into the regular season." Of course Colby could increase his velocity the next time out. I didn't see anything in the study comparing ST velocity from the first outing to the rest of ST.

Baseball Prospectus | Spinning Yarn: Do Spring Speeds Matter?

I did see on Zimmerman's spread sheet that Tepesch actually showed an increase in velocity of 1.4 MPH since the last time he pitched.

A lot of times the velocity does increase after the surgery he had, TOS.

 

[jta4437]

I have never been sold on the reliability of the theory behind WAR either. It is an interesting theory and involves some very complicated formulas and math, but I think it is given too much credence. To say definitively that a player is worth a certain amount of dollars based on his WAR is to take the theory a little to seriously in my humble estimation.

There are a lot of people who are really into it and are sold on the theories behind the formulas, but I am just not one of them. I think if his WAR suggests that he is worth that much then that simply reminds me again why I don't follow WAR. I don't have any problem with those who are believers as long as they don't think they are intellectually superior and thus come off as condescending. I have run across a few of those from time to time. Seems like that part has gotten better the last year or two though.

I'll trust it more than your gut instinct,

I don't use it as an end all tell all, but it forces people to take all things into consideration before making a judgement

Desmond made 27 errors last year, but yet that doesn't mean he was a bad defender

Elvis Andrus made 22 errors last year, yet he by far had more total chances than any other SS, and had the highest range factor so his likelihood of making errors was higher b/c he was getting to more balls (Although he seems to boot the routine play more than he should)

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Desmond made 27 errors last year, but yet that doesn't mean he was a bad defender

Certainly wouldn't call that good, though.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Edinson Volquez going for the Royals today. Blast from the past.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Gallo with another K, but no swings and misses and worked a full count.

 

[jta4437]

Certainly wouldn't call that good, though.

Look at his whole body of work defensively and he's not a bad defender, to only look at errors is being simplistic

 

[saddles]

I'll trust it more than your gut instinct,

I don't use it as an end all tell all, but it forces people to take all things into consideration before making a judgement

Desmond made 27 errors last year, but yet that doesn't mean he was a bad defender

Elvis Andrus made 22 errors last year, yet he by far had more total chances than any other SS, and had the highest range factor so his likelihood of making errors was higher b/c he was getting to more balls (Although he seems to boot the routine play more than he should)

That is fine with me. You and a lot of others trust it. You are certainly in good company.

I am not a believer though.

 

[donaldson79]

Certainly wouldn't call that good, though.

True. But I've always thought errors, at least in some cases, can be overrated.

As an example, I once saw the great Brooks Robinson make two throwing errors in a game on plays I think he was the only 3rd baseman in baseball at the time who could have laid a glove on both balls.

As far as Desmond is concerned, I'm certainly not drawing any comparison to him and Robinson. Heaven forbid. But it did seem like I heard within the past 48 hrs someone on the air talking about how Desmond had a case of the "yips" early in the year, and then he got back on track.

 

[saddles]

Edinson Volquez going for the Royals today. Blast from the past.

You know, other than Thomas Diamond the rest of the DVD trio did alright in the big leagues.

 

[donaldson79]

That is fine with me. You and a lot of others trust it. You are certainly in good company.

I am not a believer though.

I trust and believe in it to this extent, it's a statistical analysis/evaluation. It's a tool, not a stand alone crutch. It's just another piece of the puzzle.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Gallo with a run scoring single!

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Board MVP Ryan Rua with a 2 run double

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Mazara 5/6 so far. Wow.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Gallo leaves them loaded, called 3rd strike. All were called.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

I liked the Brinson-Profar-Mazara top of the order. Could be our future right there fellas.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

I liked the Brinson-Profar-Mazara top of the order. Could be our future right there fellas.

they are getting on base like it's going out of style so far.

 

[WastinSomeTime]

Gallo leaves them loaded, called 3rd strike. All were called.

Gallo still has plenty of work to do. Since I cannot see where the pitches were you never know if some were like those garbage calls he would get much like Murphy and Choo have called on them.

 

[True Rangers Fan]

Gallo still has plenty of work to do. Since I cannot see where the pitches were you never know if some were like those garbage calls he would get much like Murphy and Choo have called on them.

according to the GameDay zone, they're mostly on the outer edges but definitely not crap calls. Some of them he should be swinging at.

 

[donaldson79]

Board MVP Ryan Rua with a 2 run double

Mazara 5/6 so far. Wow.

It's probably well recognized I'm a fan of Rua. So good for him. Us too actually.

And this Mazara kid seems to be on a baseball mission of his own making.

But the bottom line is, any team can never have enough good players at all levels, so young men, keep up the good work!