Baseball v Kansas Series Thread

You just want him back because he makes your, ummmm, thing happy.:hihi:

 

hey, whoa. just how shallow do you think i am?

just cause i think he's hott doesnt mean i dont also value that he's a great pitcher!:grin:

 

You are talking about the game of baseball, right? I mean I don't think that you know if he is a "great pitcher" in other areas.:rofl:

 

Actually, this isn't true. Teams like the Reds spend too much resources on a closer and don't have the money to balance the rest of the team. Is it important to many of them? Yes. That doesn't make it right, however, and an increasing number of GMs do see that closers are way overpriced in terms of other quality relievers. Small market teams like Oakland pioneered this. And obviously you can think of situations where the conversion rate is lower than 80%... I am generalizing.

Again, this is not true. See Oakland for an example of a team that does not agree with this recent closer phenomena.

I would use him earlier in the game when the situation is more critical. If you had runners on 2nd and 3rd in the 7th and the heart of the order coming up trying to protect a 1 run lead, I want my best pitcher on the mound because this is the most crucial part of the game and preserving the lead. If you lose the lead at this point, you've probably lost the game and don't need the closer in the 9th.

So you know, I didn't expect my reasoning to be popular or I wouldn't have posted. The mental make-up argument is not based on a statistical analysis of expected value of a decision. Therefore, it does have to be taken into account to some degree, but here again I feel it is overrated.

 

Oakland finished 75-87.

 

Haha, I knew someone would post this comeback.

I argued that clearly not all teams believe in the closer philosophy, not that it was correct because Oakland believes it. In fact, I wouldn't say Oakland sees closers as unimportant, just overpriced in terms of wins for a team with the 5th lowest payroll. But since I used them as an example of a team that doesn't believe it, the record argument doesn't prove me incorrect.

 

But it shows the importance of a good closer.

 

Lol. So that's the key to winning it all eh? That's pretty awesome.

Oh and Oakland is the 6th winningest baseball team of the past decade, so I guess they've had a bit of success.

 

i read it as A key component. not THE key.

or are you just wanting to hear/read yourself argue?:huh:

 

Mo Rivera, Jonathon Papelbon, Huston Street, Joe Nathan, Brad Lidge...It's no coincidence that these guys' teams are in the post season year in and year out.