Trick or Treat

When the rules committee meets in the off-season, a number of proposals will be on the table, most of them geared toward generating more offense.  Games like today’s contest at Nance Bradds, though, may have the committee thinking everything is just fine, thank you.


This morning the 3 Musketeers were hosted by the SmARTies for a six inning battle to the finish.  The drama came right away as Cebulash got into a one-out, bases loaded jam, with league leading hitter Mosser at the plate.  Accounts from all sides agree, Glen turned a gutsy double play on a deep grounder to squelch the threat and allow no runs.


But the visitors would not be held at Zero for long, scoring 1 in the second off Berwald (an RBI triple from Mosser) and another three off Cebulash in the third, courtesy of a bases loaded triple off the bat of one, Brent Mackintosh.


Down 0-4 in the bottom of the third, the SmARTies started their own offensive Starburst, at the expense of pitcher Tim Baker.  Berwald started the inning with a K, but then would hit a remarkable four straight 1-RBI hits in his next four at bats.  Cebulash Skittled hits in be-Twixt those and when Baker found the last out, we had a whole new game at 4-4.


The home SmARTies looked to continue their run scoring against Mackintosh in the 4th: Cebulash hit a 1-out double.  Berwald then tagged a low liner, a Twizzler that carried at maybe 2 feet off the ground all the way into Mosser’s hands as he fell and made the catch.  Cebulash followed with a Tootsie Pop into the hands of Tim Baker.  Candy corn, and the rally was over.

The visitors seemed to put the game out of reach in the 5th when Glen’s ill-advised attempt at another double play let a runner from third score when the throw hit the wall too low.  There were some Snickers when a dribbler passed through Glen’s Butterfingers for a single.  Four hits later, it was a three run inning and the visitors were sitting pretty, up 7-4.  The M&M boys, Mackintosh and Mosser combined for 7 RBI on this day.


But this game was not over.  The bottom of the sixth was Crunch time for closer, Tim Baker. Cebulash and Berwald combined on four straight singles to start the inning, closing the gap to 7-5.  In these situations, pitchers need to pull reserve will from a Special Dark place in their character.  With the winning run aboard, Baker induced a double play from Cebulash - turning the tables on him - and then a ground out from Berwald to end the contest.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H	LOB
3 Musketeers - Brent, Kurt, Tim	0	1	3	0	3	0	7	17	9
SmARTies - Glen, Pete	0	0	4	0	0	1	5	15	9

W: Brent Mackintosh
L: Glen Cebulash
S: Tim Baker

Notes

• No Whoppers from our two Baby Ruths today and they remain tied at 5 HR a piece with few if any chances left to add to their totals.
• Big Payday for Brent Mackintosh today: 2IP, no runs allowed; 5-for-12 at the plate with 4 RBI.

The Net Effect

Many commentators remarked as the regular season wound down that the NL MVP race was between Joey Votto, Albert Pujols and Carlos Gonzalez.  And as the Rockies faded from post season contention, Gonzalez’s stock fell; many now predict that Votto, who had a very-good to great season for a division winner will get the award.

SABR-matricians will tell you that the real winner should be Roy Halladay, because his WAR stat is best in the NL.  WAR (Wins Above Replacement) is, in theory, a stat that allows for the comparison of all players, pitchers and position players, across all teams.  It is a grand unified stat.  

I suspect Votto will win, but predict that Roy Halladay will finish in the top 4.

A unique aspect of the whiffle stats is the fact that EVERY player is a batter and a pitcher.  This simplifies the issue of League MVP voting, because voters will not have to decide between a dominant pitcher and a dominant hitter.  So can one develop a single unified statistic that weighs a player’s contribution on the asphalt both as a pitcher and as a batter?

The “Net”

Following on from the concept that all plays are positive for one player and negative for another, could one sum up all a player’s positives, and the subtract out the negatives and get a single measure of the player’s effectiveness?

Say for instance we take a player’s positive stats, batting hits (bH) , batting RBI (bR), and pitching strikeouts (pK) and add them up.  Then subtract out the negatives, hits allowed as a pitcher (pH), runs allowed as a pitcher (pR) and batting strikeouts (bK).  So, we’d have:

bH+bR+pK-pH-pR-bK = Net

In the case of Matt Lindsay you’d have:

94+30+114-98-27-106 = 7

But we can get a little more detailed with the stats.  Instead of hits, how about total bases batted (bTB) and allowed (pTB)?

bTB+bR+pK-pTB-pR-bK = Net

Again, using Lindsay’s stats:

133+30+114-146-27-106 = -2

So, after a Spring and Summer of whiffle, the net effect of Matt’s play has been a negative 2.

Using this formula, here are the players with a positive net:

Name	Net
Mosser	161
Eldridge	105
Berwald	90
Ha	39
Simpson	27

That’s it.  That's the list.  And if you add up all 17 players’ Nets from this full season, naturally, you get zero.  So these five players have been feasting on the other 12 of us.  Or actually 11 of us, because in his one appearance Chris Diodoardo’s Net summed to zero.

But wait, these are cumulative stats.  What about a really good player that didn’t play very much (I’m looking at you, Brian Simpson)?  To really compare players, this stat should be a per-game measure.  So here is the per game Net for these players:

Name	Net	Games	Net/Game
Simpson	27	4	6.75
Mosser	161	29	5.55
Eldridge	105	19	5.53
Berwald	90	31	2.90
Ha	39	18	2.17

The last question is, “6.75 what?’  What does the number mean?  Might mean nothing as we are adding up net bases, net runs and net strikeouts.  I guess it means these are good players to have on your team - they do more good than harm.

Oh, I’m sure your anxious to know Stats’ Net/Game.  With 27 games played it calculates to -0.07.  Yep, it’s almost like he was never even there.

Whiffle World Series Time!

Henry Chadwick, deemed the “Father of Base Ball,” is also the ancestral progenitor of baseball official scorers.  Basing his system off the scorecard for cricket, Chadwick kept notes on games on which he wrote in the New York Clipper.  Chadwick’s scoring system and the modern system of today are, at their hearts, based on double-entry book keeping.  That is, every event on the diamond is a positive for one player, and a negative for another.  And the language of bookkeeping is woven throughout Baseball’s Rule 10:
Rule 10.04 (a) - The official scorer shall credit the batter with a run batted in...
Rule 10.12 - An error is a statistic charged against a fielder whose action has assisted the team on offense...
Rule 10.16 - An earned run is a run for which a pitcher is held accountable.
and the most explicit,
Rule 10.12(a)(7) comment - [T]he official scorer shall charge an error to an outfielder whose accurate throw to second base hits the base and caroms back into the outfield, thereby permitting a runner or runners to advance, because every base advanced by a runner must be accounted for.

So too, in our cute whiffle version of base ball.  Each event captured on the scoresheet is a credit to one player, and a demerit to another.  This system makes explicit which players are responsible for achievement, and which are accountable for failure.  It is as the Tea Party folks say, “Karmic.”  But, in games like today’s we are confronted with the question, “Is it fair?”

The scoresheet shows that Stats led off the bottom of the fifth with a solo homer off The Artist.  To be sure, it was a high fly ball to straight away center.  High enough, in fact to get up in a swirling wind that was blowing out.  Swirling enough to put some tricky movement on the ball’s flight.  Tricky enough for the ball to come off the waiting center fielder's hand and land for a dinger.

Now I ask you, should this batter be “credited,” and this pitcher “charged” with a home run?  

Under our rules, “YES, YES, YES!!!”  But this is a cold and heartless rule, for sure.

The run proved to be just insurance anyway as the Home team took this game 2-0, having already plated a run in the bottom of the first off Peter.  Other than their dominating pitching the Homestanders were quite hospitable hosts.  Matt brought pumpkin bread and Kurt provided SUV-delivered Starbucks coffee (courtesy of Robyn).  Regarding these pleasantries the Visitors were heard to say that the bread was more like cake as one “could not make a sandwich with it,” and that the coffee tasted “Turkish.”

Well.  

No matter; Kurt and Matt went gaily about the business of pitching seven shut out innings, recording 18 of 21 outs by strikeout, enjoying coffee and cake throughout.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	LOB
Hansoo, Glen, Peter	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	4
Kurt, Matt	1	0	0	0	1	0	X	2	7	5

W: Matt Lindsay
L: Peter Berwald
S: Matt Lindsay

Visitors	AB	H	RBI	IP	H	R	K
Hansoo	9	1	0	2.0	2	0	4
Glen	8	2	0	2.0	2	1	2
Peter	8	1	0	2.0	3	1	5

Home	AB	H	RBI	IP	H	R	K
Kurt	13	5	0	3.0	3	0	7
Matt	12	2	2	4.0	1	0	11

Notes:

• Both teams today, emulating the New York Yankees, announced that they would be cheating in today’s contest.
• Looks like we're week-to-week from this point forward, based on weather and all.  Stay tuned, and look for announcements about the end of season BBQ and the Whiffies @ Tanks.

Has anyone seen this Whiffler?

Love the high socks - that is Old School!

Like Ships in the Night

Stick and Ball games, like today’s game of whiffle at Nance Bradds Field, can sometimes have interesting internal trajectories.  Today, a four-on-four game in a 45-degree chill that had outfielders wanting the sun field, two teams were on opposite arcs that crossed in the sixth inning.

The visitors - Dave (R-Plymouth), Glen, Hansoo, Eric - took to their at bats with a steady clip, with hits in each of the first five innings.  They strung together 4 in the third off Peter, including doubles by Eric and Glen to plate the game’s first run.  They stranded 8 runners by the middle of the fifth.  It surely seemed they were never out of any inning, and that with the ease they made opportunities, some would eventually pay off.

The home standers - Ben, Kurt, Matt, Pete - while somehow managing the visitors’ bats, were not mounting credible threats on offense.  They were not shut down completely, to be sure, but had only the one hit through 2.  Two hits to start the bottom of the third were snuffed by Hansoo’s slick fielding, getting a grounder from the league’s leading hitter, Kurt, and then inducing a double play from Matt.  Eric and Dave scattered three singles in the next two innings while recording 6 K’s.

And so after 5 the visitors held a 1-0 lead that felt more insurmountable than the mathematical margin.

The Final Three Innings

Kurt pitched the top of the sixth, and recorded the home team’s first 1-2-3 inning with 2 strike outs and a fly out.  Glen eschewed warmups and pitched the bottom of the frame; and he started most effectively.  When Peter came to bat as the fourth batter of the inning there were two out and a runner at first (courtesy of Kurt’s single).  Peter’s single would be the first of five in a row, the last three of which plated runs.  When the merry-go-round stopped, the home team was leading 3-1.

And here was the striking demonstration of the power of LATE runs.  Having gone so far into this game, having consistently put together good at bats, and had pitchers on the ropes, but then having had the late lead lost seemingly in the blink of an eye - the visitors’ bats also went quiet.  They would not make fair contact for the rest of the game.  Six up, six down in the seventh and eighth - all by strikeout.  The final three from Matt saved the win for Kurt, and sealed Glen’s Blown Save and Loss.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	R	H	LOB
Dave E, Glen, Hansoo, Eric	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	9	8
Ben, Kurt, Matt, Peter	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	X	3	13	9

W: Mosser
L: Cebulash
S: Lindsay
BS: Cebulash

	AB	H	RBI		AB	H	RBI
Dave E.	9	1	0	Ben	9	2	0
Glen	9	2	1	Kurt	8	4	1
Hansoo	7	4	0	Matt	8	3	1
Eric	8	2	0	Peter	8	4	1

Notes:

• To end the bottom of the seventh, Ben Montague grounded out to Hansoo Ha.  Unknown to any one at the time was that this was the 2,000th AB of the season.  I did not think we would get there this week, and so I was unprepared for a ceremony.  
• The Races: No home runs again today and Glen and Peter remain knotted at five atop the leaderboard.  Kurt leads the league in hits (2 ahead of Peter) and Pitching Strikeouts (again, 2 ahead of Peter).
• Hansoo had another fine day with the bat, 4-for-7 to raise his average to 0.418.  No one did better work on his average today.  But Kurt went positive, too, going 4-for-8 and adding 0.001 to his average, which now stands at 0.462.
• It does appear that in their emotional funk the visitors skipped a batter in the top of the eighth.  Hansoo should have led off, but Eric did instead.
• Stats hit an ignominious mark today - becoming the first batter to strike out 100 times this season.  Eric Zamonski authored the “Century K” in this monument to futility.
• A deer ran across the deep outfield (actually along the Aberdeen sidewalk toward the library and Far Hills Avenue) during the game.