The Statcast revolution in Major League Baseball is merely in its inchoate stages, as Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan details in a must-read piece.
“We’re in the third inning,” Tom Tango, one of the minds behind Statcast, told Passan.
Statcast, which MLB.com notes “is capable of measuring previously unquantifiable aspects of the game,” became available in each of the league’s stadiums in 2015 and is utilized by all 30 front offices. The system tracked 1,435,241 pitches last year, but it was only scratching the surface, writes Passan, who expects it “to fundamentally change how we consume baseball.”
Major League Baseball Advanced Media, otherwise known as BAM, introduced Statcast and is now working to release data that makes the sport easily understandable to the public in a way that sabermetrics don’t.
“What we’re trying to do is we want to make it relevant and relative,” said BAM CEO Bob Bowman, who’s among commissioner Rob Manfred’s closest advisers. “Relevant to what fans are watching right now and relative to other players and similar situations.”
Tango, Daren Willman and Mike Petriello are attempting to put together a Statcast-based Wins Above Replacement to measure players’ values better than the current iterations of WAR. The version Tango, Willman and Petriello could introduce would lay out exactly how much value each position player contributes as a hitter, defender and base runner and, per Passan, possibly grade players on a 1-to-100 scale.
“What will make our version of WAR intriguing,” Willman said, “is the way we’re going to make it accessible.”
Their latest attempt to measure defense comes in the form of Catch Probability, which Petriello unveiled Saturday on MLB.com in another highly recommended piece. Catch Probability uses a 0-100 percent scale to determine how catchable each tracked ball hit to the outfield is, and they’d eventually like to use it to judge infield defense.
“A 40 percent play and 80 percent play are very close,” Tango told Passan. “Less than a second of hangtime. Fifteen to 20 feet of positioning. At a single-play level, that’s where this thing is going to shine.”
Eventually, BAM would like to integrate Statcast’s data into every major league broadcast. So far, the league has gotten incredible bang for its buck from BAM, which began with investments of a couple million dollars from each franchise. Now, according to Passan, the league’s 30 clubs are worth at least $1 billion apiece because all own a stake in BAM.
Anyone else just not care about this stuff? I try to care, but meh….
BS
No don’t care at all. If the front offices care that’s their businesse but quit shoving if down our face like we care
Who is we? Most people think Statcast is great. Some of us love baseball and can’t get enough info about the greatest sport on Earth. Speak for yourself instead of saying “we”.
Posting an article that you decided to click on is shoving it down your face? Grow up.
Well put
Yes because some of us want to be knowledgeable about the things we have opinions on, not just blast stuff without giving it a chance or knowing what we are talking about.
So you chose to read the article, no one made you. That’s the opposite of shoving it down your face.
Anyone who is interested in properly evaluating players should care about this. I would think that would include most intelligent baseball fans. Maybe you don’t fall into that group.
No one cares if SamFuldsFive cares or not. Us knowledgeable fans do care. If you dont care then skip the article
I miss the good ol’ days of baseball before computers and loud obnoxious music before each plate appearance.
Well if you were a little bit better at baseball back in your ol’ day of baseball you could have chosen some good ol’ classical music when you went up to the plate.
Looks like Ruben Amaro Jr got an MLBTR account
Try crawling into bed, put a two cent speaker under your pillow, and pull the covers over your head. Good old days.
Goose Gossage, is that you?
I’m actually related to him.
Amen to both your comments. I could care less about statcast or the stupid pitching screen on the side of the screen.
Never grow old.
You don’t have to care about this information, but understand that it is and will be revolutionizing our game. And if you want to evaluate the game or work in the game, it’s good to pay attention.
IMHO, most fans still get their info from the backs of their bubble gum cards. Anybody without a good BA or ERA is overrated.
That is a very humble opinion. Who collects bubblegum cards? 80 year olds in old folks homes? Lol.
Frankly, it’s irrelevant if you don’t care about these stats. I can pretty much guarantee you that the existence of these statistics in today’s game being shown on the screen have absolutely zero impact on your game experience. If you don’t care about these stats, then you have the free will option of ignoring them and not putting any time or investment into thinking about it. But stop trying to speak for everyone else who loves the statistics side of the game.
Its no more irrelevant for me to not care than for you to care. When you watch a pitch thats an inch outside the plate and the computer tracks it and shows the line of the ball more than a foot outside and then the commentary team is having to comment based on what the computer says , yea its annoying to my game watching experience.
I think my comments were misinterpreted and maybe I should have been more clear. If people like statcast then thats fine, Im sure there are some parts of it that will help clubs and there are fans that enjoy that side of the game. I like stats, but I could care less about the exit speed and angle of a HR. Its science, the pitcher threw a pitch at a certain speed and the batter hit it with enough power and at the right angle to make it go over the fence. End of story.
Actually, it is because it being there doesn’t ruin or change your baseball watching experience. You’re still enjoying the game. But for those us of statheads, it not being there would alter our baseball fandom experience.
It’s like complaining about a TV show you don’t like. If you don’t like it, then don’t watch it or pay attention to it…but don’t call for its removal from TV at the expense of people who DO like it.
Im pretty sure I clearly stated why it does bother my baseball experience. And your analogy is off, its more like watching a dvd with those inside looks or whatever they call them. I just want to watch the movie without seeing all the extra boxes on my screen to click on to see behind the scenes footage. I dont want to see the pitch trax box on the side of my screen. So if there was an option to toggle that on or off then it would make more sense for both parties. But instead I have to sit there and look at it just so the people who want to see it get their satisfaction
I think statcast route efficiency is important. I care! It essentially Gets rid of the bad uzr and a portion of drs stats.
When I watch a game, I watch the game,, the stats have no or very little impact on me. However, if I’m not watching the game then the stats of the game become important to me.
I can’t wait for Statcast to take hold in hockey.
Sabremetrics and “advanced” stats in baseball are pretty good. This is much better, of course. But, sabremetrics are a joke in hockey and need to be replaced.
Some genius decided that shots (literally giving up possession of the puck) was a good way to measure “possession”.
You can find stats for literal puck possession numbers, but they are less reliable at predicting performance than shot attempts are, which is why they aren’t used as the main advanced stat. Scoring chances would probably be the best gauge for performance, but tracking it is too inexact and probably always will be. There are simply too many variables involved in any play to determine its literal scoring chance with any kind of accuracy. Shot attempts are currently the best measure for predicting goals and therefore results, which is why it’s used as the main judge of player and team performance.
You can care all you want. I really don’t give a damn about all this.
Yet you clicked on the article
I really don’t get some of you people. You like baseball enough to come looking for more about it on your free time, but you can’t care enough to look at the stats behind it? Statcast give some amazing information that helps explain so many of the reasons why some players are better than you think and why some aren’t as amazing as you’d expect. The numbers don’t detract from the experience of watching or appreciating baseball in the slightest, they only enhance the areas of the game you didn’t know about. So what’s up with the hostility or open apathy towards knowing more about the game we all love enough to follow?
Get this man a beer!
The sad truth is information and numbers are super intimidating to people not used to thinking a bunch.
What if we don’t want to consume baseball?
Are you on a diet? I’ve heard baseball can safely be consumed on a ketogenic diet. Lots of healthy fats and no carbs.
Yes but can you consumé baseball? I hear it makes a nice soup.
I prefer my baseball fried.
Then GTFO
It was a joke
As Bono might say, “this is all very interesting but not very rock ‘n roll. lol
I love the statcast data that is available to us. (Some of it is still proprietary). Launch angle, route efficiency, spin rates, etc. All that stuff actually gives us a lot of information. Players are obviously using it too, as we saw in the massive uptick in homers last season. While the ball might have had something to do with that, there has been more than enough anecdotal evidence that hitting coaches are using launch angles to change swing mechanics to elevate the bal more. That’s not a new theory, of course – Ted Williams writes about it in one of his books, way before there were even computers – but there’s nothing ever wrong with more data. It doesn’t decrease my enjoyment of a game – it enhances it.
I understand why the players, coaches, and general mangers would be interested in this information. But I have to ask, as a fan, how does it improve your enjoyment of the game?
Because I like to watch baseball. I’ve watched thousands of baseball games in my life, and played in several hundred. As a fan it’s quite interesting to me to see how, say, Clayton Kershaw is so dominant. Statcast gives empirical data; it probably confirms my ideas but I’ve never believed that having more data is a bad thing. There’s enough downtime in baseball that I can watch a game while also doing other things, like looking at data. There’s only so many hot dogs and beers one can consume; but actually being able to look up information increases my enjoyment of the game.
It was a serious question and I appreciate that you took it that way. I can’t imagine the number of baseball games I’ve watched. Like yourself, easily in the many thousands. Played some Little League, not because I was any good at, but because all my heroes were ballplayers.
Again I see why the data is so attractive to players and teams, but I am not convinced that it helps fans understand or appreciate the game especially as data starts taking over the telling of the game. On TV more and more stats being displayed, and play-by-play announcers talk of little else. It turns the game into a science experiment, rather than the human competition that I grew up loving, the one that fed my imagination, that produced my heroes.
I also worry that the statistical takeover will not bring new fans into the game and might have just the opposite affect. I for one can’t imagine having become enthralled with this game as a kid if I’d grown up with it in today’s environment where the talk is so heavily about numbers. When I got hooked on the game, numbers were hardly as discussed and I would not have understood them even if they were. I follow numbers far more as an adult yet I still find plenty to study at the ballpark without having to pull out my phone and look up a number. Numbers appeal to baseball nerds, but who else?
But that’s what’s great. Baseball exists as this amazing sport that you can watch without really caring about anything else except what you see. My best friend is a Reds fan and we go see a few Reds games a year together. He has zero interest in advanced stats. He hates Joey Votto because he doesn’t have a lot of RBI. it’s fine. We watch the games and chat and it doesn’t diminish anything.
But I can also enjoy the numbers. It’s not an either/or proposition to me. I like to know everything about the things I love, whether that’s an author or baseball or a tv show or whatever.
More has changed about how the game is broadcast than you seem to be acknowledging. So much of it has turned into endless blabber about nerdy minutia and whether an umpire made the right call. If I’d have grown up with that game, I don’t know that I’d have become a lifer baseball fan. So I wonder whether the game is in the process of self-selecting its future fan base to be the smaller group of baseball nerds.
When I watch a baseball game on TV I generally do it with the sound off and listen to music or podcasts or something else. So I don’t know really what most of those guys blather on about. It’s of no interest to me. I remember hearing Joe Morgan back on old ESPN broadcasts say the dumbest reductive stuff on Earth and after that I gave up on listening to the commentary.
The numbers would say that baseball is expanding, on TV and in the stadiums. The sport is rolling in money right now, so it seems that the game is reaching more than just “baseball nerds,” as you imply.
I’m a baseball nerd. I love everything about the game. Everything. And for a long time it was how I made my money. I destroyed the books betting baseball (They got it back NFL season) Knowing every level. Knowing every player. I could glance at the screen and tell you who was at the plate just based on their stance. I wish that all this information was available back then. Would’ve made my job a whole lot easier.
As a fan, it allows you to delve into the sport as deep as you want. And for a lot of people, the deeper the understanding, the deeper the love. I look at it and think the opposite. How can you love something yet put a limit on how deeply you want to become involved? And then turn around and tell someone else who loves it that they’re an idiot for wanting to dive deeper? What difference is it to you how someone else experiences a game?
I don’t play video games. Could careless about them. I’ll never have a gamer magazine sent to my house. But I could careless if my neighbor does. It doesn’t change the way I look at my tv. Want to take your tv experience to that next level? Have at it.
You can’t love everything about baseball and not play MLB The Show. Scientific studies have shown it’s not possible. In fact, someone won a Nobel Prize for their work on that study. Groundbreaking stuff.
You can when you’re an Xbox guy. An Xbox guy who bought the Xbox one under the impression RBI Baseball was a real game… PS5 will be mine. Or whatever they call it.
love the show…amazing game
I know quite a bit about the game, but am always interested in learning more about it. Hell, maybe it will help me out with my fantasy team. After last season I need all the help I can get
I care and I don’t care all in one. I care that my team is fully utilizing this data to put the best product on the field. I don’t care to personally be fully aware of it because I enjoy the pure beauty of the game. I don’t need to know if a fielder took the optimum route to the ball if he makes an amazing catch. If that’s your thing awesome but I can accept that people watch the game for different reasons. All I know is baseball is awesome and if this helps teams identify better players then I’m all for it and hope they continue to improve it.
I’m really glad that you enjoy baseball, but please don’t imply that those of us that understand advanced statistics enjoy the game any less than you do. Just because we understand the game at a deeper level doesn’t mean we enjoy a beautiful swing or an amazing catch any less than you do. As a matter of fact, because we understand a player’s baseline ability better, we can appreciate things that would go underrated by others.
That wasn’t what I was implying at all and I have a hard time understanding how you even got that from what I said. I said I can understand that people watch the game differently, that doesn’t mean we don’t get the same level of enjoyment. If anything I’m saying don’t look down at us for not caring about this, which is what I’ve seen a lot of in here especially in your response.
Ironically he didn’t say anything that would imply you enjoy the game less, that implication came from you in your response.
Personally I like the availability of advanced stats if I choose to focus on them. I also truly miss an announcer discussing the different hand positions or why that curveball should be called a slurve.
Baseball is notoriously difficult to evaluate with the naked eye, which is why we have statistics in the first place. For instance, the difference between a .300 hitter and a .250 hitter is one extra hit every 10 days or so., or 18 hits over a season. With more information, we can assign values to other aspects of the game, and get better results.
Teams can evaluate players better, so nowadays there are fewer one sided trades, because every team can put a pretty exact dollar value on their assets. Statcast also allows fans to appreciate the contribution of those players that don’t flash a gaudy BA or ERA. Baseball fans are aware of what teams do, but for those of us that want to dig deeper, it also gives us a better idea of why.
Baseball is also notoriously difficult to evaluate with statistics, as are all complex systems. Science is hard. Just because your model produces a number doesn’t mean it’s a significant number.
I’m not against any new stat. I do however feel that these “new” stats, and likewise, the dismissal of the stats the game was built upon, combine to turn off the veteran fan. As the MLB is so concerned about drawing new fans, that they actually believe removing 4 thrown balls from an intentional walk, will help them do so, confusing, ridiculing, and dismissing what a veteran fan grew up on, doesn’t help their cause, either. Dropping 4 minutes off the game time doesn’t get anyone to say “Wow, its a faster game, lets go!”
Given 2 Players with the same OPS, I’ll take the one with the higher batting average. Walks only move a batter one base. Batting average is still relevant.
Given 2 Starters with similar pitching lines, I’ll take the one with the most wins over the last 5 years. Look at the salaries. The Starters who win, get Paid. Wins is still relevant.
This does not mean WAR (whichever version you chose) or FIP isn’t relevant too.
If I chose to mention a persons batting average, it does not make me smarter or dumber than a person that uses WAR as his first point of reference.
If we all want to be “fans” of the game, we could start by respecting each others opinions, and realize that there can be more than one viewpoint.
ops is onbase + slugging, so there are more variables that go into it than just batting average and bbs. Did you mean players with the same obp?
Here is an example that I use that shows how little AVG matters when you know OBP and SLG. Carlos Santana and Jean Segura had basically the same OBP, SLG, and PAs last year, but their AVG was 60 points apart. Santana had 50 extra walks and 14 extra homers, while Segura had 50 extra singles and 14 extra doubles. 50 BB and 14 HR is basically as valuable as 50 1B and 14 2B, so batting average is really more of a style stat than a value one.
Not to repeat everything I said above but you make some of the same points. If MLB believes they can market the game mainly to appeal to baseball nerds they are going find it alienates a lot of fans who follow the game for different reasons.
The game is in the midst of a revolution. With the news over the last few years of CTE in football, I believe that a lot of the talent that was going to football is now going to get pushed to baseball because of it. With that being said, it sounds like MLB is trying to take casual fans to the next step(mostly football fans IMO). Any and all info. and rule changes that can gain more fans is smart business….just as long as the changes aren’t drastic.
Purists hate it…ignore it then. But, imagine the differences in stats from defensive shifts that we have now based on statistics back in the day. Everyone always changes their approach, pitchers and hitters are even getting better based on the statistics.
Agree or disagree, it’s your choice, but these statistics are making the game better from all aspects.
I love the amount of stats at our disposal, I love pouring through them all season and offseason. But… I will say the various “pitch trackers” that show the strike zone and where the pitch ended up are really distracting to me, I start to feel like I’m just watching game cast on my computer. I look forward to the day where cable/tvs have advanced to the point of being able to choose wh
Whether or not you want any kind of statcast showing on the screen
“the league’s 30 clubs are worth at least $1 billion apiece because all own a stake in BAM”. How does BAM provide this much ROI for the teams? Who pays for the data other than the clubs?