MVN - Most Valuable Network

How ’bout some more science, Melvin?

Bob Melvin.  Let’s be honest, man, I think you’ve taken this ‘mad scientist’ thing a little too far.  It’s not all cackling madly and throwing switches while Igor takes cover from a shower of sparks.  Don’t get me wrong, you’ve got the “mad” part down to a T, perfectly.  But there’s that little niggling factor you’re missing out on- the science part.

Yeah, I know, you made quite an impact last year, and I was all for it- you deserved that Manager of the Year award, no doubt.  But this year?  It’s not quite working out.  Like I said, too much mad, not enough scientist.  You might wonder why I bring it up now, so I’ll cut straight to it- Micah Owings.

The guy had a great season at the plate last year- we all remember that, it was fantastic.  The Babe Ruth comparisons ran amok, he earned a Silver Slugger, and we all leaned back to wonder what it’d be like if he hit more often.  Okay, that’s fine, we’re all together there.  I don’t think anyone really could argue much at the idea of trying him out as a pinch hitter during the season- who wouldn’t want that bat in the lineup more often?

But remember when I said you had too much mad, not enough science?  This is just where science might help.  The scientific method, as many of us were taught at the surly age of 14 is all about gathering data and using it to understand at the bigger picture.  So let’s look at the data here.  Counting today’s outing, Micah’s had 12 pinch hit appearances.  In those appearances, he’s had 2 hits and 6 strikeouts.  Not pretty numbers.  This just isn’t working.  Now, Micah’s still putting up a decent average at the plate in his starts, batting .286.  That isn’t going to win much acclaim, but that’s pretty impressive for a pitcher, and his OBP is actually better in his starts this season (.359) than it was last year (.339).  So he’s still got a pretty decent plate presence for a pitcher.  But he’s not a pinch hitter.

This problem is particularly bad when you pass up so many people who have the potential to be good batters- did you seriously look down the bench today and think that Owings was a better choice at the plate than Chad Tracy, Jeff Salazar, or Stephen Drew?  Yeah, I understand, there are match ups to take into consideration, with the left-handed pitcher and all, but a little check of the stats tells me that Micah has performed better against right-handed pitching, while Drew has done better against lefties in his career.  I mean, Webb’s got an OPS of .804 against lefties this season, versus Micah’s .411- maybe you should have handed him the bat.

That took me about thirty seconds to figure out on ESPN’s web page, so I’m sure you’ve got a guy who can tell you how they all do against pitchers with an equal number of vowels and consonants in their name, and that guy is probably also wondering why you ran Micah out there.  So, my point is this, Melvin- yes, you’re the mad scientist, but how about a little bit more science out there?

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 8:02 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.