Freakonomics Q&A With Bill James
Bill James answers some Yankees related questions. Via Freakonomics:
Q: Based on your statistical analysis, how do you feel about the Yankees’ young prospects, namely Chamberlain, Kennedy, and Hughes, making a huge (positive) difference for the Yankee pitching staff?
A: The same as I feel about our young pitching prospects with the Red Sox, really — Buchholz and Lester and Masterson. When you’re depending on young pitching, you’re vulnerable. Some of these guys are going to be very good, but probably not all of them, and there are going to be bumps in the road that will rattle your teeth.
Q: Do you think we will ever see another 300-innings-pitched season from a starter? How could they do it in the past, but not now? Given a Phil Hughes-type pitcher, what is the best regiment he could be given now that could prepare him for 300 I.P. in the future?
A: There is absolutely no way you could train Phil Hughes to throw 300 innings in modern major league baseball. “Ever” is a long time, but I don’t see it. Many different changes in the game are working against that happening — for example, the length of the games, in minutes and hours, and the fact that there is more emphasis now on getting strikeouts.
Unexpected changes occur because the system breaks down at some point. But until it breaks, there are 30 different trends in motion which all have the effect of driving innings by top starting pitchers downward.
There are many, many, other questions that James addresses in this Q&A. It’s worth checking out.
Anybody else torture themselves and listen to “Mike and the Mad Dog”? Mad Dog says Pedroia is as good (and in a “big game” better) than Cano because of his “feistiness” and because he “gets his hands dirty.”
And this is for Steve to grit his teeth over:
Keith Law was asked to give a sleeper Cy Young candidate in each league who won fewer than 10 games last year.
His answer:
“Cy Young candidates from < 10 wins: The Cy is all about win totals, so I’ll take two guys on teams that will provide plenty of run support: Yovani Gallardo (expected back by mid-April) and Philip Hughes. If you let me cheat, though, here are two 12-win guys who’ll contend for the award: Chad Billingsley and Dustin McGowan.”
Yeah, it wasn’t even a real compliment of Hughes, but I thought a Hughes/Cy Young suggestion might make Steve choke back a scream and then slam his head into a wall.
The Dustin Pedroia comparison reminds me of the guy that sang the praises of David Eckstein in the previous thread. Guys that get their uniforms dirty, but otherwise stink, are the most annoying players on earth to argue with guys like Mad Dog Russo. Pedroia and Eckstein have three WS rings between them but have nothing else to really offer their teams. I hate Pedroia and Eckstein.
Incidentally, JP Ricciardi likes to think of himself as a Moneyball guy. I wonder why he added Eckstein to his team…
I agree with James in that the 300 inning starter is a thing of the past.