- and yeah, some article like you described. But that wasn't all that he descbribed.

I don't want to carry on, since this is supposed to be a celebratory thread and I like the guy. I just found it frustrating in the past when he would post an article like the one I described and not enough people would question it.

Good point on the rest of his work, however. As I said, his draft review was very interesting.

Ah yes, the "groupthink" argument. The last bastion of the lone, stalwart defenders of their own ignorance.

Didn't and wouldn't ever say anything about "groupthink," an argumentative tactic I have frequently opposed in the past. That is not what I meant.

Congrats, Mr. Gomez. I've always enjoyed your posts here. Heres a link to the Diamondbacks press release.
If you're reading this, what did you study at Purdue? That's a top notch school for engineering and mathematics.

Congrats, Carlos!

I thought and think that Carlos did valuable and good work. At the same time (and I'm going to turn around Shock's comments a bit), I'm not too confident of my ability to evaluate that work - at least not without hindsight (which we now have). Furthermore, I'm not sure how well we can do that as a collective either (consider this my version of the 'groupthink' statement, only that - rather than defending my ignorance, I'm claiming awareness of it).

But, enough of that - today, I'm happy for Mr. Gomez...

***
depletion - the press release lists his major: industrial engineering

I don't buy for one second that you can look at one flipping pitch and tell me if a guy is having a good season or not. In other words, I would have loved to see Carlos analyze pitching motions, and give advice WITHOUT knowing what time they were from and what the players stats were like at that time. That would have been infinitely more useful.

I don't see how that would be useful. What would be useful about that? We *do* have the stats; why should he be trying to give advice without them?

I think you're missing an implicit point in a mechanics piece like those you describe: if the pitcher fixes the flaw, his performance will rebound. CBW's analysis was after the initial change in the pitcher's performance and mechanics, but he was essentially proposing how to change them back. What we're missing is the after-the-fact validation; did the pitchers fix those flaws, and did they improve?

Vielen danke, K2. As an industrial engineer, he should be good at optimizing lineups and rosters then although that's not his job in AZ.

Regards,
Tim

Well done, CBW. You'll be very successful in this, I'm sure. And Kevin Towers is a good egg.

Congratulations to CBW. Haven't checked, but I assume he was smart enough to stay out of the "how to crap" thread and similar BTF discussions that may disqualify about half the posters here from ever holding a position of trust.

Well done.

In my every online interaction with him, he's been an awesome person. I know a few folks who work for the DBacks, and they also say he's a top notch human being. So I echo what everyone says about this happening to a deserving human (as well as, I assume, scout).

Congrats Carlos.

Congratulations!

Congrats Carlos.

Here's his 2006 Draft review:
http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/minor_key/discussion/breaking_down_the_first_round/

Not perfect, but more good calls than bad, and his ordering of the best players certainly looks better than the order teams collectively had.(whether you rank by actual draft order or by signing bonus)

Congrats, man! Loved your analysis of pitchers, particularly the violent, twisting sonsabitches. Good luck with Arizona.

Congrats CBW!

Just absolutely amazing news - must be doing a hell of a job to be promoted.

ALL THE BEST!!!

If you're reading this, what did you study at Purdue? That's a top notch school for engineering and mathematics.

Here's an interview I did with Carlos in 2008. Not in the transcribed part, but he told me he studied industrial engineering, and actually worked for a short time as an engineer

Also, here's an interview Jay Jaffe did with Carlos at Prospectus in 2004, when he was still pitching.

I disagree.

Every thing he did was after-the-fact, which I found incredibly annoying. EG, here's a pitcher who pitched really well last year, and who stinks this year. Here is video of one pitch from one start last year, and here is video of one pitch from one start this year. Notice they are different; this is the reason he stinks.

Just once I would have liked to have seen him do something like this before the fact; as is I found his stuff interesting but entirely useless.

I'm guessing that a professional baseball franchise would very much like to have someone that can point out why a pitcher who previously performed well is no longer doing so, especially when that analysis contains advice on how that pitcher can improve/return to previous levels of success. I'm guessing they also would like to have someone who can point out which prospects can be "fixed" or which ones to avoid.

And all of this was based on freely available scouting videos.

Congrats!

the press release lists his major: industrial engineering

Or as we Electrical Engineering majors called it, "Imaginary Engineering."