BBTF's Newsblog Discussion :: Brewers measure offense by ‘team production’

Baseball Primer Newsblog
— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Brewers measure offense by ‘team production’ | brewers.com: News

Getting hits is so passee.

The Brewers’ offense is not clicking the way it has in recent seasons, at least according to the traditional measures. But the team’s coaches have other ways of tracking production, including one they track called “team productive at-bats.”

Hitting coach Johnny Narron said that a player can earn such an at-bat through five categories:
• Any type of “free pass,” including a walk, hit-by-pitch or catchers’ interference.
• A sacrifice bunt or sacrifice fly.
• Advancing a lead runner by putting a ball in play for an out or an error.
• Any plate appearance of eight pitches or more.

Edit: Link fixed.

Jim Furtado Posted: May 09, 2012 at 08:49 PM | 10 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: brewers, sabermetrics

Reader Comments and Retorts

Go to end of page

Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.

1. ShoeGrit Posted: May 09, 2012 at 08:58 PM (#4127802)

"error; Bad article URL....."

2. Der_K Posted: May 09, 2012 at 09:24 PM (#4127832)

Here you go.

This sounds like a system that Uecker would've come up with during a Tonight Show appearance.

3. BWV 1129 Posted: May 09, 2012 at 09:30 PM (#4127839)

Getting hits is so passee.

The first of the five kinds of productive AB listed in the article is "Any type of hit."

It's basically just times on base plus runners advanced plus sac hits and bunts plus PA of 8+ pitches. It's pretty harmless.

4. smileyy Posted: May 09, 2012 at 09:38 PM (#4127850)

At least we gone from "Productive outs" to "Productive ABs"

5. Robert in Manhattan Beach Posted: May 09, 2012 at 09:42 PM (#4127854)

I've probably shared this before, my high school baseball coach tracked something called PPS, points per swing. Basically every swing was assigned a point value. The scoring system was something like: Line Drive = 6, Hard ground ball = 5, Soft ground ball = 4, Fly ball = 3, Pop Up = 2, Fouled back = 1, Miss = 0. He stressed hitting the ball on the ground and "making the defense work".

So a first pitch sharp ground out to first was a 5 PPS. Two swings and misses followed by a home run would be a 2 PPS. Looking back it's obviously pretty ridiculous, yet consistent with his overall performance.

6. Dan Posted: May 09, 2012 at 11:12 PM (#4127946)

Wasn't there a big story about the Rangers having a similar system in 2010 when Clint Hurdle was the hitting coach?

7. boteman Posted: May 09, 2012 at 11:13 PM (#4127948)

It's been a long day at work for me, but I only count four bullet points in the excerpt. I suppose if the second bullet point counts for 2 then we have a total a five categories.

8. hokieneer Posted: May 09, 2012 at 11:53 PM (#4127976)

#5, You illustrate the fuzziness of the math (probably should be points per AB), but the concept he was going can be effective in HS. The on-base percentage (both hits and ROE) on hard ground balls in HS has to be at least 2.5x the on-base percentage on flyballs. "Making the defense work" at the HS level and below is not a terrible team philosophy, as long as you aren't sacrificing XBHs and BBs to have everyone hit grounders.

9. BWV 1129 Posted: May 10, 2012 at 02:40 AM (#4128016)

boteman, the excerpt only includes 4 of the 5, the first of the 5, getting a hit, appears in TFA.

10. Russ Posted: May 10, 2012 at 06:27 AM (#4128027)

#5, You illustrate the fuzziness of the math (probably should be points per AB), but the concept he was going can be effective in HS. The on-base percentage (both hits and ROE) on hard ground balls in HS has to be at least 2.5x the on-base percentage on flyballs. "Making the defense work" at the HS level and below is not a terrible team philosophy, as long as you aren't sacrificing XBHs and BBs to have everyone hit grounders.

And it's not clear the system wasn't devised to convince players to keep the bat plane level and to avoid getting under the ball when making contact and to really avoid swinging at bad pitches. Basically a way to convert "did you take a good swing" into some sort of result that can be measured, that is independent of what the defense actually did with it.

You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.

<< Back to main

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Brewers measure offense by ‘team production’ | brewers.com: News

Reader Comments and Retorts

BBTF Sponsor

Support BBTF

Bookmarks

Hot Topics