Scherzer’s Stamina

Max Scherzer credits his ability to pitch deep in games to college baseball:

College teams have the major benefit of using their best starting pitchers once a week. Scherzer was the Tigers’ Friday starter, and as he pressed on in that Nebraska game through a scoreless eighth inning and past 115 pitches. Joba Chamberlain, Nebraska’s starter in that game and a future Yankees reliever, had long departed the game, needing 114 pitches to get through 5 2/3 innings. Both talents did so knowing they wouldn’t throw again for seven days.

“When you’re exposed to those types of pitch counts, and you’re facing a lineup three or four times and pitching deep into a game, I really feel like that’s a benefit to pitchers in general,” Scherzer said. “I’ve always been a big believer that, even if it’s only once a month, you do need to really tap your pitch count to an extreme level, to 120, to really push it.”

The Japanese majors use the once a week model for their starters (they always know which day of the week a pitcher is starting). That hasn’t really translated into those pitchers going deeper in MLB games. Scherzer may just be an extreme outlier in pitching ability.

This article, however, notes that general managers are moving toward a more bullpen centric approach to building a pitching staff:

This year’s market is starting to reflect these in-game trends. Teams are willing to accept (even pursue) a 160-inning, 180-inning pitcher, and not aim for a 200-inning certainty. The spending pie on pitching is starting to change too as relievers get a larger slice of it, and some teams lean heavy on the back end of their bullpen to hold a lead. It’s a trend similar to what Jamieson saw when the Tigers moved to the Southeastern Conference and more teams started to put their best arms in the bullpen — to be certain to secure leads.

Might a team be better off with seven starters going deep in games? Probably not, as pitching ability is going to decline a great deal going down to the seventh starter.

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The Power Of “Yes, And…” In Coaching

Too few managers actively coach.  CSO Insights Data indicates the majority of manager spend less than 2 hours a week coaching—total!  Too often, what managers consider as coaching is actually very destructive.  It’s manifested in several ways:

The manager is constantly in tell mode.  The manager thinks he knows the situation better than the salesperson, rather than listening, understanding, and exploring; the manager starts telling.  They dictate actions the sales person should take.  “Go do this, then do that, then try this, and get back to me so I can tell you what to do next.  Each of us knows how badly we feel when our views aren’t heard and we are told what to do.  We are demoralized and unmotivated.  We go through the motions, after all, if they fail, it’s not our fault–we’re just doing what our managers told us to do, it’s their fault!  Alternatively we rebel, doing exactly the opposite, thinking, “I’ll show him how stupid he is.”  Whether it works or not, we create a terrible situation with our managers.  Inevitably, even if what we did works, the manager says, “Why didn’t you do what I told you to do?”

Alternatively, managers believe they are coaching by finding all the things we are doing wrong, highlighting how badly we’ve screwed up, but offering no suggestions other than, “You need to fix it or you are gone.”  Like the other type of manager, this type of manager is demoralizing.  They create work environments where people tend to keep their heads down so they stay out of trouble.

Then finally, there are those managers that think coaching is just about getting status updates.  Usually, they add no value, other than updating their knowledge of a situation so they can use it in their reports and analysis.  They seldom offer suggestions, or engage in conversation other than to elicit data they can plug into their spreadsheets.

None of these environments are healthy.  They don’t promote learning, growth, or improvement.  Inevitably, performance and morale suffer in these types of organizations.  They are probably further characterized by high turnover and consistent misses of goal attainment.

Effective coaching requires a completely different mind-set.  It requires a growth mind-set, focused on openness, learning and mutual growth.  It takes an attitude of understanding where a person is–both in strengths and weaknesses, and an orientation to build on that.

Rather than telling, criticizing, or only seeking data; effective coaches are actively engaged in understanding, learning, exploring and growing with their people.

These managers tend to take a “Yes, and……” approach in their discussions with their people.  They seek to build on and expand the perspectives and approaches their people are taking.  They ask probing questions, they ask open ended questions.  They provide relevant stories and examples that cause people to think differently, to consider new approaches.

When they must criticize, they do so knowing they have to help the person discover a more successful approach.

Their questions often start with, “What if……”  “Have you considered this….”  “What would happen if you looked at it this way….”  These questions provoke thinking, introspection, conversation.  Rather than leaving the person feeling defeated, they try to provide helpful alternatives.

Great coaching is tough, you can’t fake it.

But the pay back of great coaching is phenomenal.  It’s the highest leverage activity of anything we can do to drive the performance of our people.

 

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The Need for Speed

Rob Manfred is going to speed up the game, and his speed waits for no union:

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says rule changes to speed games will be put in place next year with or without an agreement with the players’ association.

Major League Baseball proposed last offseason to institute a 20-second pitch clock, limits in trips to the mound by catchers and raising the bottom of the strike zone. The union did not agree, and management has the right to impose them unilaterally for 2018.

Speaking Thursday after a quarterly owners’ meeting, Manfred says “my preferred path is a negotiated agreement with the players, but if we can’t get an agreement we are going to have rule changes in 2018 one way or the other.”

Of course, turning some home runs into fly-ball outs will speed things along as well.

I actually liked the quick five-second commercials during the World Series. I will gladly takes those if it means shorter breaks between innings. Cutting 30 second between breaks shaves nine minutes off a game with no rule changes.

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BBWAA MVPs

The BBWAA voted Giancarlo Stanton MVP of the National League and Jose Altuve MVP of the American League. The announcement came Thursday evening.

Stanton won a very close vote, with Stanton and Joey Votto each receiving 10 first place votes. Stanton received more second and third place votes than Votto to win the award 302 to 300 points.

Giancarlo Stanton of the Marlins edged Joey Votto of the Reds to win the National League MVP in one of the tightest races ever. The two-point margin was the third closest in NL MVP balloting and the fourth overall.

There was a tie in the NL in 1979 when first basemen Keith Hernandez of the Cardinals and Willie Stargell of the Pirates each received 216 points.

There have been two one-point margins, one in each league. In 1944, Cardinals shortstop Marty Marion won over Cubs outfielder Bill Nicholson, 190-189. The closest American League vote was in 1947 when Yankees center fielder Joe DiMaggio edged Red Sox left fielder Ted Williams, 202-201.

Anthony Rendon finished sixth, despite tying Stanton for the league lead in fWAR. He received one third and one fourth place vote. Kris Bryant, who had a better year than in 2016 when he won the MVP, finished seventh despite his club winning a division. He did receive one first place vote.

Altuve won going away, receiving 27 first place votes and three second place votes, with Aaron Judge getting two of the other first place votes and 27 second place votes. I thought this would be closer:

Jose Altuve of the Astros is the fifth American League second baseman to win the MVP, which has been awarded only 11 times to a second baseman.

Other AL winners were the Tigers’ Charlie Gehringer in 1937, the Yankees’ Joe Gordon in 1942, the White Sox’ Nellie Fox in 1959 and the Red Sox’ Dustin Pedroia in 2008. The award has been won by a second baseman in the National League six times, including two-time winner Joe Morgan of the Reds in 1975 and 1976. The others were the Cardinals’ Frankie Frisch in 1931, the Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson in 1949, the Cubs’ Ryne Sandberg in 1984 and the Giants’ Jeff Kent in 2000.

No position has had fewer MVP winners.

He was a very deserving candidate, but so was Judge.

If you look at the voting and go down the diagonal, there was good agreement 1-4. Even lower than that, the position of finish saw the player get the most votes in that slot often. It seems there was no mystery in the AL this season as to where the players ranked.

Congratulations to Altuve and Stanton on their well deserved honors!

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IBWAA MVPs

The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America selected Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Altuve and NL and AL MVP respectively:

Los Angeles – The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) announced the winners in its Most Valuable Player category Thursday, with the Houston Astros’ Jose Altuve winning the group’s American League award, and Giancarlo Stanton, of the Miami Marlins, being selected in the National League.

Altuve received 107 first-place votes (72.79%) and 1838 points while being named on 146 of 147 ballots (99.32%). Others receiving first-place votes include Aaron Judge (28), Mike Trout (7) and Francisco Lindor (2).

Stanton received 58 first-place votes (40%) and 1492 points while being named on 144 of 145 (97.96%) ballots. Others receiving first-place votes include Paul Goldschmidt (25), Nolan Arenado (20), Joey Votto (16), Charlie Blackmon (15) and Anthony Rendon (7).

Election results are as follows:

AL MVP

1st Place: Jose Altuve, Houston Astros – 1838 points
2nd Place: Aaron Judge, New York Yankees – 1341
3rd Place: Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim – 1067
4th Place: Jose Ramirez, Cleveland Indians – 997
5th Place: Francisco Lindor, Cleveland Indians – 562
6th Place: Corey Kluber, Cleveland Indians – 389
7th Place: Mookie Betts, Boston Red Sox – 376
8th Place: Chris Sale, Boston Red Sox – 280
9th Place: George Springer, Houston Astros – 207
10th Place: Andrelton Simmons, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim – 202

NL MVP

1st Place: Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins – 1492 points
2nd Place: Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks – 1115
3rd Place: Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds – 1025
4th Place: Charlie Blackmon, Colorado Rockies – 1003
5th Place: Nolan Arenado, Colorado Rockies – 959
6th Place: Anthony Rendon, Washington Nationals – 577
7th Place: Kris Bryant, Chicago Cubs – 512
8th Place: Cody Bellinger, Los Angeles Dodgers – 253
9th Place: Justin Turner, Los Angeles Dodgers – 243
10th Place: Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals – 185

Ballot tabulations by Brian Wittig & Associates, using the Borda Method.

The IBWAA was established July 4, 2009 to organize and promote the growing online baseball media, and to serve as a digital alternative to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). Voting for full season awards takes place in September of each year, with selections being announced in November. The IBWAA also holds a Hall of Fame election in December of each year, with results being announced the following January.

Among others, IBWAA members include Tim Brown, Yahoo! Sports; Craig Calcaterra, NBC Sports Hardball Talk; Bill Chuck, Billy-Ball.com; Derrick Goold, St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Jon Heyman and Jesse Spector, Today’s Knuckleball; Danny Knobler, Bleacher Report; Kevin Kennedy; Kostya Kennedy, Sports Illustrated; Brian Kenny, MLBN; Will Leitch, Sports on Earth; Bruce Markusen, Hardball Times; Ross Newhan; Dayn Perry and Matt Snyder, CBSSports.com; Tom Hoffarth and J.P. Hoornstra Los Angeles Daily News; Pedro Moura, Los Angeles Times; Tracy Ringolsby, MLB.com; Ken Rosenthal, TheAthletic.com; Eno Sarris, FanGraphs; David Schoenfield of ESPN.com; Jim Bowden and Bill Arnold.

Association membership is open to any and all Internet baseball writers, with a $75 lifetime fee. Discounts for groups and scholarships are available. Members must be 18 years of age to apply.

For more information please visit www.ibwaa.com.

A number of things surprise me about the votes:

• I thought Altuve and Judge would be closer. I wonder if anyone thought, “Judge will win ROY, so I’ll vote for Altuve for MVP.” I voted for Judge, but I’m very happy with Altuve finishing first.
• I’m very happy to see the outstanding seasons by Lindor and Simmons honored.
• I thought Rendon would give Stanton a run for his money, but like the BBWAA voters, the IBWAA voters did not give Rendon much love.
• Given that the voters didn’t like Rendon, I am surprised Stanton didn’t run away with the award.

The BBWAA announces their winners between six and seven PM EDT tonight. There is already one difference in the vote, as Jose Ramirez made the top three in the American League.

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Suspension Training and Simplicity

Olympic Station – 132 Southeast False Creek Preconstruction Strata Condos

Olympic Station is the Western Gateway to Olympic Village, which is located at Southeast False Creek. Olympic Station by Aurmon Development is a 12-story LEED gold concrete building offering132 studio to 3-bedroom luxury condo homes. The location is a fine example of new urban living, where shopping and services are available steps away. Just a short stroll along Cambie Street takes you to Save On Foods and Whole Foods, the Royal Bank and Vancity Credit Union, London Drugs, Best Buy, Canadian Tire, and Home Depot. Or, you can hop on the Canada Line, located two blocks away, and get there in mere minutes.

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