Posted on: April 1, 2010 by admin
Whether you know it or not, statistics play a huge role in the operations of an MLB team. This goes well beyond the normal stats like ERA and batting averages. Sure these are huge in how the line ups are done or how players may be paid and so on, but players are sometimes recruited based on statistical analysis. How tall they are, how old, how big, how much they weigh and more. These can be critical when recruiting.
After playing ball for tons of years, they have compiled so many stats on players. These stats may show for example that players under the height of 5’8″ do not do as well as taller players. Now we made that up but we think you get the point, statistics are very important.
Posted on: March 26, 2010 by admin
Off the field lives can really end up in the press more often than on the field lives when it comes to some players. Why is it that some players just seem to be in the habit of showing up front page of the news with some big off the field moment. Without naming names of course, players tend to be watched carefully by the media for starters. Once they do something that seems a little off, the press is all over it. If that event were to happen to most people nobody would care. But because these guys are in the news and sports celebrities, they tend to get a ton of attention.
They key for players really seems in balancing their off the field life with their on the field life. The season is very long and there is tons of time there for the two to clash at times. For most fans it is distracting. These guys get paid a ton of money and for fans they expect them to carry their team to the championship. There can be nothing worse for a team to have an odd man out when it comes to trouble. The more gelled a team is the better chance they have in winning.
Posted on: March 18, 2010 by admin
Just recently in the news was the announcement of John Smoltz heading to Turner Sports to become an announcer. Smoltz just recently retired and has played in the MLB as a pitcher for over 22 seasons, which is quite amazing for any player, much less a pitcher. His love for the game certainly continues off the field as a reporter. Not all players are cut from the same cloth though. Not every player will end up in the sport in the same way. Some may end up reporters or announcers like Smoltz; some may end up business men owning restaurants or some other sort of business. Many players do like to remain in the game though. Some end up team owners and some even end up head coaches themselves. Even Mark McGuire ended up a hitting coach in the MLB despite his past drug use. Once you find you have a love for the game, you have trouble leaving it.
Do you think Smoltz will make a good announcer? Many people seem to think he is just right for the position. Only time will tell how he performs and equally how he enjoys it. But after 22 years pitching, I would not expect to see him back on the mound.
Posted on: March 15, 2010 by admin
Swinging for the fences seems to be the thing to do now in the MLB. For the last couple of decades, the focus for many hitters has been hitting home runs. Some even have sacrificed their own bodies by taking steroids in order to achieve greater home run numbers. But the ones that are not breaking the rules still try and hit more and more home runs every year. But is it really wise? Certainly there are many power hitters in the game. Better yet, there are hitters with consistently high averages that can still hit over 20 homers a year. But what caused the US to lose in the World championships a few years back was just good old fashioned error free ball by Japan. They won the game with no power hitting, just amazing fielding, smart base running and good get on base hitting. They knew if their pitching could keep them in the game, they would need very few runs to win. Every batter that got on base was precious, no matter how they got there. Home runs can be great, but a bit over-rated at times. What is your opinion, would baseball still be as exciting with half as many home runs per year?