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THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

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Monday, October 19, 2009

What was Joe Girardi thinking?

By Tangotiger, 08:42 PM

Would you rather have Mariano Rivera batting (of a tie game, with TWO outs) and then pitching the next inning, or would you rather send in a PH, and then bring in your third best reliever?

Let me show you a quick way to figure that out using Leverage Index.  If you go here, you will see the LI is 0.4.  Remember that.  Now, the average pitcher-as-a-batter is roughly -.15 runs per PA.  We have to figure Mo is a little bit worse.  Let’s make him -.20 runs per PA.  UPDATE (I forgot to do this part, but I was putting my kid to bed.  You have to take the -.20 and multiply by 0.4, to make it -.08 runs).

As a pitcher, Mo is fantastic, say somewhere between 1.5 and 2 runs per 9IP better than the next best option on the Yanks.  That’s roughly .20 runs per IP.  The LI to start the bottom of a tied inning is 2.3.  That makes his impact the equivalent of .46 runs.

As you can see, a huge difference here.  So, you let Mo bat, for sure.  (Otherwise, in a typical inning, it’s a breakeven play.)

(9) Comments • 2009/10/20 • SabermetricsIn-game_Strategy
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October 19, 2009
What was Joe Girardi thinking?