MikesPickz.com » baseball

"Moneyball"

Erik Eitel — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:00:08 +0000

Moneyball, is the art of effectively managing a team’s finances (usually under a tight budget) in order to produce maximum results. This term was originally coined in Michael Lewis’s book Moneyball which was based off of the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics, Billy Bean.

While the term “moneyball” often refers to teams of limited resources such as the Oakland A’s and the Florida Marlins, just to name a few, what about the large market teams who have significantly altered the baseball market in a different direction?

When teams spend at will without repercussions they cause the balance in the league to shift. A good example of this was when Gary Matthews Jr. was signed to a $10 Million per year contract by the Los Angeles Angels. Is Matthews Jr. a $10 Million player? No, not even close, but the fact that a team was willing to pay him that much made him a $10 Million a year player. The point is, players are like stock, and as long as someone is willing to over pay for a player, they will then drive up the cost of all the other players in the league.

As long as there are teams that are not penalized for their excessive spending, the lower market teams will be unable to compete on the free agent market. It should be noted however that these lower market teams will be unable to compete on the free agent market, but these teams are still able to compete on the field.

This brings me to my final point, unlimited spending does not equal success. I know my readers are now thinking to themselves, so what is the point of this article then? The point is, as long as large market teams spend frivolously, the price of players will increase, small market teams will miss out, and the league will be inherently unbalanced.

This is a guest post written by Erik Eitel, the founder and owner of NumberOneBaseball.com

2009 World Series Recap

Mike — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:36:52 +0000

The 2009 World Series has come and gone, and the Yankees hoisted the trophy for the 27th time, by far the most in MLB history. The series didn’t start out the way they had hoped, losing Game 1 to the Phillies’ ace, Cliff Lee. Lee was brilliant in Game 1, allowing 1 run (0 earned). The best team in the MLB at home didn’t let that Game 1 loss get them down. They won the next 3 (1 in NY and 2 in Philly) games and didn’t look back from their. In game 5 they faced Lee and lost again, but the game was hardly a must win for the Yankees.

Then came game 6 back in NY against their nemesis from Boston, Pedro Martinez, who was pitching on normal rest for the first time in a month. They jumped off to a quick lead and never looked back. The World Series MVP, Hideki Matsui, crushed the baseball driving in 6 RBIs (2-run HR, 2-run double, 2-run single) in the game.

This win was huge for the Yankees- it was their first season in the new stadium and they spent tons of money on key players in the off-season. Without C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Mark Teixeira, and Nick Swisher, the Yankees don’t win the World Series this year. It was also huge because Joe Girardi failed to take the Yankees to the playoffs last season and was under intense pressure to win this year.

If the Yankees did not win the World Series this year, Girardi would have been questioned for what ended up being a brilliant strategy. The strategy?… to go with a 3 man rotation throughout the entire playoffs and World Series. Generally a team doesn’t have success with this strategy, the last time a team won the World Series with a 3-man rotation was the 1991 Twins.

The Phillies and Phillies’ fans should not put their heads down, they were in the World Series for the 2nd time in as many years. It is not an easy task to make the World Series two years in a row and the fact that they won once is an accomplishment. This year, they lost to a better team, it didn’t help that the NLCS MVP, Ryan Howard, set the World Series’ record with 13Ks and was virtually non-existent in the World Series. Chase Utley did his best to pick up the slack, tying the World Series record with 5 home-runs, but the Phillies were ultimately over matched against the Yankees.

The Yankees have three big questions to answer going into the off-season: 1) Sign or let Johnny Damon go?, 2) Sign or let Hideki Matsui go?, 3) Who will they get to fill in the back end of the rotation?

Congratulations Yankees on winning the 2009 World Series.

Enough is enough already

Mike — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:00:18 +0000

Two more names were released from the anonymous 2003 MLB performance enhancing drug test. They were Manny (who ironically just finished serving a suspension for the same thing) and his old teammate David Ortiz. It just happens that 2003 was the year David Ortiz became a star, with large increases in RBIs and HRs, which continued until last year and this year. It seems believable that he was on them, but to me that is not the issue. The issue isn’t even the fact that the Red Sox, who were lead by Manny and Ortiz, won the World Series the next season (2004) and again in 07.

The issue is the test was anonymous, which means that there should be no list. There should be no record, every other month baseball shouldn’t be reminded of the steroid era. It is time to move on, the MLB has enforced tougher drug policies, but the fact of the matter is that for the right price a player could find an undetectable PED if they really want it. The issue will never go away completely, but it has gotten much better lately.

In an AP report, reported on Yahoo! Sports, it was written:

“Can somebody in baseball—we’re all begging, people—get that stupid list out and move on,” Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “This is ridiculous; this is embarrassing; this is a joke. Whoever is there is there, get them out, and that’s it.”

I couldn’t agree more, since there is a list (which there shouldn’t be) just get it out so that baseball can move on.

So whoever has this list, do everyone a favor and just release the whole thing or burn it, so that we can move on and try to put the issue in the past.