Pitching attitudes versus OPS

vs. pitching around someone. pretty cool question, just hard to quantify I’d guess

There are several types of pitchers out there. A few templates:

a) The guy that blows it by you (Lincecum)
b) The guy with pinpoint control (Greg Maddux)
c) The guy with one pitch that is just impossible to get lumber on (Mo Rivera)
d) The guy who NEEDS contact, and keeps the ball down (Piniero?)

You might argue there are more people in categories “c” and “d” these days. Lots of specialists these days, with all of the relievers. But I would suggest that each pitcher simply plays to his strengths, and probably doesn’t worry much about what kind of batter he is facing. People like Lincecum, Carpenter, Sabathia, and others don’t get fancy when they face a hitting machine like Ichiro. They just concentrate and throw their best stuff. Just my opinion though. Definitely a challenging subject for discussion…

1. Have you read Ted Williams’ book on hitting, Lau’s book on hitting, the recent Gibson/Jackson book (60 ft. 6 inches, which covers both hitting and pitching and the battle between pitcher and hitter), and George Will’s Men at Work (the Ripken and Hershiser chapters)?
2. Have you listened or read interviews of Gibson, Jim Palmer, Koufax, Satchel Paige, or Whitey Ford? Specifically when they are talking about pitching or hitting?

The above list pretty well covers any era post-WWII.

I think if you actually do some research on this that you’ll find that the attitudes toward hitting really haven’t changed all that much in any era. How those players are valued probably has, but that doesn’t mean that players and managers never understood the value of a walk prior to the book Moneyball or that pitchers haven’t ever understood the value of the strikeout and ground ball since. Look at the hitters like Ruth, Gehrig, Foxx, Mays, Mantle, and Aaron — they all played before a lot of the books on hitting came out and long before sabermetrics, but were high average, high OBP power hitters just like the best hitters we have today. I don’t really think that the pitching has much to do with it at all actually, save seasons like 1968 (the year of the pitcher). I would guess that the condition of the grounds and the precision of the height of the mound and bullpen mounds had a lot more to do with fluctuations than anything else.

The things that have really changed over the last 25 years or so are the diminished value placed on stolen bases since the 1980’s, and the weight training/steroids making power hitters out of previously light hitting position players like SS and 2B.

As far as Brett goes, he had one of the longest peaks of anyone in that era — from 1975 to 1985, he averaged a 148 OPS+. In that 10 year period (’75 to ’85), only Mike Schmidt (154) is in his class in terms of OPS+, nobody else (Mex, Clark, Garvey, Winfield, etc.) come within 10 points of 148. He also won a batting title at age 37, won an MVP, and presided over the only successful seasons in Kansas City baseball history. Talk about the face of a franchise, no Kansas City team has ever even made the PLAYOFFS without George Brett on the roster.

Fourstick’s reading list is excellent. I’ve read Gibby’s book as well as George Wills. Both were entertaining and informative.

Also, I peeked just to see who has the best single season OPS. Perhaps no surprise was that it was Mr. Barry Bonds. What DID shock me was the number. An OPS+ of 268, back in 2002. At the age of 37. Guess the roids were working overtime that year…