Posted by italyprof on 2/9/2016 7:19:00 PM (view original):
Posted by toddcommish on 2/9/2016 6:06:00 PM (view original):
Posted by bagchucker on 2/9/2016 5:47:00 PM (view original):
that is exactly what i have always thought about triples
the most exciting play in baseball
rickey rounds 2nd, for example
put your favorite right fielder in right, can he nail rickey
For my money, the most exciting play in baseball is a medium deep fly ball with a runner on 3rd and less than two out. You're instantly computing the arm (and glove) of the outfielder, the speed (and timing) of the baserunner, the guts (pre-2014) of the catcher; all while the ball in is the air.
The most artistic play is a 5-4-3 double play. Done well, it's almost like ballet.
okay, I think sac flies ARE good, but especially when there has been a TEAM effort to move a runner to third which is rewarded by a sac fly - the exciting part is not the sac fly per se bagchucker, but rather the whole effort to get a runner to third. This is what is wrong with the triple. Guy gets a triple, next guy homers or hits a double. It is now all wasted effort and all individual hitting, a mere series, a serialized relationship as Jean-Paul Sartre would have called it, rather than a fused group. I liked watching the 1998-99 Yankees, who hit few triples and did not have anyone hitting 50 homers, but kept moving runners over even on outs.
Agree that the most elegant thing in the world is a double play, especially 5-4-3. This makes baseball performance art, like ballet.
The 1998 Yankees were league-average in terms of strikeout rate, above average in terms of sac flies, and below average in terms of sac hits. Average team had 89 sac flies + sac hits, Yankees had 91. Basically average. Normalized to their league-leading OBP, they were actually less likely to advance a runner with an out than an average team. They were also 2nd in the league in GIDP.
The 1999 Yankees were still near the middle but slightly better at not striking out, but comfortably below the AL average in total sacrifices. They did return down to an average DP count, which is a below-average rate given that they were still 2nd in OBP.
Overall, I think a lot of old-school baseball fans have romanticized this team as the last bastion of old-school "baseball done right," but in reality it was quite the opposite. They were basically an average team in terms of having productive outs and manufacturing runs. The late-'90s Yankees were, realistically, the first Moneyball team. They walked a ton and put lots of guys on base. They were new-school, Sabermetric baseball at its finest.