Jim Souhan is TRYING to get our blood pressure up

by Jon Marthaler on Apr 5, 2009 3:00 PM EDT in By the Numbers Comment 17 comments

Jim Souhan, of the Star Tribune, wrote a column for the baseball preview section that appeared in today's paper. Titled "Short and sweet gives way to long and bor-r-r-ing," it decrys players who go to the plate looking to walk, rather than going up there to "do something spectacular."

After the jump: the numbers don't lie - unless you ignore them.

Souhan laments the loss of players - he names Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle in particular - who supposedly went up to bat looking to slash away, while vilifying entire teams (the Athletics, the Yankees, and the Red Sox are named) as well as the book "Moneyball" for introducing the idea of plate discipline, thereby ruining baseball.

Supposedly, guys like Derek Jeter and Paul O'Neill turned every at-bat into a "siege", instead of looking to make something happen like the Mick and the Say Hey kid.

And so we go to the numbers. Hey, that jerk O'Neill averaged 70 walks per 162 games! And Jeter is averaging just over 66! Those darn Yankees - heck, Jason Giambi walked 76 times last year to lead the team. JD Drew led the Red Sox with 79. And in Oakland, though only one player had more than 70, Jack Cust had 111 free passes.

It's just not like the old days, is it? After all, look at the averages for Mantle and Mays:

MANTLE - 116 walks per 162 games
MAYS - 79 walks per 162 games

That bastion of spectacular plate appearances, Mickey Mantle, actually led the American League in walks five times. He had more than 100 walks in a season NINE times. Jeter and O'Neill have combined to walk more than 100 times exactly once. Cust was one of only four players in the major leagues (along with Adam Dunn, Albert Pujols, and Pat Burrell) to walk more than 100 times last year.

I didn't make these numbers up. These are not some grand newfangled stats. Souhan simply didn't do a darn bit of research to confirm what he thought was obvious. And frankly, I wish he would; my blood pressure could use the rest, and Star Tribune readers could use a columnist who wasn't too lazy to check his assertions.

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Sigh

Souhan writes a good column now and then, then he does something so infuriatingly idiotic that he doesn’t deserve to tell his cousin about it in his basement, much less have it printed out and sent to tens of thousands of readers. He does something so lazy, so easy to fact check, that he and his editor should be blackballed from journalism forever. He does something so backwards and asinine that he makes the Gold Standard look forward thinking. This is an embarrassment to the journalism profession.

"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."
~ Earl Weaver
"In God we trust. All others must provide evidence."
~ Billy Beane

by AdamOnFirst on Apr 5, 2009 3:21 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Give them time.

The internet and the crumbling newspaper model will make it that “he and his editor be blackballed from journalism forever.”

Newspaper people are so fretting about their futures that they aren’t doing their jobs in the present.

by Evan Nelson on Apr 5, 2009 5:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That being said, I thought the baseball supplement in the Strib was really good.

A fine example of what we’ll all have lost within the next five to ten years.

by Evan Nelson on Apr 5, 2009 5:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I did too.

I’m not excoriating all of journalism – I really like the Strib and Pioneer Press overall. But this kind of column just infuriates me.

by Jon Marthaler on Apr 5, 2009 7:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Pitch Count

I know old school base-ballers like Byleven don’t like the idea of a pitch count, but I kind of enjoy its implication. It adds another aspect to the game, while protecting the pitchers from doing too many awkward arm repetitions in one night.

by ianmader on Apr 5, 2009 3:21 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

My thoughts...

When I read the headline and what he was starting with, I thought it was a weird article… but I think that his point was that teams that win take pitches but watching those long, drawn out games is not as exciting. I think that’s a fair comment. And yeah, the “common” fan thinks that a game is 3 hours is too long, they aren’t going to like those 4 hour games… I thought it was a fair article.

by SethSpeaks on Apr 5, 2009 4:13 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Well, games have gotten slower

But I question whether guys taking more pitches is the primary reason. It seems to me that the real culprits are:

1. Television and the longer commercial breaks
2. The increase in scoring in the last 15 years
3. All of the stepping out hitters do. Hargrove was named “The Human Rain Delay” because he stepped out on every pitch. Now everyone does that. Bill James pointed out once that the problem is night games; when teams primarily played day games, there was a clock—the sun. Umpires were trained to move the game along, but we’ve totally lost that concept.

by Eric in Madison on Apr 5, 2009 4:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Maddening Double Standard

Tangent.

I’m sure a lot of you like the NFL on here, too. But, it has become nearly unwatchable for me. It takes them over 3 hours to play 60 minutes. A TD is scored and there is a commercial. Then they kickoff. Commercial. A player gets hurt on the ensuing play. Commercial. Think about this for a moment. For every one minute of actual action, there is two minutes of nothing. Let’s not forget that “actual action” would also include a 40 second play clock involving teams huddling, not to mention time spent at the end of either half simply taking a knee.

The average baseball game is about 2:50. That is 170 minutes. I’m not sure what the average number of pitches is in a baseball game, but let’s say it is 250 (I’m guessing it isn’t significantly different than that, and a conservative estimate at that). That means there is almost 1.5 pitches per minute on average. Similarly, there is an average of 125 plays in a football game lasting 180 minutes. That is one play about every 42 seconds of actual time versus one every 40 seconds for baseball. Pretty much exactly the same. Yet, there is pressure for baseball games to move along faster while football games are actually getting longer. Plus, you can’t run out the clock in baseball. There is always time for a comeback.

Don’t even get me started on the NFL draft (oops, too late). I cannot think of a more overrated sporting event than that. First, it isn’t even a sporting event. Secondly, the actual impact of rookies in football is pretty low (no statistical analysis of that, but just my assumption) on the upcoming season. So why not just read the results in the paper (or more appropriately, online) the next day? Unlike actual sporting events, there is nothing to actually watch, per se, just a series of announcements that at best won’t contribute to any sort of on the field impact for 4-5 months. The polar opposite of the NFL draft is the NCAA basketball Selection Sunday. It literally (in)validates teams’ accomplishments into something that manifests itself on the court as soon as three days later (the play-in game is on Wednesday) and is the benchmark for most schools. That is worth watching and lasts a tiny fraction of the time of the NFL draft.

While we are on the topic of football/baseball, why does football get a relative free pass when it comes to performance enhancing drugs? Why are the same questions not asked of fans’ anger and outrage when Shawn Merriman gets suspended or that drug use is so rampant that even punters are suspended for performance enhancing drugs?

by rencito on Apr 5, 2009 6:33 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah

I can’t watch football anymore either. I used to be a superfan, getting all my stuff ready by the couch for the pregame and the six hours of nonstop action. But it’s become unwatchable with all the commercial breaks, challenges and clock management. Baseball may be slow, but one of the beauties of the game is you can’t take a knee and run out the clock. You have to play until the last out is recorded.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Apr 5, 2009 6:57 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Nice call, Earl Weaver

;)

by DK on Apr 5, 2009 7:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You just read that off my tagline

by AdamOnFirst on Apr 5, 2009 10:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thought you would notice :-)

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Apr 5, 2009 10:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Slow games

IMO, are a combination of many things. The teeny tiny strike zone for many umpires plays a big part. Call more strikes and you’ll have quicker, crisp games. Or you get the 4 hours dragathons like NY-BAL yesterday. Watching the long, drawn out games isn’t as entertaining, but it’s at least as much due to offense (more runners on base, more total batters, more time) than it is due to taking more pitchers per at bat or more time per pitch, again IMO.

by Adam Peterson on Apr 7, 2009 2:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Souhan, as the numbers show,

was romanticizing a sport that never existed. The supplement also pointed out, although the table was placed way down in the left-hand-bottom corner, that walks per game haven’t varied significantly in the past sixty years.

What’s happening is that Souhan, and others like him, remember all the 500 foot arcs and forget all the patience required to get there. Fans’ memories edit out the vast majority of the games.

Stats don’t.

by Evan Nelson on Apr 5, 2009 5:17 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Souhan's second worst

He wrote a column recently that was so bad, I ripped him mercilessly. This one wasn’t quite as bad, but it was close. The whole infomercial gimmick is just stupid. Then he doesn’t even stick to the theme. Yuck.

The idea that taking a walk equals not doing anything is just silly. Punto struck out looking 22 times in 2007. The trick is to take the balls and swing at the strikes.

The other thing that bugs me about the message is he blames the hitters for taking balls. The last time I checked, the umpires call balls and strikes. If the umpires refuse to call borderline pitches strikes, hitters would be foolish to give that advantage back to the pitcher. In addition to EIM’s points, I think the biggest reason games are so long is umpires tend to give hitters the benefit of the doubt. A lot of pitchers have to bury the pitch in the strikezone to get a third strike called. When I was growing up, pitchers always got close calls with two strikes.

My hope is that a consistently implemented video auditing system will force umpires to consistently call more strikes. That more than anything will speed games up and help teams keep the number of arms they use to a minimum.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Apr 5, 2009 6:01 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I hope you are right...

…about the new system (the one replacing QuesTec). My fear is that it will mean LESS strikes will be called. I always felt like umpires gave a little more on the black to the pitchers while giving hitters more room with the high strike. The plate is the same distance across for each batter, but the high and low strikes are more subjective because each player’s body and stance is different. I, for one, much prefer to watch a pitcher’s duel than a 7-5 game.

by rencito on Apr 5, 2009 6:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Complete Tangent

Okay, it is just plain unrelated, but it isn’t worth its own post either.

It is good to see Saint Paul product Dave Winfield is now a part of the Baseball Tonight team. Unfortunately, they don’t play Baseball Tonight as much as I would like during the offseason, so I don’t know if he has been on for while now or whether tonight is his first night. Regardless, he is impressive so far; very well spoken and insightful, which of course shouldn’t come as any surprise.

by rencito on Apr 5, 2009 7:43 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs