Baseball Musings: Eighth Okay

February 10, 2005

Eighth Okay

Athletics Nation is no longer dreading the 8th inning.

No more white knuckle endings...suddenly, A's fans can stop asking their doctors for blood pressure medicine.
Yes, there will likely be someone who doesn't work out in the pen, be it Juan Cruz or Kiko Calero or even Dotel, but the truth is that now the A's have depth in the organization and can reach down into the system to pluck someone like Huston Street to take the role. Or even Jairo Garcia.

Of course, the reality of the situation isn't as bad as you might think from that post. The A's allowed 75 runs in the 8th inning last year, tied for 20th (1 is most) in the majors. Only three AL teams allowed fewer runs in the 8th, with the Yankees allowing the fewest (63).

In fact, the 8th was one of their best innings. They allowed 97 runs in the 5th inning, and 94 in the 3rd. The 8th ranked 7th among the 9 innings. And if you look at runs per 9 IP, the 8th is actually better than the 9th! (4.17 allowed in the 8th, 4.32 allowed in the 9th.) The Oakland fans are looking for improvement in a place that wasn't a problem.

Posted by David Pinto at 09:42 AM | Team Evaluation | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Strangely, Lee Sinnis informs us today that the Cubs are interested in Dotel. So maybe the white knuckling will be worse than last year.

Posted by: Bill K at February 10, 2005 10:18 AM

The Cubs gave up Sammy Sosa in order to get Jerry Hairston Jr - imagine what they'll have to give up for Dotel!

Posted by: sabernar at February 10, 2005 10:38 AM

The point is that the A's bullpen blew a lot of leads and saves last year. Whether it happened in the 6th, 7th, 8th or 9th, they blew a lot of games they should have won. Bullpen improvement is what we (A's fans) are looking for. No one really cares about the inning itself.

Posted by: Ameer at February 10, 2005 11:24 AM

Right. Surely allowing one run in the 8th inning when you had a one-run lead is worse than allowing 3 runs in the 8th when you had a 7-run lead. So just counting "runs allowed in 8th innings, total" isn't a measure of anything.

Posted by: Blixa at February 10, 2005 11:49 AM

Baseball fans have a way of getting upset over the wrong things. They'll remember one or two instances when something happened and won't bother looking at the numbers to see what actually happened.

I've talked to so many fellow-Sox fans who are sick of the strategy of getting as many men on base as possible because the Sox "don't score as much as they should and leave too many men on base". It's really easy to look at the numbers to see that the Sox plated about 39% of the runners they got on base and the AL average is 38%.

Posted by: Steak Sammich at February 10, 2005 01:55 PM

Athletics Nation isn't a blog and that site is just a glorified message board set up to make a profit for the owner.

First the baseball, obviously, the A's problem last season was that they didn't score enough damn runs. Elephants in Oakland pointed that out a few hundred times over the last two seasons. So has Barry ZIto Forever and Baysball. And Ken Macha's use of the bullpen was horrible last year. Elephants in Oakland pointed that out on a daily basis. The post on Macha's margin for error was hilarious (like .0923 runs per game).

Second, every time you go to Athletics Nation, that is a 'hit'. Every time you click on the comments section, that is a 'hit'. If you decide to post a comment, that is a 'hit'. Want to refresh and view the comment? That is a 'hit'. Want to extend your ego and write a diary? ...and the hits just keep on coming. In reality, one reader can count for as many as twenty or more hits in an hour.

The hits mean $$$ because Athletics Nation seeks advertisers, which a lot of blogs who focus on one team don't do for fear of MLB targeting them for copyright infringement.

How many interviews has Athletics Nation had with Billy Beane - and what have you learned by reading those interviews you haven't read in other papers for the last few years?

Athletics Nation is a danger as no real information is passed along there. And it is branching out to start a network of similar sites. More sites with 30 or so readers posting on a message board, but what is being said? What is being researched? Doesn't MLB already have message boards?

Posted by: Larry Dressens at February 16, 2005 01:08 AM