Monday, April 08, 2013
Tony Pena, difference-maker
I love the research arm of the community. Here's James investigating the framing talent of Jose Molina, and he finds that Tony Pena's fingerprints are all over the place.
We also see this nice little "with or without you" (WOWY) wOBA as it relates to Molina:
In terms of wOBA against, both groups of pitchers saw a weighted average decrease of .025 wOBA points in their season with Molina behind the plate compared to the season immediately before or after without him.
Now, those are observations, and not true talent. In any case, changing .025 in wOBA is the equivalent of a 15% change in runs scored. Even if you want to regress that all the way down to 5%, that'd still be 0.2 runs per game, or 25 runs in a full season. THAT's why discovering this pitch-framing skill is so exciting. Forget about teaching the knuckler. Just teach catchers how to catch a ball.
***
I remember this one game, bases were loaded, Yankee Stadium, last inning, and Wille Randolph was at the plate, with 3 balls (and I think the count was full... that part I don't remember). Anyway, Willie looks into the dugout, and Billy Martin is showing Willie how to twist your body to take an inside pitch. He wanted Willie to take any pitch that was close to inside, and he wanted Willie to exaggerate a body motion as if he was almost hit by a pitch. Just twirl your body away. And darn it, it was an inside pitch, but might have been a strike, but Willie did the twirl, they called ball 4, and he got a bases loaded walk-off walk.?
If anyone disputes my memory: there's a special place in h-ll for people like you, ruining the fine memories of things that may not have happened in exactly the manner described.
If anyone confirms my memory: there's aspecial place in heaven for people like you.
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