Comments on: Is Sacrifice Bunting Worth It?

By: Christopher Pellegrini

Christopher Pellegrini — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:14:59 +0000

Nobody’s responded to my last post adding to the validity of GIDP/AB being renamed the “Abe Avg.”, so I’ll get back to the heart of this post.

Here are a few numbers I scraped together:

Central League
Sacrifice Bunts vs. Double Plays

Team SB GIDP
Hanshin 83 51
Chunichi 56 47
Yomiuri 51 48
Hiroshima 50 41
Tokyo 64 43
Yokohama 55 41

[SB = Sacrifice Bunt; GIDP = Grounded into Double Play]

Other than Hanshin’s large number of bunts, the number of DP’s is between 41 and 51 for all six teams.

Analysis?

By: Christopher Pellegrini

Christopher Pellegrini — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:23:20 +0000

Natsumi Abe was nailed for plagiarism back in late 2004. She was suspended (for a few months) from working on the Morning Musume related “Hello! Project”.

Does that work?

Here’s the link:
http://www.hellproject.com/person/Abe_Natsumi

By: Garrett DeOrio

Garrett DeOrio — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:03:36 +0000

“To Buckner” stopped being about Bill Buckner the man in 1987 (esp. for non-Red Sox fans), yet the word remained.

Anyway, what’s the connection between Natsumi Abe and GIDP that would give “to Abe” a sport-political-pop culture trifecta?

By: Ken

Ken — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:42:41 +0000

DeOrio:

I’m sure I’m not the only kid born in the late ’70s who still uses the verb “to Buckner” in a broad and derogatory sense

You are. Everyone else is long since over it.

You’re thinking of Natsumi “Nacchi” Abe. She “Graduated” from Morning Musume already.

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=8F_oXIKldXk

By: Garrett DeOrio

Garrett DeOrio — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 02:07:06 +0000

In the fine tradition of verbing proper nouns (I’m sure I’m not the only kid born in the late ’70s who still uses the verb “to Buckner” in a broad and derogatory sense), I propose referring to GIDP with the verb “to Abe.” It works in both baseball and politics with pretty much the same meaning. (Isn’t there a member of Morning Musume named Abe as well? Anyway she could be worked into this?)

By: Christopher Pellegrini

Christopher Pellegrini — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:31:35 +0000

Shinnosuke Abe, Yomiuri’s catcher, currently leads the Central in GIDP. Maybe we could call it the “Abe Average”.

By: Ken

Ken — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 08:37:49 +0000

Yeah, there has to be a better name for GIDP/AB than Grounded-into-double-plays-per-at-bats. Something like the, “Why Jim Rice is not in the Hall of Fame Average.”

By: Garrett DeOrio

Garrett DeOrio — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:52:39 +0000

Ever notice that every baseball strategy question is best solved by keeping track of one more easily quantifiable thing?

By: Ken

Ken — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:26:55 +0000

I’ve always been under the impression that the sac bunt is a full-on waste of an out, since the batter’s entire mission should be to not make an out – anything he can do to make an out is bad. That said, there are some cases when it seems to make sense to sac bunt to move a guy over, especially when the team needs one run.

Though, I would like to see by what ratio sac-bunting reduces the odds of a double play being hit into. Again, this will vary from hitter to hitter (Any coincidence that Rice and Yaz are both in the top 10 all-time GIDP?), but if a hitter’s more likely to GIDP, perhaps the sac bunt makes a little more sense.

By: Christopher Pellegrini

Christopher Pellegrini — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:21:43 +0000

I found a page with various NPB Range Factor numbers for recent seasons, so will probably translate that some time soon.

Definitely looking forward to that!

I agree that the defense is helping out with the team ERA. Our young starters have made it through six or seven innings while given up only four hits on a number of occasions. As there isn’t an inordinate number of K’s being recorded, the only thing left to explain the situation is defense.