The Balancing Act
Nerds Vs Old Heads. 43/100
As I mentioned a few days ago. We have started a fund for youth baseball players and families in need. The memories that I had during my experience in youth baseball are irreplaceable, and helping others have those same memories is a no-brainer.
We are a 501c3 organization and our mission has always been the same. The link to donate to the fund is right here: YOUTH BASEBALL MEMORIES FUND
Anyway, to the article.
The Balancing Act
“Nerds” vs “Old Heads”, a tale as old as time.
It really shouldn't be this way, both people love the game. They just have different ways of showing it. Both want to help people, they just go about it in different ways. Both want to win baseball games, they have different ways of trying to win.
If everyone simply wants to get better, why are they at odds?
With a lot of conflicting information, bad communication and clashing points of view, it can be really hard to see eye to eye.
People see different strategies at disagreement and competition instead of people trying to accomplish the same goal. Organizations and teams that do well and excel have everyone on the same side with a common goal. Not everyone is going to agree all the time, but being able to understand the opposing point of view and how it can help you achieve a common goal is pivotal for running a team or organization.
Understanding Data For What It Is
Data is awesome, and the people who weaponize it and use it to build behemoth baseball organizations have done a lot for the game. However, the data is only as good as the person wielding it.
The data is just that, data. It is simply a massive amount of numbers and information that people have conglomerated in order to make sense of it. If you are not capable of making sense of it, what is the value? For every analytics person who has an amazing reputation and a great feel for the game, there's one who makes bad conclusions from the data and doesn't help anyone.
The data may show you what is wrong, but simply knowing the numbers is not enough. Knowing that your 60mph speed is too fast in the 45 mph zone is not enough to save you from a speeding ticket. You must know which pedal is the break.
It's the left one btw.
It is very easy to look at data and know what improvements can be made. I have done this many times on this newsletter. I have shown you which pitches are better than others for certain players, and what pitches should be added in.
That is all easy to do, eventually (and probably already) an AI can tell you exactly what you need to do already. Teams have had models that output this advice as well, these things are not impressive and don’t really help anyone.
So where does it help? Basic data points are great for player acquisition. Scouting is incredibly hard, and being able to have simple verifiable data makes decisions easier and allows you to see things that aren't always easy to see when scouting. In college, some stadiums are very hard for scouts to get a good view. They have bad angles or sit too far away, making judgement of pitches hard.
“A Good Mix”
The worst comment ever, simply saying that “a good mix of both” is important. Ok yeah man great feedback, very original.
Obviously a mix is good. No one says that old heads should be removed from the game entirely and dont have good input. The entire operation is a checks and balances system towards creating higher output and performance.
The game experience needs to use the data to make decisions. However if you look at the data in a vacuum, you will get bad outcomes. Some people looked at pitch data that pitch 1 is better than pitch 2 and decided that they should never throw pitch 2 and only throw pitch 1.
This got some running room for a while, and a lot of teams created some really good players this way. However, it was super unsustainable and lead to some players struggling once the hitters became used to their pitches.
No experienced pitching coach would tell people that is a good idea, and it's why you rarely if ever see pitchers throwing 90% of one pitch in the big leagues.
This is the natural checks and balances that should occur. Knowing which pitch is your best is important. Throwing your best pitch more is important. Throwing your worst pitch less is important. In the modern game, you cannot pick and choose. You have to do all of it if you want to be the best.
Communicate
You might notice a trend, I pretty much say this for almost everything I bring up. Good communication makes it all work. Bad communication makes everything harder.
Understanding what a player needs to improve on often comes from the analytics department. The coaches then are the ones who make the change manageable. Being able to actually create the adaptation is where the money is. Coaches who have been around the game for decades know what good performance or traits look like when they see them. Fortunately, this vision is almost always backed up by analytics.
Also important to note, 30 years of experience is pretty dang hard to replicate. However, the measurable insights that come with analytics are pretty easy to replicate. Taking the time to learn the valuable tricks of the trade in analytics is simple and well worth it, while three decades of baseball experience is quite the journey.
John