The Marlins apparently didn’t need experience to keep their emotions under control. SeaBass had a feeling. Josh Beckett doesn’t care about billy goats–deer on the other hand… Big Stein draws up his plans to clean house. John Smoltz is not a fan of three-run homers. These and other quips in the World Series (and beyond) edition of The Week In Quotes.
Over the last two articles, I’ve looked at various methods for removing some of the complicating factors when looking at team defense. Based on the idea that team defensive metrics were really a measure of three separate factors (park, pitching, and actual defense), we determined one way to remove park factors (PADE: Park Adjusted Defensive Efficiency) and another to remove pitching factors (PIDE: Pitching Independent Defensive Efficiency). By removing these outside influences in our defensive metrics, we’ve leveled the playing field, allowing us to better judge which teams have the best team defense, based simply on the percentage of balls in play that they convert into outs.
With both PADE and PIDE, we removed one factor, but not both. We were able to see either how a pitching staff and defense together looked compared to the league or how a defense and park looked against the league. What we did not have was one metric that simply measured defense versus defense, our ultimate goal.
From the NY Post : “An MRI revealed an inflamed tendon in Jason Giambi’s left knee as well as patellar tendinitis. The condition is chronic and he will have to undergo diagnostic arthroscopic surgery after the World Series.” Sometimes, it’s good to know where my work hasn’t made it. You, of course, realize that an inflamed tendon is the very definition of tendinitis. Giambi will have surgery, but the recent pain that kept him out of the World Series could indicate more damage than expected. This will surely bear close watch. The Yankees will also be watching as Derek Jeter undergoes his expected off-season shoulder surgery. As we saw with Phil Nevin, the time period from surgery to game-ready is reduced from previous expectations due to new technologies and techniques. Jeter should return in plenty of time for Spring Training, assuming he maintains the new timeline we’ve seen established in the past year. There should be no ill effects and in fact, Jeter should be expected to improve slightly, on a pure health basis.