Seasons Greetings from the Old World,
New among our baseball references, was a gift/addition to HaverSon's coaching library called The Book by these three Sabermetricians:
Tom TANGO
Mitchel LICHTMAN
Andrew DOLPHIN
Among other topics, The Book presents statistically supported managerial strategies for:
• The sacrifice bunt.
• The intentional base on balls.
• Optimizing a batting lineup.
• Hot and cold streaks.
• Clutch performance.
• Platooning strategies.
• Batter/pitcher matchups.
To me, The Book's most interesting, and likely most controversial concept is that a maximized batting order will place the team's best three hitters in the #1, #2 and #4 slots, with the 4th and 5th best hitters fitting into the #3 and #5 holes. Special emphasis is placed on the #2 hitter's offensive value.
Many of The Book's offensive conclusions employ the refined statistical principle of:
Weighted On Base Average or wOBA
Congratulations to Tango, Lichtman and Dolphin for this exceptional analysis. Serious readers and/or a Moneyball types, will love it.
Original Post
