The
“Money Ball” as a philosophy that has many celebrities. There is Billy Beane,
the pioneer, the first person of baseball merit to actually execute the
philosophy successfully. There is Michael Lewis the author of the book which
many of us, including myself, speak of highly though never actually read.
Finally there is Bill James, The Father of Sabermetrics as many of us know them
today. This Showdown philosophy is not at all strictly limited to the actual
works of any of those people and is more or less just a catchy phrase for the
many who do not appreciate the entire minutia that goes into what I understand
to be a very complicated thing. That overly simple understanding of baseball is
this…It is good to get on-base.
Money
Ball players in Showdown really covet one thing, getting the advantage. These
players will do anything to get the advantage as much as possible (note that I
did not say get on-base as much as possible, we will explore later). They love
having multiple 10’s and the idea of a solid 11 is almost irresistible. These
players will sacrifice to get the advantage will sacrifice man things in the
name of advantage.
Speed is always sacrificed for
elite advantage getting. There will be few if any speed A players. This
includes lead-off hitter. Every speed costs about 50 points for 10s give or
take. These guys don’t mind speed C’s but ideally will take speed B’s. They are
very similar with Power Hitters in that they care more about what they want,
for Money Ballers it is advantage or Power Hitters it is homers.
Fielding is something of next to no
consideration. It is such a secondary thought that I am not sure many of these
players care at all. Given two players of equal merit they would obviously pick
the one with higher fielding. They would not sacrifice the plan for the sake of
+2 more fielding on the in-field and likely not even look at the OF at all.
The last and maybe the most painful
for me is the charts. These guys will have so many un-impressive charts that it
pains me deeply. Pingers at least desire that single 20 homer. That glimmer of
hope that every 5 percent of the time they get the advantage they could have
something fun happen. Money Ballers don’t care for hope, especially with 6-7-8
hitters. Just give them the advantage so they can walk and be merry. Pray they
don’t get on too much without the advantage because that only enables them.
The biggest flaw I have found with
this way of playing (which I actually deem as a successful strategy depending
on how much competition there is for these players in the league) is they tend
to avoid math. Sometimes these players will take a 10, 1-6 over a 9, 1-2 with a
better chart for the same points. Basic math here shows that against a 6
control pitcher the 10 gets on 14% more than probability and the 9 gets 13.5%
more than probability. Against 5 controls the 10 gets 17.5% more than
probability while the 9 gets 18% more than probability. What the 9 get on base
more? Trust me the math works out. The lower the control the more the 9 gains
the beats the 10. For this reason I suggest all Money Ballers really do their
research. Advantage and on-base are not the same thing in Showdown though young
players would argue otherwise. Here is about as good of a Moneyball line-up as
you could assemble with no restrictions but points.
1B: Nick Johnson (09) 10 OB, 250 PTS
2B: Luis Castillo (01) 10 OB, 340 PTS
SS: Hanley Frias (00) 10
OB, 290 PTS
3B: Chase Headley (11) 10
OB, 290 PTS
LF: Chris Coglin (09) 10 OB, 290 PTS
CF: Darryl Hamilton (00) 9 OB, 220
PTS
RF: Rickey Henderson (01) 9 OB, 170 PTS
C: Brent Mayne (00P) 10 OB, 350 PTS
Total,
2,200 PTS.
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