Baseball Musings: Exciting and Low Scoring

April 02, 2008

Exciting and Low Scoring

One person who leaves comments on this site is obsessed with criticizing low scoring games. I just watched the end of the Angels-Twins game, won 1-0 by the Angels, and saw a number of fine defensive plays in two innings. The best was Nick Punto making a barehanded grad and throw on a slow roller down the third base line. There were nice throws, nice scoops, and the fans seemed to be into it. That person should really develop an appreciation for the other aspects of the game.

The other thing the Twins can take away from this game is the excellent pitching of Nick Blackburn. He pitched seven innings with one walk and six strikeouts, allowing the lone run of the game. Minnesota will take many more outings like that from the young pitcher.

Joe Saunders made a case for sticking in the rotation as well, giving up just four hits over eight shutout innings. He wasn't as good as his 15-8 record prior to this season indicated, but he's improved his ERA every year, and at age 27 might be ready to pitch as well as he wins.

Posted by David Pinto at 10:24 PM | Games | TrackBack (0)

Comments

I love low scoring games. 1) I admire good pitching efforts; 2) every play is important. Nothing bores me more than a 12-7 score...might as well watch a slow pitch softball league game.

Posted by: rondo at April 2, 2008 10:36 PM

Give me a well-pitched 1-0 game anyday. There's nothing worse than a 12-10 slugfest with each team using five or six pitchers.

Posted by: John Royal at April 2, 2008 10:42 PM

But all these low scoring games by these high paid players! They're just not producing. I heard the average salary is over $3M, but for what? Low scoring games? Maybe the recession is being caused by ballplayers' ballooning salaries and lowered run production. It's a classic example of decreasing worker efficiency!

Posted by: billy mueller at April 3, 2008 01:07 AM

I always love low scoring games where my team isn't involved. When it is, they send me into a slow agonizing death ("STOP SWINGING AT THE FIRST PITCH!"). Also, hate to say it but pitchers duels just aren't the same live rather than on t.v., so every time I buy I ticket I hope for a high score.

Posted by: gurk at April 3, 2008 01:25 AM

I guess I'm the "obsessed" person who should develop an appreciation for a game I've only been following for longer than David Pinto has been alive.

Hey, David, you can mention my name. Anyhoo, for some reason baseball has set repeated attendance records with high-scoring games over the past decade-plus. I really wonder if all those tickets would have been sold for a parade of 1-0 "thrillers".

In fact, I watched much of the 1-0 Minnesota game that David rhapsodizes about. Pinto apparently missed the best defensive play, which was a fantastic stop by Morneau on a grounder down the line, followed by a no-look backhand shovel-pass to the pitcher for the out.

Throughout the game the noise level in the Metrodome was about that of a crowded public library. If the Twins had managed a little scoring now and then, the crowd might have made a bit more noise, doncha think?

Anyway, despite Pinto's condescending non-appreciation of my baseball appreciation, I can enjoy a pitcher's duel. I just don't think a steady and monotonous diet of them is good for baseball. As Pinto hero Bill James once said in one of his Abstracts, if baseball returns to the days of the deadball sixties, okay, I can stand it. A lot of interesting things can happen in that kind of baseball.

But as James also said - and I agree - I think the higher-scoring baseball of the last decade-plus is honestly a lot more exciting. Anyway, we may soon get a test case. Baseball is averaging about eight runs a game so far this season. (Yes, tiny tiny sample.) Let's see how the game fares at the gate if that kind of scoring continues.

Posted by: Casey Abell at April 3, 2008 08:09 AM

Maybe this is out of place, but I have to make an analogy to baseball's ancient and distant cousin. The "iconic" form of cricket is the sport's equivalent of a pitcher's duel, namely test cricket.

This grinding form of the sport is a true multi-day test of cricket ability. Over four or (for international matches) five days, players grind out runs at an excruciatingly slow rate as the bowlers - the equivalent of pitchers - strive mightily to get batsmen out.

Purists love this form of the game. Or at least they say they love it. Except for international matches in a few countries, this form of the sport goes virtually unwatched. Nobody buys tickets for this supposedly "pure" form of the sport.

Meanwhile, the hottest thing is cricket is Twenty20. (No, the name doesn't have anything to do with vision. I'd have to explain some of the rules of cricket to explain the name, and you don't want me to do that.)

This kind of cricket usually concludes more quickly than the average major-league baseball game. Scoring is fast and furious as batsmen smash the ball hither and yon and back to hither. Three hundred or more runs get crammed into a couple hours.

Purists turn up their noses at this form of the game, much as baseball purists sniff at slugfests. But for some obscure reason, Twenty20 sells tickets like no other kind of cricket. In fact, Twenty20 is subsidizing all forms of cricket throughout the world.

They just played the first Twenty20 world cup in South Africa, and it was a smash at the box office. India is about to launch the biggest Twenty20 competition yet, and it's selling tickets like nobody's business.

I'll let you draw the obvious analogy to baseball's ticket sales over the past high-scoring decade-plus.

Posted by: Casey Abell at April 3, 2008 08:51 AM

But there is lots of scoring in test cricket. As far as I can tell, Twenty20 is just test cricket with a time limit.

What drove baseball attendance was free agency. Once players were free to move and sign big contracts fans got interested. "Let's go see the $1 million dollar pitcher. Let's go see the $10 million hitter. Let's go see the quarter billion dollar shorstop."

Sure fans don't want to see a boring game. Low scoring tends to bring back other elements that fans like, and also tends to lead to more edge of your seat games. I'm not taling about six runs per game. I think nine is optimum. Enough scoring to make it interesting, and the game moves along without constant pitching changes.

Posted by: David Pinto at April 3, 2008 09:16 AM

Actually, nine runs is slightly above the average season since 1900, which is about 8.8. And that overall average has risen due to the high-scoring seasons since 1993. Nine runs a game would be quite high compared to, say, much of the sixties and seventies.

So maybe we don't disagree, after all. You seem to want a pretty high level of run-scoring, too.

As for cricket, of course the final tally in test cricket is high. They play for days and days! But the rate of run-scroing is extremely slow compared to Twenty20. The much more concentrated offensive action in Twenty20 makes the game far more attractive to ticket-buyers than test cricket.

Posted by: Casey abell at April 3, 2008 09:31 AM

By the way, I should explain my references to cricket. When I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya in the seventies, I first saw the game. (Kenya isn't yet a test-playing country, one of the cricket elite, but it's getting there.)

Like all Americans first exposed to cricket, my reaction was confounded: this is some weird kind of baseball. The truth is more complicated. Baseball originated from rounders, an old English bat-and-ball game almost certainly related to cricket in some way.

Trouble is, nobody knows exactly what the relationship was, because nobody was keeping track of these silly little games in Olde England. It's not liike basketball, which can be tracked back pretty reliably to Dr. Naismith's peach basket.

Posted by: Casey Abell at April 3, 2008 09:46 AM

If "pretty reliably" = "definitively", then yes.

The cricket analogies are lost on almost all of us. How many Americans have ever watched even one entire cricket match, test, Twenty20, or otherwise?

Posted by: Tor at April 3, 2008 09:09 PM

Post a comment

Baseball Info Solutions The publisher of the Bill James Handbook and a great source of stats.

ESPN.com's baseball page.

STATS, Inc. You'll find great baseball books and fantasy games here.

Baseball Direct Scoreboard This is powered by STATS, Inc. Good box scores, and good situational stats.

Baseball Reference.com It's like having Total Baseball and the Big Mac online!

Baseball Prospectus.com Wonderful commentary and analysis.

Baseball Primer Baseball for the Thinking Fan.

The Hardball Times Baseball. Insight. Daily.

Takkle High School Sports

Minor League Spilts Database Up-to-date minor league statistics, broken down by situation.

Inside The Book A blog by the authors of The Book.

Baseboogle A search engine for baseball research sites.

Win Shares From Major League Baseball Graphs.

The Transaction Guy A baseball transactions blog.

Japan Baseball Daily An English language site for Japanese baseball news and stats.

Doug's Business of Baseball Weblog A blog with a focus on the economics of the game.

Why I Like Baseball A Yankee fan writes about her favorite team.

Skilton's Baseball Links Links to numerous baseball sources.

Dan Lewis A blog about all sports.

Birds in the Belfry A site about the Orioles. Articles and research.

Only Baseball Matters A baseball blog by a John J. Perricone.

Jocksalot Lots of sports links.

Al's Ramblings A Brewer's blog.

Futility Infielder Jay Jaffe's baseball site. More than just a blog.

Mike's Baseball Rants Mike Carminati's baseball blog.

Aaron's Baseball Blog A general interest baseball blog.

Boy of Summer Travis Nelson on baseball.

Baseball Crank Dan McLaughlin's blog on baseball, the war and politics.

Bambino's Curse Edward Cossette's blog about the Red Sox.

Oakland Athletics Blog David Levens writes about the A's.

Ducksnorts Articles and Blog by Geoff.

Boston Sports Media Bruce Allen's roundup of the Boston Sports Media.

The Diamond Angle An online baseball magazine.

The Cub Reporter A Chicago Cubs blog.

Bronx Banter A baseball blog by Al Belth.

At Home Plate Articles by Jonathan Leshanski.

Dodger Thoughts Jon Weisman on the Dodgers.

The Clark & Addison Chronicle A Chicago Cubs web log.

Baseball Writing Joe Zibell's essays on baseball.

The Eddie Kranepool Society A Mets blog.

Mariners Weblog The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's weblog written by Shannon Fears

PortlandSoxFan.com A Red Sox blog from Portland, CT.

The Detroit Tigers Weblog Two Tigers fans and their take on the Motor City team.

A Rookie's Life The blog of Cleveland Indians' rookie Jody Gerut.

The Baseball Desert An Englishman living in France writes about the American game.

ChiSox Daily Mike Lubuda writes about the White Sox.

Shallow Center A blog mostly about the Phillies.

The House that Dewey Built Jeff Kuhn writes about the Red Sox.

SethSpeaks.net A blog by a Twins fan.

Frank's Field of Dreams News about Asian players in the United States.

Jay's Giants Blog William Jay blogging about the Giants.

Baseball Savant Cutting edge baseball news and analysis updated everyday from all aspects of the greatest show on dirt!

Athletics Nation Blogging about the A's.

Red Reporter JD Arney writes about the Reds.

Dominican Players Raul Tavares writes about players from his home country.

The Pearly Gates An Anaheim Angels Blog.

Red Sox Haven Randy Booth on baseball.

Tigers Weblog The Detroit News weblog on the Tigers, written by Tom Gage.

Management by Baseball Jeff Angus writes on how business can learn from baseball.

The View From the Bleachers A Chicago Cubs blog.

Cubs Now! Brian Hipp on the Cubs.

Honest Wagner A Pittsburgh Pirates weblog.

All-Baseball.com A collection of excellent baseball weblogs.

Soxaholix A comic strip blog about the Red Sox.

Most Valuable Network Blogging all 30 teams.

Baseball, Etcetera Andrew Godfrey's baseball blog.

Most Valuable Network, Astros Lisa Gray and others write about the Astros.

fenwayfanatics.com A Boston Red Sox blog.

Balls, Sticks & Stuff A sports blog with an emphasis on baseball.

Phillies Nation Brian Michael writes about the Phillies.

Batgirl Less stats, more sass.

Sabernomics Economic thinking about baseball.

Fire Brand of the American League A blog about the Red Sox.

Ivy Chat Chicago Cubs and other rants.

Baseball Evolution A group website writing about baseball.

The Cubdom.com Byron Clarke blogs about the Cubs.

Red Sox Stats Sabermetric numbers for the Red Sox system.

DRays Bay A blog devoted to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Baseball Analysts Rich Lederer and Bryan Smith combine their baseball expertise into a single site.

Over the Monster A Red Sox blog by Randy Booth.

Viva el Birdos Ghosts of the St. Louis Cardinals past, present, and future.

Black Sox Blog A look at the current and historical teams of the South Side of Chicago.

Redleg Nation A group blog about the Cincinnati Reds.

Barry's Journal Barry Bonds' web log.

Hardball Dollars Keeping track of major league salaries.

Clem's Baseball and it's "Green Cathedrals" The resource for baseball stadiums on the web.

The Baseball Zealot Looking at the game of baseball from all sides of the spectrum .

Was Watching Laconic commentary from a Yankeeland zealot.

Bleed Cubbie Blue A Chicago Cubs blog.

Beaneball A's baseball from the heart of New York City.

The Writers A collection of sports writers express their opinions.

Yard Work What the Baseball Tonight crew would write if it could.

United States of Baseball Peter Handrinos' baseball columns.

Beer Leaguer Alternative veiwpoints on the Philadelphia Phillies.

Red Sox Connection Links to everything Red Sox.

Baseball Pilgrimages Stories of visits to baseball parks.

Fangraphs Multi-year charts of player stats.

Roto Authority Unique fantasy baseball information.

Yanksfan vs. Soxfan A Yankees fan and a Red Sox fan battle it out in the blogosphere.

Sawxblog.com A Red Sox fan writes about the home town team.

Oriole Magic An MVN blog about the Orioles.

The Baltimore Chop Joseph Jackson on the Orioles.

Lookout Landing A Seattle Mariners blog.

Sons of Bart Brush A blog about the Harvard baseball team.

Base Blogging A resource for sports and baseball bloggers.

Three True Outcomes A group blog by on major league baseball.

Cardinals Diaspora A blog for Cardinals fans living away from St. Louis.

Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke? A Pittsburgh fan chronicles life in the Grand Canyon.

Brew Crew Ball A blog about the Milwaukee Brewers.

Getting Paid to Watch Posts by a former trainer for the NY Mets.

The Gas House Gang An historical St. Louis Cardinals Blog.

6-4-2 An Angels/Dodgers double play blog.

El Guapo's Ghost Rambles on about the Red Sox Baseball and the Red Sox.

Baseball Etc

Tiger Tales A Detroit Tigers web log.

The Baseball Card Blog A blog about baseball cards.

Sox1Fan A Red Sox blog.

Out of Left Field Another Red Sox blog.

New York Yankees Update A Yankees blog with lots of photos.

Liberty Ball A current and historical Phillies blog.

Crawfish Boxes A Houston Astros blog.

MLB Rumors Clearinghouse News from around the majors.

Roar From 34 A group blog about the Orioles.

Blogging Baseball All-time baseball highlights and real-time commentary.

Rubber Arm A group blog about major league baseball.

Fenway Nation More news about the Red Sox.

Rays of Light A Devil Rays blog.

Fantasy Baseball Chronicle Information for fantasy players.

American Legends A sports blog.

Duffy's Cliff An interactive Red Sox site, featuring a lexicon of the Red Sox.

Oriole Post - The World of Baseball and Beyond An Orioles blog.

DRays Bay A Devil Rays blog.

Mets Heads A blog about the New York Mets.

The Soul of Baseball Joe Posnanski promotes his book on Buck O'Neil and blogs about baseball.

My Baseball Bias A blog about East Coast baseball.

Sports Business Radio Articles and talk about the business of sports.

The Game of Baseball A blog about Major League Baseball.

Baseball Hot Corner Opinionated observations for the thinking fan.

FantasyDope.com Fantasy baseball news.

Peter's Red Sox Forever A Red Sox blog.

Sox Nest Commentary on the Red Sox.

The Big Oz A Florida Marlins blog.

Baseball Reflections Where old school baseball meets sabermetrics.

The Sommer Frieze A Yankees blog.

Fenway Nation A Red Sox fan site.

In-Between Hops A Milwaukee Brewers blog.

Right Field Bleachers Another Milwaukee Brewers blog.

On Baseball and the Reds Another Cincinnati Reds blog.

Crooked Pitch A fantasy baseball blog.

Bless You Boys A Detroit Tigers blog.

Cubs f/x Pitch f/x and the Chicago Cubs.

The Hot Corner

Eephus Pitch Tossing pure junk about New York baseball since 2006.

It Is High, It Is Far, It Is Caught A tribute to John Sterling.

Baseball GB Baseball from a British perspective.

Nick and Nick's Twins Blog A couple of Nicks write on the Twins.

SkyKing162 Baseball with a hint of lime.

Center Field A Red Sox blog.

Empyreal Environs Writing about the Red Sox.

Trophy League Planet Aggregating the baseball blogosphere.

Cardinals Best News Links Aggregating St. Louis Cardinals news.

HSAC Blog Official Musings of the Harvard College Sports Analysis Collective.

The Baseball Fix A general baseball blog.

MLB Roundup A baseball video blog.

Fantasy Dope Fantasy Baseball News.

The Cubs Brickyard Hilarious fake news.

Spitting Seeds A blog about Major League baseball.

Instapundit Politics and the law. This site inspired me to start blogging.

Wild Treasure Treasure hunts through the blogosphere.

San Diego Ticket Finder San Diego Ticket Information.

Prize Sports.net Baseball Collectibles.

Fantasy Sports R Us The #1 Fantasy Baseball Leagues site on the web.

RotoRank - Fantasy Baseball Draft Guides Customized For Any Fantasy Baseball League.