If you plan on watching the game tonight without the mute button on, I have some information for you.
Me? I never plan on hitting “mute”, but the assault on my senses takes me there more often than not when I listen to John Smoltz speak about baseball.
See also; Kay, Michael.
See Also; O’Neill, Paul.
And although the My Baseball Page blog is part analysis, part commentary, I’m not going to add analysis to this post and only a touch of commentary. I’m just going to post some numbers that you may find interesting tonight when Smoltz is re-writing history, specifically with regards to what “it takes to win in the post-season”.
Consider:
John Smoltz played on 14 teams that reached the post-season. He has one ring.
On that team that won the World Series, the team’s offense during that season finished…
- Dead last in the NL in productive outs.
- 11th in the NL in sacrifice bunts.
- 10th in the NL in sacrifice flies
- Exactly league average in K%
- 2nd in HR, trailing only the team that played in Coors Field.
They had the best record in the NL by 5 games.
But the post-season was different, right? Actually…
In all three post-season series, which they won obviously, they out-homered their opponent in each series, and by a 19-11 margin overall.
Maybe I shouldn’t focus on Smoltz’ intellectual dishonesty as much as I do. I just don’t think it’s an over-ask for MLB to get announcers that don’t tell us that what we’re watching happen is not actually happening. Is it asking too much to find an announcer that doesn’t disregard 101 years of data and would rather play the old ex-jock yelling at clouds routine?
Getting guys on base and hitting the ball over the wall is how games are won. Getting guys on base and tapping it lightly just for contact’s sake is how games are lost. If you disagree, you haven’t looked at what’s happened since Babe Ruth went to right field for the Yankees.
Which, if you’re a fan, may not be a big deal.
But John Smoltz gets a truck load of money to know better, and to be honest. He consistently fails at both.
Do better MLB. Do Better FOX.
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