Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - The Sustainability of the Mariners' Pitching Dominance + the Issues With OPS

Episode Date: April 18, 2024

With the Mariners enjoying a well-deserved day off following their first sweep of the year, Ty and Colby answer a few listener questions, including what from the team's last week of play is sustainabl...e and unsustainable, if Jonatan Clase should play over Luke Raley, and more. Afterwards, the two explain the issues of OPS as a stat.Ask us questions! Follow the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @TyDaneGonzalez | @CPat11 Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! PolicygeniusCheck life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonmlb to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save. Monopoly GO!Get in the game and join your friends. Download MONOPOLY GO! now free on The App Store or Google Play. Yahoo FinanceFor comprehensive financial news and analysis, visit the brand behind every great investor, YahooFinance.com. PrizePicksGo to PrizePicks.com/lockedonmlb and use code lockedonmlb for a first deposit match up to $100! eBay MotorsFrom brakes to exhaust kits and beyond, eBay Motors has over 122 million parts to keep your ride-or-die alive. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it’s easy to bring home that big win. Keep your ride-or-die alive at EbayMotors.com. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers.GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONMLB for $20 off your first purchase. FanDuelFanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARENTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – win or lose! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Fresh off their first sweep of the year, the marins are enjoying a well-deserved off day before taking on the Rockies tomorrow. In the meantime, we're going to answer a few of your questions and explain the issues with OPS as a stat. Coming up here on the Lockdown Marers podcast, Colby, hit it. You are Locked-on Mariners, your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Ahoy, sailors, it is Thursday, April 18, 2024. this is Tiding Gazzalus and Colby Patnode for the Lockdown Airs podcast brought to you by Monopoly Go, the mobile hit twist on classic Monopoly.
Starting point is 00:00:40 Join your friends and download Monopoly Go now free on the app store or Google Play. Thank you so much for making us your first listen. Subscribe like and turn on alerts if you're watching on YouTube or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear. And if you're part of the crew and rock with us every single day, let us know in the comments below. We'd love to hear from you. And if you want to hear from us even more, please consider signing up for our Patreon. you can now get a free seven-day trial to check out the show. The link as well as our social accounts is in the description of this episode.
Starting point is 00:01:08 Once again, the mayor is enjoying an off day today. So we're going to answer a few of your questions and also talk a little bit about OPS and why we're not big fans of it and why there are a lot of issues with it. Like we talked about last week as a part of, you know, you guys wanted us to explain some terminology on here, dive into some stats a little bit more. So we're going to do that and we're going to talk about OPS, which is one of the more popular stats in baseball right now.
Starting point is 00:01:34 But first, let's start with some questions. We got one here from Kyle who wants to know who's the current oddman out in the bullpen if slash win. Matt Brash, Gregory Santos, Cody Bolton, and Colin Snyder return.
Starting point is 00:01:45 Colby? Well, almost certainly Colin Snyder is one of them. I imagine he'll be optioned back down to AAA whenever he's ready to go. Bolton might get added. I assume both of those guys, will be back before Brash and Santos.
Starting point is 00:02:02 Bolton might get at it, at which case I assume they would send down to Gus. But I can't see them choosing Snyder over Miller. We know how much they like Miller, but Miller is apparently without an option remaining. So if they want to send him back down, he's got a clear waivers, and that's a dangerous game. So Brash and Santos, they're at least a couple weeks away still.
Starting point is 00:02:26 So, you know, when you get there, you'll see who's available, who's throwing the ball well. But it does feel like at that point they're going to have to make the call on Miller, unfortunately, because they're not DFA or, well, they're not moving off of Munoz Spire, Stannock, probably not Saucato. And then both and Thornton, both are out of options. They do not have an option. So you'd have to, when you look at the three most likely guys to be sent down, both Thornton and Miller, all three of those guys are out of options. So you would have to DFA two of them to make room for Brash and Santos. So, you know, you're kind of in a bit of a pickle here when you get to this point. It'll be a good problem to have.
Starting point is 00:03:17 At that point, assuming that Bolton is up with the club at the time that Brash, who is, is about a week or so ahead of Santos last I heard, then you could just send Bolton down to AAA because he does have an option left. And then you have Brash. So it's not until Santos comes back where you kind of have to make this tough decision. And you're almost certainly going to have to DFA,
Starting point is 00:03:41 one of Miller, both or Thornton, to accommodate Santos unless somebody gets hurt between now and then. And that's certainly a possibility. And again, this is all assuming that particularly Brash, and Santos get back at all. Things are trending in the right direction. The last report we got was very positive, but you never know.
Starting point is 00:04:02 We're dealing with, you know, a shoulder thing and an elbow thing. You hope that they get back when they're supposed to, but you have to be prepared for setbacks and, you know, future I L stints and all that stuff. So I do think that Bolton gets added,
Starting point is 00:04:13 uh, for to Gus. I think this is the order of operations. Bolton gets added for to Gus. Snyder gets optioned to AAA. Miller stays up with the team. Then Brash comes back a little bit later. At that point, then I think they just swap Bolton and Brash.
Starting point is 00:04:27 And then when Santos comes back a few weeks after that, then I think probably Miller would be the guy at DFA. But there are a lot of things that could go into this. Is Brian Wu healthy? Because now they might feel better about DFA and somebody like Austin, both. Because Hancock's the six now, whereas, you know, right now both is kind of the six. So, yeah, I don't think we're going to see any major,
Starting point is 00:04:54 shakeups until Santos and Brasher back. And at which point, Santos is going to take the spot of, in my mind, one of both Stant, or both Thornton or Miller. So I think they'd probably pick Miller. They seem to really like Trent Thornton,
Starting point is 00:05:12 but it's going to be one of those three for Santos. And that's really the only, the only player you're in danger of losing from your org. You're not in danger of actually having to make that decision to push somebody out of your or until Santos is back. Next question here from Kito O'Rourke. What are the most and least sustainable aspects of the play we've seen over the last week or so? I don't think it's sustainable to ask Mitch Hanigur to play every single day.
Starting point is 00:05:39 I think you're asking for trouble there. You know, pitching-wise, I think what we've seen now from Gilbert and Miller is that their new pitches that they've added this year, they are legitimate, you know, weapons for them. And there's very little reason to suspect that those pitches are not going to be majorly quality going forward. You know, there were questions about the cutter and the splitter. And now we've seen them for about, you know, four times through the rotation. And they've both been really good pitches. And Miller has not really dominated with the splitter.
Starting point is 00:06:14 It's certainly been a valuable, you know, weapon for him. But it's not like he's posting like 35, 40 percent whiff rates on it or anything like that. it's just a quality major league offering that pairs well with his fastball, both of his fastball. So I think the new pitches that were seeing, the value that they're getting out of the cutter and the splitter, respectively. I think that's sustainable. The Mariners throwing strikes the way they have, that's largely sustainable. It was what the other day was 35 innings straight without a walk or whatever it was, and that got snapped. But when you look at the Mariners rotation, you know, Kirby throws strikes, Gilbert throws strikes.
Starting point is 00:06:51 Gilbert throws strikes, Miller throws strikes, Castillo throws more than enough strikes. Brian Wu, when he comes back, he throws strikes. So the Mariners not walking guys, particularly in the rotation, that's sustainable. Is it likely that they're going to go an entire series without walking dudes? No, probably not. But right now, I think they're running a sub two based on ball per nine as a staff. That's actually sustainable because that's how they've built their rotation, is on guys who throw strikes and don't walk you. So I think there are a few, you know, cool little things that we saw in this last three days that are pretty sustainable, including some, some power, you know, finally starting to see some home runs, some doubles, a couple triples.
Starting point is 00:07:35 So I do think there are some fun things that we've seen. But yeah, to me, what's most sustainable is the pitching that we've seen over the last few days. I'll tell you one else is probably sustainable. Games that look a lot more like yesterday than the previous 18 games for Julio. yeah yeah uh and then i'll give you one that's not sustainable going undefeated while striking out 15 times but hey maybe that's the magic number maybe that's the key challenge them maybe you maybe you strike out 15 times and and you just the baseball gods favor you that day insert gif of you underestimate my power but hey you know if you also walk seven times on a night where you strike out 15 times that does
Starting point is 00:08:16 help counteract that a little bit as well for sure um but yeah um The other thing too that I would say that should be sustainable, at least in theory, because this is how this roster and specifically this offense was built this offseason is the walks, is the ability to work counts. Now, look, you know, not every game they're going to see a 35 plus pitch ending like they did both against Montes and Green. I think they also did against Lucas Sims, but just strictly focusing on the starting pitchers and getting guys out early in games.
Starting point is 00:08:48 Like that's not going to happen every time because, Even if you have great at bats and great approaches, you still need the other pitcher to struggle a little bit. You still need their command, their control to not be where it needs to be in order for that to happen. You need a little bit of outside help. So that's not sustainable, of course. But again, the ability to draw out at bats and frustrate pitchers,
Starting point is 00:09:14 that's what this lineup was built to do, especially with swapping out guys like E. E. E. E. Hennio Swares and Jared Kelman. for guys like Jorge Polanco and Mitch Garver, guys who, you know, strike out around 24, 25% of the time, but they also walk 10, 11, 12% of the time. So, hopefully this was kind of a glimpse into what this offense is ultimately going to become over the course of this season. And I think they have a good chance to carry that over into Colorado against that Rocky's pitching staff.
Starting point is 00:09:45 All right, we're going to answer a couple more of your questions in just a moment. But first, a reminder of this episode of the Lockdown, Aaron's Piper. is brought to you by PolicyGenius and Monopoly Go. Choosing the right life insurance policy is a very important and overwhelming decision and you want to be able to feel fully confident making that decision. Now you can with Policy Genius, which is the country's leading online insurance marketplace. The Policy Genius, you can find life insurance policies that started just $292 per year for $1 million of coverage. Some options even offer same-day approval and avoid unnecessary medical. exams. Plus, your life insurance policy through your work may not offer enough protection for
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Starting point is 00:11:51 And you're listening to the Locked on Maris podcast. Thank you again for making us your first listen. And hey, after you're done watching us, how about you go check out the Lockedon NFL mock draft. It's a six-part series that dropped last night. Go check it out. You got analysis from the local locked-on experts, got analysis from the local college football experts, and even the fantasy football angle.
Starting point is 00:12:14 Go check it out. All right. So let's get back into your questions here. We got a couple more before we're going to get into our OPS dialogue. Casey wants to know Claese has looked fine at the plate but even with him being a switch hitter why wouldn't you play Rayleigh over Claise
Starting point is 00:12:28 versus the lefty? I don't think the Mariners have any clue what to do with Luke Rayley. Basically the only time they've used him with any regularity is when somebody wasn't available right? Ty France isn't available
Starting point is 00:12:43 so Rayleigh gets to play in back-to-back days and then oh you know Dom-Canzone runs into a wall and he heads to the IL so Rayleigh gets to play in back-to-back days. And the second they have, like, any kind of matchup disadvantage, oh, Rayleigh's on the bench, and we're not even going to use them late in the game, even though Rayleigh's a better defender than Jonathan Klossay.
Starting point is 00:13:03 He's a better defender than Mitch Hanigur. He has a better chance to help you against Rides right now than Klossi does. Nope, we're not going to use them. So, yeah, I don't know, because we talked about this a lot. There's really zero evidence to suggest. that Luke Rayleigh cannot hit left-handed pitching. He did it in the minors. He did it in his brief stint with the raids last year.
Starting point is 00:13:27 There's no evidence to suggest he can. We talked about this when Dom-C-Zone was here too. Dom-Kand-Zone can't hit lefties. Well, why? He crushed them in the minors. He had the same WRC-plus last year against lefties as he did Ritees. And yet everybody's convinced he can hit Ritees. Like, what's the evidence you have that says that this guy can't hit same-handed pitching?
Starting point is 00:13:46 Right. And to me, what I had, the conclusion I have to draw. all based on how the marries have handled luke raley over the first 20 games that they don't think he's good this happens every year by the way there's always that one guy that they just don't play enough yep i mean it's it's pretty consistent thing um you know part of it is is that we know the mariners really don't want to carry four guys on the bench if they could do whatever they wanted they would carry three guys on the bench and they would have an extra arm in the bullpen uh we know they've said as much so um it just kind of feels which is some weird too because
Starting point is 00:14:21 Because Jerry has talked about wanting to rotate guys through the lineup consistently, be in a dynamic offense. And then they just don't really do that. And then that's kind of what we thought they were going to do with Rayleigh and Canzon and Hanager. Well, when you look at the way that this offense was built in general, like it's built perfectly to rotate guys, right? Especially with the injury concerns of Garver and Hanager and even tie France to a certain degree. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:43 I mean, and that's the thing is that like we talked about this a lot. And it's just this idea that like, oh, well, you're going to take Mitch Hanigar out. of the lineup for Luke Rayley for one game a week. Yeah, sure. Let's do that. You know, and then the next day we could take out Dominic Canzon. And the next day we could take out Garver.
Starting point is 00:15:02 Right. And the next day we could take out Julio, the next day we could take out France. To go back to Casey's question, right? It doesn't even have to be an either or of Claise or Rayleigh. You have multiple ways to get Rayleigh into the lineup that doesn't require having to take Class A out of the lineup. You don't have to do that.
Starting point is 00:15:19 Like it can be one. of the days you take Claucet out the lineup for the sake of put him Rayleigh in there, but Rayleigh can come in for Thai France like he did a couple of days ago. He can come in for Garber. He can come in for Hanager, et cetera. And play center field well enough. It is very easy to let Luke Rayleigh play four times a week. Very, very, very easy.
Starting point is 00:15:41 Without sacrificing more than two or three played appearances a week for Garver, Hanager, Canzone, Clauze, Julio, France. Yeah. Because you don't have to play him for the entire game. If you get into a situation like the seventh and, uh-oh, here comes Josh Hader. Like, oh, well, I guess I'll use Mitch Hanager. Right. Wow.
Starting point is 00:16:03 That worked out well. Yeah. So it's just the only time they've given him any kind of run whatsoever is when they literally haven't had another choice. And I don't get it. I don't get it. Because even if you think he can't play, which A, you clearly did at some point. Otherwise you wouldn't have traded for him. but be like this is a guy who can run he can hit for power i guess he's going to strike out we know that
Starting point is 00:16:26 you knew that when you acquired him this is not new information there's nothing that really has shown you that is not anything we didn't already know about the guy like raley looks exactly like the guy you acquired i i don't get there's no bit there's been no big surprises you know the numbers aren't what they what you want them to be sure but you know what neither are j p crawfords neither are mitch garvers neither are, you know, Julio's. Like sometimes guys don't produce, produce right away. And that doesn't even just bench them. It's been what 30 plate appearances?
Starting point is 00:16:56 I mean, probably a little bit more. Now, look, that's also compounded by, by, you know, the awful spring that he had as well, which maybe they're putting stock into that. Like you say, it doesn't have to be. That's really frustrating thing with Rayleigh. It doesn't have to be, oh, it's only Rayleigh or Canzone. You have to pick one. And Canzone was swinging the bat better, even though until what, three days before he hit the IL, he wasn't. that's kind of the beauty of Rayleigh's that he could play all three outfield spots first base and DH
Starting point is 00:17:23 there's five opportunities to get him in the lineup once a week at each spot you should easily be able to give him three or four starts a week easy no they're just not doing it yet uh final question here from stew who wants to know what would clause A need to do to earn a more permanent spot even when canzone returns just keep playing how he is well real quick on that it might not be an either or between Canzone or Claese, given what we just talked about. It might be, you know, if Claise is producing by the time Canzone's ready to go, they might just DFA Luke Rayleigh. Yeah, they might, which, you know, again, it's not the first time.
Starting point is 00:18:05 It won't be the last time the Mariners have just kind of done a player dirty by not giving him an opportunity to perform with, you know, their inconsistent playtime. but whatever. It certainly doesn't have to be neither or. I suspect it will be because I think. I would say like Canzone, even if we're being optimistic here, it's probably going to be a month and a half.
Starting point is 00:18:25 By that point, we'll have a bigger sample size on Rayleigh theoretically. So maybe at that point it does make more sense to DFA, Rayleigh. Maybe he hasn't shown you anything. Maybe, but you're not going to know that in six weeks if he gets one start a week. So at some point, point you just have to suck it up and give him, you know, 12 starts and 15 days and then just
Starting point is 00:18:48 kind of give him a legitimate chance to get into a rhythm. But regardless, you know, there's also other ways, Kloss, they could stay on this lineup. Like, you've run Mitch Hanager into the ground and his body finally gives. That's a possibility. What if, you know, Dylan Moore gets hurt or something like, like other guys could get hurt. Other guys could underperform. Maybe Dom Kanzon just gets sent down to AAA. Maybe they just like Clause speed and, you know, his pretty much just a speed. But what does Clause A have to do? To stay.
Starting point is 00:19:23 Yeah. To stay. Yeah. He's got to be a 340 on base guy, I think, like right around there. Like a couple, you know, at least 10 points above league average there. He's got to make enough contact that he's not just, you know, oh, well, we hope he gets on base once a game and then we're okay with that. Like, he's got to be a legitimate big leaguer. He can't just be like, well, he's holding his own for a 21-year-old.
Starting point is 00:19:45 I think he's got to be a legitimate like, no, this guy is like a big leaguer right now. And Clause that he's off to a pretty good start. He's done at least one thing in every game to kind of help the team win it. But, you know, A, he's got to do that for another six weeks at least before, you know, before we don't start talking about this. And as we talk about with every single rookie, league is going to adjust to him. What's going to be important is how does he adjust back to the league? and can he find success doing that? I just don't think that there's a path for him to stay on this big league roster
Starting point is 00:20:16 if he's just Jose Cabiero from last year because they needed Cabby because they had a black hole at second base. Right, right, right, right. It's unlikely the Mariners, we get to a point where the Mariners look at the outfield and they go, oh, well, we have a black hole here, so we'll just keep Claise up. They might think they do. Oh, yeah, they're down there. Luke Rayleigh sucks after 30 plate appearances, so maybe.
Starting point is 00:20:36 But that's at least six weeks away, so we'll see. yeah i mean as much as we've talked about how little they've played raleigh i think we'll have a much more substantial sample size of raleigh by the point that canzone gets back so again maybe at that point you feel a little bit better about moving on from raleigh than you do right now so we are going to talk about ops in just a moment but first a reminder this episode of the locked on marries podcast is brought to you by prize picks
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Starting point is 00:21:51 a first deposit match up to $100 pick more pick less it's that easy and you're listening to the locked on errors podcast thank you again for making us your first listen so now we are going to be talking a little bit about OPS because you guys have asked us to go over some baseball terminology that we use often on this show and dissect some stats that maybe some of you are not particularly familiar with. And yet, last week, we told you guys that we're not big fans of OPS, which has become more popular rise, especially for more casual baseball fans over the last, I'd say 10 or so years. I mentioned last week how, you know, at the Rogers Center up on the big board, where they have both lineups listed. They don't even have,
Starting point is 00:22:40 batting average listed. It's just OPS and then the result of their previous at bat. So Colby, what is OPS and why do you not like it? Why do we not like it? Yeah, OPS is very simply on base plus slugging percentage. So literally you just add up the players on base and slugging. It gives you this number. And it's kind of become the casual fans idea of what like analytics are and saber metrics are and it's it's kind of like a oh we know i know more i'm just not like a batting average tells me everything guy i'd talk about ops and it's like i'd rather you talk about batting average to be quite frank because the problem with ops is that it values on base percentage and slugging as equal and they simply are not uh this isn't me saying this is math okay so
Starting point is 00:23:40 if you have a problem with this argument, take it up with the people at Harvard who published a paper on this like 25 years ago. And by the way, major league teams have known this for longer than that. But a point of on-base percentage is worth four points of slugging percentage. So on-base is simply just more valuable than slugging. And yet OPS doesn't weigh that. To OPS, those two statistics are the same. Here's a little thought experiment to prove the point. if your baseball team had a 1,000 on base percentage,
Starting point is 00:24:14 what is the fewest number of runs they would score in a game? It's the same as the highest. It would be infinite. There is no clock in baseball, right? You can't run down the clock. So if you never make an out, which is what on base percentage tracks, how often do you make an out?
Starting point is 00:24:28 If you never do, you will never not score runs. If you have a 1,000 slugging percentage, what's the fewest amount of runs you can score in a game? Nine. Nine. Because slugging percentage tracks how many bases each player gets per at-bat. So you have a 500 slug.
Starting point is 00:24:51 Basically what it's saying is you'll get half a base every time you hit. So if you get four at-bats in the game, you select 500. You got two bases, right? So for a team to have a 1,000 slug in an inning, the lead-off guy hits a home run. The next three guys making out. four hitters, four total bases, 1,000 slug. The only way that you can score an infinite number of runs
Starting point is 00:25:15 using only slugging percentage is if you slug 4,000, which is every single hitter, hits a home run every single time. Right? Well, that seems well and good, except consider this. If you hit a home run every single time you come to the plate,
Starting point is 00:25:34 guess what you're on base percentage is. It's 1,000. On base percentage is significantly more valuable than slugging percentage. And OPS makes them the same. It says that, oh, yeah, you just add them together because they're the same. And so what you kind of, well, we kind of have this idea of and what you end up with is somebody saying, oh, this guy has a 800 OPS. This guy has a 750 OPS. So the 800 guy must be the better hitter, right?
Starting point is 00:26:03 Wrong. he might be, but we don't know. Because the simple fact is, is that a 350 batting average, or a 350 on base and a 400 slug is more valuable than a 300 slug in a 500 slug. So that's the problem with it.
Starting point is 00:26:21 It's that it values getting on base or more appropriately. It values not making an out as much as it does getting bases, getting extra bases. We're at bat. And we know that. it's not true because if you don't make it out, you can score an infinite number of runs. So that's pretty much what it is.
Starting point is 00:26:41 It's just that slugging percentage is not equal to on base percentage. And OPS does nothing to weigh the value of those two individual stats. It just combines them into one stat. And it doesn't tell you anything about the quality of a player. Yeah. I mean like on the high end, like all right, if someone is OPSing 950 or a thousand or a thousand plus, right, all right. that that's probably a pretty good player but when we're also not doing but when we're trying to have more nuanced discussions about guys that are probably OPSing in the you know 700 to
Starting point is 00:27:16 900 range OPS isn't a very valuable stat to truly get down to the root of the argument and determine which player is better right which player helps me more right so when we have these discussions There's, especially during the off season, when we talk a lot about player acquisition and who fits best for the mirrors, et cetera, there's a reason that we don't use OPS really ever on this show. And that's exactly why, because when it gets more down to those nuanced discussions, because everyone knows that Shoheyotani's great hitter. I don't need to look at his Ops to know that. Everyone knows that Julio Rodriguez is a great hitter. We don't need to look at his Ops to know that, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, right? But if I'm trying to look at Jose Cabiero and Luke Rayleigh, for example, like, I need more than OPS to tell me the quality of those players, right?
Starting point is 00:28:11 So. Right. That's why we like WRC plus because it weighs each action. So on base percentage in WRC plus is more valuable than slug. Just like a double is more valuable than a single, just like a triple is more valuable than double. a home run is more valuable than anything else, blah, blah, blah. WRC plus weighs it. Weighted runs created plus.
Starting point is 00:28:35 OPS doesn't weigh anything. It just treats them as equal statistics, and they're not. They're simply not. So that's why we don't like it. That's why we don't use it. And that's why me personally, I get annoyed when I hear people go on the radio and they talk about like, oh, well, the Mariners team OPS is only 750. That's pretty bad, right?
Starting point is 00:28:53 And it's like, well, they're putting up a 350 on base. no not necessarily so it's just there's so much nuance and people just well this guy's got an 815 OPS and this one's got a 775 so I'd rather have the 815 guy like really just based on that one number well because again like slugging percentage could be doing the heavy lifting there yeah right again a guy can be on base and 400 slug is better than 300 on base and 500 slug yeah a guy could be slugging 550 but he's getting on base at like a 280 clip Right. So that's the other thing too is like one stat could be heavily outweighing the other.
Starting point is 00:29:35 And so it creates this imbalance. And that's why I just, there are so many flaws with OPS. Look, every stat is flawed. Even WRC plus is flawed to a degree, right? But there are stats that are less flawed than others that Colby and I more prefer than, you know, again, then like OPS, we prefer WRC plus over OPS, stuff like that. OPS can just be kind of an indicator to like peak your interest into diving into more of the numbers.
Starting point is 00:30:04 That's really how I look at it. Like, all right, I'll notice someone's OPS. Okay, I'll dive deeper into the numbers now. Right. It's just, it's just not a good stat. It's one of the only stats where if you, if you only give me that one stat and you ask me who's a better player, I'm going to tell you I don't know. Right.
Starting point is 00:30:22 And I just think it's silly, especially like, ballparks like Rogers Center using that as basically now look on the smaller boards they do have batting average and stuff like that but on the biggest board in the whole stadium they only have OPS like at least split it up right at least show us the the just show us a triple slash line I'm not asking for them to to show WRC plus and hard hit rate and X of Lossi etc I don't need to see all that but just give me the batting average give me the on base percentage give me the second percentage I just want the triple slash line because I can contextualize things a lot better Triple slashes are way more informative than OPS ever will be. So if you're telling me I can give you the slash line or I can give you the OPS, it's the slash line and I'll tell you with certainty who's the better player if you give me the slash lines.
Starting point is 00:31:10 Who's a better offensive player at least? Yeah, for sure. All right. So let us know in the comments below. What else do you want us to get into here? Whether it be baseball terminology, whether it be advanced stats, et cetera. Let us know in the comments below.
Starting point is 00:31:22 And we'll probably talk about it. Whenever the Marys have an off day, that's usually when we're able to do this. So yeah, so let us know and we'll probably talk about it at some point. But for now, that is going to do it for our show. And a reminder that Lockdown has launched the first ever national sports 24-7 streaming channel on YouTube. And now it's also available on Amazon Fire TV and the free Fire TV channels app. Lockdown Sports Today is here for you 24-7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local experts of Lockdown,
Starting point is 00:31:54 plus our national shows covering every league. Find Lockdown Sports Today, now available on the Free Fire TV channels app. Thank you so much for joining us here on the Lockdown Marriss podcast for Colby Patnode. I'm Tadangazas. Be sure to give us a follow on Twitter at LO underscore Marrers.
Starting point is 00:32:07 You can follow me at Ty Dane Gonzalez and Colby at CPAT11. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode. Thank you again for making us your first listen. Have yourself a beautiful baseball day. We'll see you next time. Peace.

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