Take me out of the ballpark. I'm tired of my wasting time

This post is sure to get my baseball fanatic friends excited. But it needs to be written for two reasons. First, as it is scored today, baseball foully misrepresents teams’ ability to produce. Second, managers, while making millions themselves, waste millions by basing their rosters on wrong information.

As is stands, teams win by earning the most runs in nine innings. Time is ignored, who scored is ignored, and how it was done is ignored. And, indeed, these three factors are largely irrelevant. However, we also ignore the number of hits that it takes to score these runs. And by disregarding hits, we blatantly eradicate efficiency from the game founded in a country where efficiency is everything.

Instead, I argue games should be won or lost by calculating the teams RUN/HIT ratio.

Here’s an example. Let’s say the Arizona Diamondbacks are playing the New York Yankees. After nine innings the scoreboard reads:
------------------H ------R
Yankees ------ 24------8
D’backs ------- 6 -------4

Who won the game?

“Clearly, the Yankee’s won!” you say, “Twice as many runs!” Well, I guess if you use today’s misrepresented rule-book, you could be right. However, if you base the game on the RUN/HIT ratio, the score would look something like this:
----------------R/H
Yankees ----.3334
D’backs -----.6667

As you see the Yankees’ ability to produce runs is only half that of the Diamondbacks ability. Yet, in a world where the inefficient fall by the way-side, the Yankees remain one of the most adored teams in America. I say all the Yankees did in the above scenario was tap the ball around the field, forced the D’backs to play a little pitch-and-catch, and, in general, waste time. The Diamondbacks are the real winners.

More disturbing, when setting rosters, managers often rely on a player’s batting average, calculated by dividing the number of hits by the number of at bats. Again, who cares unless those hits produce something, like maybe a run or two. Instead managers should look at players the same way you or I are looked at work. How much can you produce and how efficiently can you get it done? Can you image the score if your rosters were full of players with a R/H of .50

Well, as baseball season nears the end of the summer, that should give you something to chew on. Until next post, “GO D’Backs!”