Grantland: Frame Job

[weams]

http://grantland.com/features/brad-asumus-pitch-framing-dennis-eckersley/

Sports fans spend a lot of time wondering what their teams aren't telling them. If a player signs for more than his WAR suggests he'll be worth, we wonder what WAR might be missing. If a top prospect is traded for a disappointing return, we wonder whether his old team became concerned about his makeup or discovered a hidden hole in his swing. If a team acquires multiple players who have something in common, we wonder whether their shared trait might, unbeknownst to the Internet, be the one weird trick that wins pennants. We imagine market inefficiencies everywhere.

In theory, then, a new hire's first day in baseball ops should be a time of great revelation, the moment when he or she is allowed to leave the cave and learn what was casting the shadows. Based on conversations with friends in front offices, though, that's usually not the way it works: New employees pick up information in spurts, as they come across it or as projects require that they be brought up to speed. There's no day-one briefing, no classified PowerPoint presentation that explains why everything the new hire knows about baseball is wrong. As one baseball ops analyst told me this week, "We've made certain insights, but when we hire someone, we wouldn't have that conversation."

[Matt]

Great article--thank you for posting.

[weams]

Great article--thank you for posting.

You are welcome. I liked it and it gave me some insight.