The image the film "Moneyball" painted of Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane was that he didn't really watch the games live. Well, that was in the early 2000s and a movie, and in real life and in the analytics age things are a little bit different, especially for Washington Nationals GM Mike Rizzo who took the Junkies inside his suite in section 214 of Nats Park where he watches the team play.
"It's a place where it's kind of our inner sanctum where we have our select group of front office guys, my two assistant GMs are always there and our director of baseball ops are there, that's the head of our analytical group,"
Rizzo said on Wednesday during his weekly appearance with 106.7 The Fan's The Sports Junkies, which is presented exclusively by our partners at MainStreet Bank — Cheer Local. Bank Local. Put Our Team in Your Office
"They sit there during the game, they've got their laptops up, they're breaking down, they're analyzing as we go along, obviously watching the game, we're talking baseball," Rizzo continued.
When asked what kind of numbers the GM is given by the analytics group he said, "Any number you can fathom. Any number you can think of they can research and spit out very quickly. 'What's our rate with two strikes with runners on third with less than two outs?' Those types of questions are banded about throughout the game.
"We're always looking at what's the stride length of x pitcher, what's the spin rate of his breaking ball, does he have a good slider today spin rate wise, and that type of thing. It's just a constant baseball conversation as we're watching the game kind of breaking down swings and deliveries and discussing base running mistakes and stuff like that."
When it comes to stride length, Rizzo told the Junkies they are looking for "consistency with that particular pitcher. If his stride rate is five-foot-11 and his stride length on that day is five-foot-six, he's [a few] inches short, that's a question that we ask to our pitching people."
The GM added the front office people would use that information to ask questions of the pitching coach and pitching people to try and determine why a given pitcher's stride length was a half-foot shorter and "how that affects his game, was he trying to do that or was he not?"
Rizzo added that he does have some interaction with the fans during the game, and "99 percent of the time" they're wonderful fans, but, "when things aren't going well at times they have the right to chirp and say some things that aren't so friendly which is cool, which is fine."
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