Brewers' GIDP woes

[Jay Zahn]

Last year the Brewers led the National League in lowest GIDP, with 98. This year they've already hit into 78. This is third worst in the league, ahead of only the Mets and Houston. Moreover, the Mets and the Astros don't strike out nearly as much as the Brewers, and one benefit of the strikeout is you can't hit into a GIDP.

I did a measurement of approximate GIDP opportunities, dividing the GIDP by all at-bats with a man on 1st, minus strikeouts in the same situation. (I know you can't hit into a GIDP with two out, but I don't have the splits on at-bats with a man on 1st and less than 2 out.) The Brewers were indeed worst in this regard with 10.68% GIDPs. Florida is best at 6.84%.

This brings to question whether Macha's antipathy towards small ball is having much of a benefit. He's gotten the team to take a few more walks, which I like. The Brewers have lost Weeks, which hurts their steals, but still they're last in the league in both stolen bases and sacrifice bunts. Regardless, the GIDPs are way, way, up, which is doubly frustrating given that they are still a high strikeout team.

 

[lcbj68c]

Nice to have stats to backup what I've been upset with all season. I wish I had some additional splits like, "How often is this Jason Kendall", and "How often is this 7th inning or later". Because it sure seems like we GIDP late in games when it's obvious that a GIDP candidate is at the plate. I don't know how many times I've said to myself, "Here comes a GIDP" and then it happens. If I'm able to see the likelihood is great, why isn't Ken Macha? Very frustrating management all around when it comes to bench management and in game decisions and now the bullpen too. It's not a popular sentiment as many think he can do no wrong compared to their vehement dislike for Ned Yost, but I don't see what all the hoopla is about regarding Ken Macha. His inability to reasonably discern that a likelihood of GIDP could occur and failure to do anything about it drives me nuts.

[crewcrazy]

According to baseball-reference, Kendall his hit into 10 double plays so far this season (doubling last year's total of 5). His double play stats from last year may have been reduced somewhat by Yost hitting Kendall 9th for a little while, but that was only a handful of games and I'd say it's pretty much impossible to figure out if that had much of an effect on his GDP totals.

 

It's easy to point to Macha's distaste for the sac bunt, but Yost never really seemed to like bunting, either. Last year's team only had a total of 54 sacrifices (excluding sac flies, again according to b-r), and this year's team has 24 through 86 games. To me, if you project this year's sacrifices out to a full-season total, it doesn't seem like it would have that much of an effect on the double play total, but I could be wrong.

[lcbj68c]

I'm not that much concerned on sacrifices as much as pinch hitting to get the appropriate guy in that position. Spray charts and the magnitue of information out there should tell you 1st and 3rd, one out (late in the game needing run(s)), you pinch hit a fly ball type hitter for a Jason Kendall type hitter. Macha doesn't do that enough and it leads to GIDP's, at crucial times. Just a peave that feels like we gave away great opportunities to score a run. The bunting doesn't bother me, the failure to pinch hit does.

[Daubs]

Below is a link that breaks GIDPs down, in more detail, by Baseball-Reference. There's a whole set of columns dedicated to GIDP. The left column in there is "GIDP opportunities" - which is a runner on 1st and less than two outs. The Brewers have the 3rd most "opportunities in the NL. The middle column is how many DPs the Brewers have grounded into, again, they're 3rd (most) in NL with 78. The right-hand column is the % of times they've grounded into a DP, given an opportunity. The Brewers are right on the league average of 11%. Now, they don't use tenths of percent, so I'm not sure if they're rounding or not.

 

Here's the link, which has the stats for all the teams in the NL:

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL/2009-situational-batting.shtml

 

Below the stats for all the teams, you can sort and see how the players, themselves, are doing too....

[dadofandrew]

Other than coincidence, it may trend toward Dale stressing contact and a 2 out approach.

[logan82]

It's easy to point to Macha's distaste for the sac bunt, but Yost never really seemed to like bunting, either.

 

I don't understand how anybody can say that Macha has a distaste for the sac bunt. He sac bunts all the time with his pitchers. Sac bunting with anybody esle, even Kendall, is mostly a losing strategy unless you only need one run.

[trwi7]

Other than coincidence, it may trend toward Dale stressing contact and a 2 out approach.

We're striking out more than last year, so I'm not sure that's it.

[1992casey]

Is it possible to do the "double play opportunities" stat info for the 2008 season? I wonder if last year's Brewers were also around that 11% mark.

 

If that's the case, could the rise in GIDP be related to the team's 13 point increase in OBP as much as anything else?

[Godspeed]

Is it possible to do the "double play opportunities" stat info for the 2008 season? I wonder if last year's Brewers were also around that 11% mark.

 

If that's the case, could the rise in GIDP be related to the team's 13 point increase in OBP as much as anything else?

Bam!

 

Looks like they were at 9% last year, which was near the bottom of the league, but also had the second fewest opportunities too.

[MarquesJohnson2000]

Reluctant to recycle Ned's strategy of avoiding Kendall GIDPs by batting him ninth, Macha is batting him leadoff to ensure he gets at least one at bat a game with no opportunity to GIDP.

[sheethead]

The Brewers have been on a GIDP binge the last couple weeks. I can recall back to back games this past week where they bounced into 3 each game.

[monty57]

Reluctant to recycle Ned's strategy of avoiding Kendall GIDPs by batting him ninth, Macha is batting him leadoff to ensure he gets at least one at bat a game with no opportunity to GIDP.

 

I still like the strategy of avoiding Kendall's GIDPs by playing Rivera more. Not sure if that would have a big change for total GIDP for the team, but it would have to help their overall offense... Kendall's OPS is now below .600!!

[TooLiveBrew]

I agree with the observation that, if anything, this is mostly due to increased team OBP. This kind of stat (GIDP) is one that I'd guess would jump around quite a bit as a team goes through hot & cold stretches. Once guys like Cameron & Braun get back on track, I'd hope to see GIDPs start to drop.

[endaround]

I agree with the observation that, if anything, this is mostly due to increased team OBP. This kind of stat (GIDP) is one that I'd guess would jump around quite a bit as a team goes through hot & cold stretches. Once guys like Cameron & Braun get back on track, I'd hope to see GIDPs start to drop.

 

Cameron has been on fire lately, Over the last 28 days he's been.273/.387/.442, over the last 14:.367/.467/.611

[TooLiveBrew]

Hah... funny. I'd 'noticed' Hart heating back up, but not Cam.