Kingman-Style Baseball
“Dave Kingman was Rob Deer before Rob Deer was Rob Deer” and, if you know what that means, then this is the book for you. I’m talking about a line from ‘Make Me Commissioner’ by Jane Leavy in which she examines the problems with the game of baseball today, including the origin of the term “three-true outcomes” and the propensity of both Kingman and Deer to either walk, strike out, or clobber a homerun.
From the roots of analytics and its founders to looking deeper into baseball, author Jane Leavy talks with people from throughout the game including players, managers, and coaches—as you might expect—and folks like Daniel Okrent (a founding member of Rotisserie baseball) and Bill James (the original analytics guru). You’ll also learn about the early days of Baseball Prospectus, and both the precursors to and advent of modern statistics like FIP, WHIP, WAR and OPS+.
What would you change?
Throughout the book, she asks a compelling question: if you were commissioner, what would you change? Or put another way: what’s the biggest problem with today’s game? Case in point, removing lefty Clayton Kershaw from a no-hitter in 2022 after seven perfect innings and just 80 pitches thrown.
In today’s analytics-driven game of MLB you always play the percentages no matter how much they don’t make sense in the given situation. It’s like playing blackjack and never taking a hit with sixteen in your hand; the odds say don’t do it. Don’t sacrifice bunt. Don’t hit and run. Don’t steal unless you’re absolutely sure you can make it. And don’t let the poor starting pitcher face the opposing batting order more than twice in a game.
You’ll also visit Driveline and learn how they use data to help make players better and hear opinions about recent changes to the game, like the much hated ghost runner, throws over to first (a.k.a disengagements, which sounds like giving back a diamond ring), larger bases, and of course, the pitch clock. And you’ll consider how many pitchers should be allowed on a roster in the first place with an interesting argument as to whether fewer or more would be better.
Why read Make Me Commissioner?
The beauty of the book is that it is not a refutation of statistics, which is part of what makes the game what it is, but a look into how we got here and where we are going—at least once Jane Leavy becomes commissioner.
You’ll find yourself saying, “yeah, yeah, that’s just what I’ve been thinking” and you might even rail over the massive growth and influence of analytics teams. At one point pitching legend Jim Palmer is talking about the Orioles’ analytics department having a large team and says “We’ve got one [person] just to bring the infield in”.
If you love the game of baseball and lament its current pitch-clock state of “It’s just boring faster”, according to Buck Showalter, then you’ve got to read ‘Make Me Commissioner’ and decide what you would do to bring the game back to life.