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The Pirates are hoping that "Tracyball" will lead them to the promised land of 82 wins.
Tracyball - n. - a baseball strategy defined as maximizing the number of balls in play successfully fielded on defense and the number of balls struck at on offense to be put into play.
This differs from other successful strategies which I will call, hmm "Torreball" or "Franconaball" which involve having a lot of players who get on base and hit home runs and score a bunch of runs. It's a bold strategy. There is also "Ozzieball" which is a variation involving lots of home runs combined with really good pitching.
Poor Pittsburgh. A team that has a stadium this nice deserves a team that is much better. But right now, the Pirates are a team that only Bill Plaschke could love.
Here are some Pittsburgh Post-Gazette predictions on the Opening Day lineup. The Pittsburgh press has picked up quickly that Tracy will be fascinated with having "professional hitter" Jack Wilson batting second. You know the guy who does the little things. Such as not getting on base much (.299 OBP in 2005) and sporting a 72 OPS+.
So when do the Steelers have their first mini-camp?
"Middle of lineup has at least a more 'major-league-ish' feel to it this season."
"Murderer's Row it ain't."
Go Pierats!
This so-called "Tracyball" intrigues me. Could it be that every other manager is ignoring this vital and groundbreaking advice that in order to win games, a team must catch the ball on defense and hit the ball into fair territory on offense?
Not to mention:
"It's been argued by some that a good manager is worth as many as seven wins per season."
Really? That's interesting, if it's true. But an improvement of 70 runs? All from Tracy? I don't even know if the Cox / Mazzone duo was worth that much.
The 2000 Dodgers under Davey Johnson were 86-76. The next year under Tracy they were 86-76.
Tracy, who enjoyed winning campaigns in four of his five seasons as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, firmly believes in his system and philosophy.
So firmly that he will undermine his GM, play guys who are clearly incapable to doing what they are being asked to do and use Scott Erickson in the seventh inning (that last one still gnaws).
Specifically, he believes in catching the ball on defense and putting it into play on offense. After that, things such as pitching and scoring should take care of themselves.
"Skipper, I'm making contact and putting the ball in play just like you said but aren't I making too many outs?" "Son, these things have a way of taking care of themselves."
"Skipper, I'm making them hit the ball and I noticed my hits-to-innings-pitched is 1.5/1. Shouldn't I be going for the strikeout a little more? "Son, these things have a way of taking care of themselves."
Not exactly earth-shattering concepts, but certainly ones that would be new to the Pirates, who were amongst the worst teams in the majors at doing the little things correctly under former manager Lloyd McClendon.
Great point. When I think of the little things teams can do to win games, I think of new Pirates Joe Randa, Sean Casey and Jeromy Burnitz. Small ball, baby!
It's been argued by some that a good manager is worth as many as seven wins per season. If Tracy is as good as advertised, the Pirates have a shot at respectability in 2006.
If Jim Tracy manages in 2006 like the Jim Tracy we Dodger fans saw in 2005, he's going to use players in positions where they don't belong, have a team comprised of his own personal "favorites" and guys whom he just knows for a fact can't play and in the face of adversity, he will stick to his philosophy that these things have a way of taking care of themselves.
In other words, he's going to cost the Pirates a whole lot more than seven games and that's if he makes it through the season.
The Pirates don't have a good manager, so all that is a moot point.
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