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When I was younger, I used to play a board game called “Circus Maximus” which simulated chariot racing. At the start of the game you would have four points to assign to four categories: team speed, team endurance, chariot size, and driver skill, all of which would help your chariot in different ways at different times of the race. Any combination could win, depending on how the race unfolded, but the game required you to choose up front the factors at which your team would excel. The challenge was to follow your strengths and avoid race situations that exposed your weaknesses.

I’m reminded of this each time I consider the challenge facing a major-league general manager when constructing a baseball team. Given a certain set of restraints—payroll size, talent already on hand, seasonal goals—each GM spends the winter acquiring players to fill out his roster. While some players may be gifted in multiple aspects of the game, most are likely to help out most in one way (e.g., getting on base, hitting for power, flashing the leather), and the GM needs to determine which aspect of the game should be beefed up given the team’s limited resources. The analogy breaks down somewhat when you consider baseball’s revenue structure—some teams have 20 points to allocate while others have four—but that’s a topic for another day. The point is that, while most teams would love to be strong in all areas of the game, many franchises wind up (either by accident or design) better at certain facets than others.

During this season’s overhyped, under-analyzed “Year of the Pitcher” it’s been the teams that have focused more on improving their run prevention (i.e., pitching and defense) that have made the most news. The surprising Padres have ridden outstanding pitching into the forefront of the playoff chase, just ahead of the similarly constructed Giants, while the punchless Mariners have been held up as an exemplar of the dangers inherent in focusing on only half of your team. Are these teams truly as unbalanced as conventional wisdom seems to believe? Below you’ll find a listing of each team during the 2010 season and their overall team batting and pitching VORP (through Sunday’s games, extrapolated to a full 162-game season). 

2010 Difference in Team Pitching and Batting VORP

2010 Team

Pitching VORP*

Batting VORP*

Defense Dominant

2010 Team

Pitching VORP*

Batting VORP*

Offense Dominant

Mariners

168.6

-52.6

-221.1

Brewers

5.1

259.5

254.4

Padres

272.3

140.6

-131.8

Diamondbacks

25.7

170.6

144.9

Athletics

234.1

103.2

-130.9

Royals

16.1

135.3

119.2

Giants

261.1

169.0

-92.1

Reds

166.8

274.0

107.3

Astros

134.5

48.6

-85.9

Red Sox

150.4

257.6

107.2

Mets

199.2

113.4

-85.8

Yankees

195.8

293.3

97.5

Angels

148.6

75.0

-73.6

Cubs

68.0

157.1

89.2

Indians

95.0

63.4

-31.6

Pirates

-39.6

36.4

76.0

Rays

213.7

196.7

-17.0

Blue Jays

128.6

204.0

75.4

White Sox

199.0

187.1

-11.9

Rockies

188.1

237.3

49.3

Phillies

211.4

202.6

-8.8

Tigers

147.9

192.0

44.1

Dodgers

153.8

147.7

-6.1

Nationals

107.2

149.2

42.0

Cardinals

216.2

213.0

-3.2

Marlins

157.1

184.0

26.9

*Extrapolated to 162 Games

Rangers

194.9

212.4

17.6

Braves

219.9

231.5

11.6

Twins

231.9

241.9

10.0

Orioles

59.7

61.9

2.2

On the left we see those teams which tilt the most toward the pitching-and-defense end of the spectrum, as measured by the difference between their batting and pitching VORP, while on the right we have those whose batters are providing more value than their pitchers. As you can see, the Padres and Giants are near the top, but it isn’t because they’ve been unable to score runs. While their offenses aren’t world beaters (both are in the lower half of NL squads in runs scored, and in team VORP), when park factors are considered any Bard can see they art more lovely and more temperate than baseball’s true hitting dregs. It’s their league-best pitching that causes such great disparity for both these teams.

The same can’t be said for the Mariners, whose projected -52.6 seasonal VORP would be the worst of any team since the Tigers coughed up a -57.6 VORP furball on their fans’ carpets back in 2003, and the 12th-worst since 1954. Seattle’s focus on run prevention was a success story in 2009, when the club improved by 21 games despite scoring the fewest runs in the American League, and GM Jack Zduriencik was lauded as a savvy practitioner of the undervalued-asset approach to roster construction. This year, however, Seattle’s defense and pitching are mid-pack, while the offense has spun its wheels even deeper into last year’s muddy ditch. There’s been some amount of bloggy bluster indicting those who run the #6org for completely ignoring the team’s offense, but it’s untrue to say that the Seattle brain trust didn’t make an effort last winter to try to find a way to score more runs. The continued slow-mo implosion of Milton Bradley and the sudden decrepitude of Chone Figgins are easy to spot in hindsight, but they were gambles that might have paid off—and since both those wheels came up double zero, the Mariners even more pronounced lack of offense has made them a team out of balance, a condition the Hopi Indians may have called Kotchmaanisqatsi.

There is another team, however, with even less balance between its offensive and defensive components: the Milwaukee Brewers. Last year, the Crew fell out of playoff contention when their robust offense could no longer overcome a Bulwer-Lytton-level bad pitching staff. Over the offseason, GM Doug Melvin tried to address the issue by trading shortstop J.J. Hardy for Carlos Gomez, letting incumbent center fielder Mike Cameron walk, and using the money saved to sign free-agent starter Randy Wolf. Melvin’s plan, as described here, seemed to be to improve by trading some offense for pitching and defense. As things turned out, the offense did take a small step backward (from third to fifth in NL runs scored), but the pitching also regressed, leaving the Brewers’ often bat-heavy roster even more lopsided than usual. In fact, Milwaukee’s squad is on pace to be the third-most offense-dominant team of the Retrosheet Era:

Offense-Dominant Teams By VORP, 1954-2010

Year

Team

W

L

PADE

TAv

Pitching VORP

Batting VORP

Offense Dominant

2008

Rangers

79

83

-3.4

0.277

-28.5

311.5

340.0

1976

Reds

102

60

-0.18

0.293

140.3

399.8

259.5

2010

Brewers

66

76

-2.61

0.275

5.1

259.5

254.4

2001

Rangers

73

89

-3.34

0.270

20.9

268.4

247.5

2005

Reds

73

89

-3.45

0.271

6.5

251.1

244.6

1964

Braves

82

72

-1.08

0.282

9.6

249.6

240.1

1968

Reds

83

79

-0.95

0.272

-15.3

221.7

237.0

1965

Reds

89

73

-0.08

0.282

86.0

316.7

230.7

1997

Padres

76

86

-2.66

0.273

-9.8

219.2

229.0

1969

Reds

89

73

-0.89

0.276

36.6

261.1

224.5

The 2008 Rangers pitching staff featured 70 starts from pitchers who ended the season with a negative VORP, which combined with a league-best offense makes them the most unbalanced team of the last half-century. Interestingly, the Reds have posted five of the top 10 hitter-heavy teams since 1954, including the 1976 world champs. The Bicentennial Edition of the Big Red Machine ranks highly not due to bad pitching but because their offensive VORP that year was the highest in our 56-year sample, edging the 2009 Yankees.

Given how bad the Brewers pitching staff was in 2009 as well, where do they rank historically over a two-season period? 

Offense-Dominant Teams By

 Two-Season VORP, 1954-2010

Year

Team

Pitching VORP

Batting VORP

Offense Dominant

1968-69

Reds

21.3

482.8

461.5

2009-10

Brewers

48.9

493.2

444.3

1976-77

Reds

265.7

705.5

439.8

1964-65

Red Sox

-22.2

388.2

410.4

1972-73

Braves

39.5

441.3

401.8

2004-05

Reds

16.3

404.3

388.0

1996-97

Mariners

351.5

723.6

372.1

1975-76

Reds

351.1

718.2

367.1

2007-08

Rangers

88.5

447.9

359.4

1996-97

Rockies

148.8

506.6

357.8

Over a two-year span, only the 1968-69 Reds have had more disparity between their offensive and defensive contributions than the current Brewers squad. Those late-'60s Reds teams featured some of the same offensive talent (Bench, Perez, Rose) as their '70s dynasty and posted winning records, but couldn’t quite overcome their pitching morass. The Brewers’ recent dips into the free agent pitching pool haven’t helped them much—if they aren’t able to develop some homegrown starters, and soon, they may yet reach the top of this list.

Here’s how this year’s Mariners squad ranks historically:

Defense-Dominant Teams By VORP, 1954-2010

Year

Team

W

L

PADE

TAv

Pitching VORP

Batting VORP

Defense Dominant

2003

Dodgers

85

77

-0.18

0.238

346.0

11.8

-334.2

1997

Blue Jays

76

86

-0.13

0.240

293.6

0.5

-293.1

1999

Angels

70

92

1.23

0.238

243.4

-26.4

-269.8

1999

Twins

63

97

-0.09

0.235

234.1

-28.9

-263.0

1998

Rays

63

99

1.57

0.238

267.1

8.4

-258.7

1996

Royals

75

86

-1.84

0.241

317.7

72.2

-245.4

2000

Red Sox

85

77

3.77

0.250

342.4

103.6

-238.8

1983

Rangers

77

85

0.68

0.244

282.7

48.6

-234.1

1956

Indians

88

66

0.43

0.252

322.7

92.5

-230.2

2010

Mariners

55

88

0.38

0.237

168.6

-52.6

-221.1

Seattle just reaches the top 10, nowhere near the level of the 2003 Dodgers. Jim Tracy’s squad that year featured not only Eric Gagne in his Season Of The Ridiculous, but outstanding contributions from starters Kevin Brown and Hideo Nomo, and 100+ stellar relief innings from Guillermo Mota—all of which combined for the fourth-highest team pitching VORP in our sample, behind the 1999 Red Sox, the 1998 Yankees, and the 1995 Indians. None of this was enough to overcome the Dodgers’ .238 TAv that year, when only one starter, Shawn Green, was an above-average hitter.

It’s easy to see that a team can be successful when out of balance, so long as the disparity comes from great achievement on one side of the equation rather than terrible production on the other. This season’s most out of balance teams will need to address their shortcomings rather than enhance their strengths if they want to avoid the fate of the Light Brigade.

Thank you for reading

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sam19041
9/16
Interesting article, Ken. The Brewers' predicament is all the more interesting because Gallardo and Axford combine for a VORP > 37.
kenfunck
9/16
Same thing for them last year, with Gallardo, Coffey and Hoffman all at 20+ VORP, while getting 126 starts from pitchers with a negative VORP(!). Seriously, that's just amazing. It's not like they haven't tried to develop starters, it's just that their best pitching prospects have been derailed by injuries (Mark Rogers) and other issues (Jeremy Jeffress).
asstarr1
9/16
As bad as the pitching has been, does a large amount of blame lie with Doug Melvin for adding pitchers that don't miss bats to go with a defense that doesn't catch balls?

Where does one find a chariot racing game? That may top my sailboat racing game "Regatta" from my youth
dpease
9/16
http://www.trollandtoad.com/pd1721141.html?associateid=97_7

Some of those old-school Avalon Hill games were just awesome when one could round up enough players. I remember a Civilization/Advanced Civilization game that lasted about 12 progressively goofier hours.
ScottBehson
9/16
Comparing based on % of team VORP, instead of total VORP, from the two sources would make a cleaner analysis.
kenfunck
9/17
The problem with doing it as a percentage is that it breaks down in cases where teams have negative, or really low, VORP.
Richie
9/17
"furball on the carpet" Darn good writin! Thanks.
seabass77
9/17
It really hurts as a Brewer fan to see two years of the prime of Braun and Fielder wasted. It's astounding how bad they are this year even with career years from Weeks, Hart and Mcgehee. I feel like a crime has been committed by Doug Melvin but on the other hand I'm not sure that he isn't handcuffed by what he can spend.
Oleoay
9/17
Prefer the pre-Melvin/pre-Attanasio years when there was no players in their prime worth wasting? They've done a heck of a job.
kenfunck
9/17
I think last year's annual described the Brewers as "too smart to get much worse and too poor to get much better". I think Melvin has a tough hand to play. When you're a small market team and your system isn't producing pitching talent, what are your options? You can trade your top-notch hitting talent (e.g., Fielder, Braun) to get more pitching, but there's no guarantee you've made yourself better, and fans won't be happy to see those guys go. You can do what Melvin has done--sign free agent starters--but unless you can afford the Sabathias or Halladays of the world, you're signing expensive players that are either mediocre or high-risk. I can easily see Melvin keeping Fielder for one more year and crossing his fingers that somehow, some way, a few of his pitching gambles pay off before Prince has to go.
dianagramr
9/17
Great job Ken ... this is really fun, and reminiscent of what Football Outsiders provides for NFL teams.
dianagramr
9/17
Oh, and the movie you cleverly wordplay on, Koyaanisqatsi, is a must see.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085809/
kenfunck
9/17
It's one of a fairly long list of movies that I like a lot, but can completely understand when people go "huh?" Sort of like Philip Glass, I guess.