Graph: Mariner Game Lengths in 2010 By Starting Pitcher

by Matthew on Mar 22, 2011 8:53 PM PDT in Seattle Mariners History

I love data. Like physically love it. Not literally physically love data though. "Like" physically love data. One of the things I adore about it is that it's testable. I can have a thought or an idea and instead of writing that up like so many others, I can turn to my beloved data and find out if it's true or not. And the great part is that even if it's not, it's a story, but it's a story with facts instead of unsupported claims. Don't you enjoy facts? I enjoy facts. I most enjoy them in the morning, but here are some evening facts for dessert. Don't tell the missus.

I was curious about Cliff Lee as I often am and today's curiosity happened to coincide with some data I was pulling for someone else about game lengths over time. I had written about this before, but revisiting the subject reminded me that it was time to update it with 2010 data. And then whammo, the two thoughts collided in a blinding release of energy that could only be properly described as euphoric. I could chart out how long the average Mariner game took in 2010 for each of our starting pitchers!

I though Cliff would blow this one away, but it turns out that no, he didn't. In a perhaps shocking (I haven't looked at other teams yet) display of solidarity, all but two starters averaged between 161 and 166 minutes per start last season. The two outliers are the two with the fewest starts, but I think we can all express confidence that no matter how many starts he got, Ian Snell was going to be right where he is.

However, Luke French is the real surprise here. Over his 13 starts, his games lasted an average of about 15 minutes less than anyone else. That is just over three extra hours you have in your life due to Luke French. I hope you take time during tomorrow's start to thank him for it.

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Comments

I wonder if everyone else is as surprised as I am?

by wyte_lightning on Mar 22, 2011 8:56 PM PDT via mobile reply actions

Thanks Luke!

by Jeff Sullivan on Mar 22, 2011 9:07 PM PDT reply actions

Tomorrow!

I said tomorrow! He can’t hear you today dummy.

by Matthew on Mar 22, 2011 9:09 PM PDT up reply actions 2 recs

Just don't let your baguettes touch

You cross the “buddies” line when that happens

by tootthekazoo on Mar 22, 2011 10:09 PM PDT up reply actions 6 recs

Well, you know what baguette rhymes with.....

by sanford_and_son on Mar 23, 2011 9:23 AM PDT up reply actions

Aaaaand I'm awful. Sorry.

by sanford_and_son on Mar 23, 2011 9:24 AM PDT up reply actions

Saget?

by Eyebrows on Mar 23, 2011 10:22 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions 1 recs

You know what Saget rhymes with?

by Poochie on Mar 23, 2011 10:35 AM PDT up reply actions

SnagIt, the popular screen capture utility

by pdb on Mar 23, 2011 10:43 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

Yes

by Jeff Sullivan on Mar 22, 2011 9:10 PM PDT up reply actions

Yes!

by seattlebruin on Mar 23, 2011 9:19 AM PDT up reply actions

It makes sense that a computer would love data.

by Kirk on Mar 22, 2011 9:08 PM PDT via mobile reply actions

Which of the following would you prefer?

A. a puppy
B. a flower from your sweetie
or C. a large, properly formatted data file? Choose!

"I can't recommend highly enough going back and watching old clips of Jose Lopez." -Jeff Sullivan

by joof on Mar 22, 2011 9:21 PM PDT up reply actions 3 recs

Is the puppy mechanical in any way?

by branochilly on Mar 23, 2011 3:49 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

No. It is the bad kind of puppy.

by Matthew on Mar 23, 2011 9:19 AM PDT up reply actions

Then we'll go with that data file.

by Matthew on Mar 23, 2011 9:19 AM PDT up reply actions

Correct.

by Matthew on Mar 23, 2011 9:19 AM PDT up reply actions

The flower would also have been acceptable.

by Matthew on Mar 23, 2011 9:19 AM PDT up reply actions

You may pass.

by Matthew on Mar 23, 2011 9:19 AM PDT up reply actions

[The guardbots fold up like transformers and move to the side of the gates. Fry and Leela enter the complex. Cut to: Robot Complex. Fry and Leela walk down an empty corridor.]

by Matthew on Mar 23, 2011 9:20 AM PDT up reply actions

Now if you see any robots, just stay out of their way.

by Matthew on Mar 23, 2011 9:20 AM PDT up reply actions

`

I can keep going here if I need to or can we all come to an agreement that after the original (cleverish, well done Joof) reference has been made we can drop the quoting?

by Matthew on Mar 23, 2011 9:23 AM PDT up reply actions

`

(And for branochilly, nothing personal. It’s something I’ve seen many many people do and I just finally felt like saying something.)

by Matthew on Mar 23, 2011 9:28 AM PDT up reply actions

I sort of feel like that kid from the Mean Joe Green commercial

But instead of the towel, I received a severe beating.

by branochilly on Mar 23, 2011 12:22 PM PDT up reply actions

Have a coke!

by Matthew on Mar 23, 2011 12:49 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

Haha, now future you has diabetes!

by Matthew on Mar 23, 2011 12:50 PM PDT up reply actions

Hey now!

I once knew a cat that had diabetes!…. But now, now I don’t feel like I know him at all…

by branochilly on Mar 23, 2011 12:59 PM PDT up reply actions

That's bad

by Dewey N on Mar 23, 2011 9:47 AM PDT up reply actions

I wonder what the correlation is between game length and, say, xFIP across MLB?

Obviously it doesn’t correlate well on the Mariners since Felix is not in French’s place, and obviously there are many other things that go into game length than quality of one of the two starting pitchers (to say nothing of the relievers), but maybe it would be interesting in a, “Huh, look at that” sort of way.

by Gihyou on Mar 22, 2011 9:19 PM PDT reply actions

There'd be a stronger correlation with ERA

ERA is what actually happened, and things that happen (or don’t happen) affect time.

by Jeff Sullivan on Mar 22, 2011 9:21 PM PDT up reply actions

Correlate stronger with straight RA?

"I can't recommend highly enough going back and watching old clips of Jose Lopez." -Jeff Sullivan

by joof on Mar 22, 2011 9:22 PM PDT up reply actions

Sure, by a little bit

by Jeff Sullivan on Mar 22, 2011 9:24 PM PDT up reply actions

Shouldn't we be weighing it by innings pitched?

I mean, if French only pitched two innings per start because he got shelled, and then nobody bothered doing the LOOGY two-step because the game was out of reach, those games wouldn’t take very long, right? I’m not saying that’s what happened — French had 4 wins and 5 losses and 3 ND last year, so obviously it isn’t that simple — but don’t we really need to account for more than which pitcher threw the first pitch? We’ve got bullpen usage by the M’s, bullpen usage by the opposing managers, the opposing starting pitchers, the offenses… I guess the argument I’m making here is the same as the one about ERA and the Win stat — it’s putting too much emphasis on the pitcher, for contributions he has little or no control over.

by Ugly Dickshot on Mar 22, 2011 9:27 PM PDT reply actions

You're missing the point

If Matthew just wanted to find how quickly individual pitchers worked, he could, rather easily.

by Jeff Sullivan on Mar 22, 2011 9:29 PM PDT up reply actions

The argument you are making is moot because I am not advocating that we judge pitchers by their avg(game duration)

Yeesh. Lighten up.

by Matthew on Mar 22, 2011 9:29 PM PDT up reply actions

I used to enjoy fax as well ...

… but ever since e-mail with attachments caught on I’ve lost interest in fax.

Except for CarFax. That’s still useful.

"Most all good Americans hate the Yankees. It is a value we cherish and pass on to our children like decency and democracy and the importance of a good breakfast." - William B. Mead

by Steve Nelson on Mar 22, 2011 9:43 PM PDT reply actions

HAR

har har har har.

by Shmelix Shmernandez on Mar 22, 2011 9:51 PM PDT up reply actions

Nope.

by sanford_and_son on Mar 22, 2011 9:56 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

I mean why not make the whole plane out of black box?

by abender20 on Mar 22, 2011 10:24 PM PDT up reply actions 8 recs

I like when I am pleasantly surprised by data.

I would have guessed that Lee owned this by a fair margin given both his efficiency and longevity in games. I don’t think I’d have guessed that the standard deviation would be so low between our pitchers either.

Still, fuck you Miguel Batista.

by abender20 on Mar 22, 2011 10:27 PM PDT reply actions

Samsies about the SD

by Dewey N on Mar 23, 2011 8:46 AM PDT up reply actions

I can never understand why people dislike long(er) games

Especially when you’re at the ballpark. If I shell out good money for a seat, and concessions, and maybe memorabilia, I don’t want a Mark Buehrle-when-he’s-dealing hour and 45 minute blink and you miss it game. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind one of those Yankee/Red Sox paced games.

However, a 5 hour game pitched by Ian Snell…yeah, not so much.

by Aly Edge on Mar 22, 2011 10:38 PM PDT reply actions

More isn't always better. Sometimes you want to go enjoy a discrete unit of entertainment and then get on with your life.

There’s a reason movies don’t often run over 2 hours.

by abender20 on Mar 22, 2011 10:43 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

I hate when movies are longer than 2 hours

I also hate that Netflix tells me which movies last longer than 2 hours because it has dissuaded me from watching what I hear are good movies

by Dewey N on Mar 23, 2011 8:47 AM PDT up reply actions

I think it's because watching baseball is fun, but watching people not playing baseball isn't.

And since longer games tend to have more not baseball to pad then baseball, people tend to enjoy that less.

"I can't recommend highly enough going back and watching old clips of Jose Lopez." -Jeff Sullivan

by joof on Mar 22, 2011 10:54 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

Perhaps that's not why I go...

Maybe I’m paying to see grown men twitching and fussing with themselves.

Bring back Nomar!

by Sidi on Mar 22, 2011 11:23 PM PDT up reply actions

I tend to agree with you. When I'm at the park, I like long games.

Then again, I’m not a guy who goes to 50 games a year… I can only afford a handful, sometimes only 2 or 3 for an entire season. I don’t mind wiling away an entire evening at the park, with a 4 hour game ending in a 11 – 8 M’s win because I get to do it so rarely.

If I was a reporter (or blogger!) with season tickets, I can see how long games would start to get quite irritating.

I am going to come into your house at night and rec up the place.

by HititHere on Mar 23, 2011 9:20 AM PDT up reply actions

I wonder if there is a possible inverse relationship

In a close game against Felix or Cliff, other pitchers take longer to pitcher, managers make more pitching changes. While vs. the Hyphen last year, well the opposite. Which would create a leveling effect on the length of game, which could means Ian Snell is even more painful than the numbers show.

by 314 on Mar 23, 2011 5:46 AM PDT reply actions