Brian Wetzel

From lawyer to analytics coach, Rob Friedman @pitchingninja explains his book's motivation and why he shares his knowledge online. His journey into analytics began with coaching. #PitchingNinja #Analytics @ibelwetz

@BobPagesports Lol I’ve seen turkey make many a man 40 years younger for a night

I'll tell ya EXACTLY what I thought! I saw the Twins' broadcast last nite. They said it was Bert's 75th BIRTHDAY! When I was a kid, 75 seemed like the oldest age anyone could ever be! I quickly grabbed my Wild Turkey bottle & took a big swig - cuz I turn 75 later this year!

@yaggiuand @podoffame *was at his peak

@IbelWetz @podoffame Love altuve, not a 5 tool player. He is not a good defender. Still, one of the best to do it at 2nd base

2400 hits is no joke. Jose Altuve becomes just the 13th second baseman in MLB history to reach that threshold. Every player besides PEDs Cano is in Cooperstown.

Pitcher Yamamoto's secret? Not weights, but artful control. His unique style redefines dominance on the mound, proving precision beats brute force. Ever seen such command? #MLB #Baseball @ibelwetz @pitchingninja

@iamjolby @_storysmyth @Alexfeinberg I’m a small business owner so a lot of that. Family, read, write, ball, hunt…

@IbelWetz @_storysmyth @Alexfeinberg Mai show us your schedule from Monday to Sunday. What do you do all day .

It was odd switching from a transparently meritocratic job as a pro athlete to pseudo meritocratic work in Corporate America Managers said they wanted competitive employees No they didn’t. They wanted pawns who were too weak & stupid to compare themselves to the puppet masters

George Brett last at bat in the big leagues.

@PeteATurner Man is Maury Wills one off the most underrated players ever or what?

Rickey was so great at hitting leadoff, he made a generation of GMs believe they could put any fast fella at the top...I'd put Brett Butler in this list. He wasn't intimidating, but good luck getting him out.

@PeteATurner @AOWD1976 @podoffame @CREID2852 @BloggerTubbs @RedSoxAlmanac Great point on 300 wins.

@IbelWetz @AOWD1976 @podoffame @CREID2852 @BloggerTubbs @RedSoxAlmanac Yep. I call that the Vise of Greatness. The tolerances were so tight, great, HoF careers, we’re snuffed. It made 300 wins seem normal…it’s not.

Bert Blyleven lost 40 games where he pitched 7+ innings and let up 2 or fewer runs. In 2 of those games, he pitched a complete game, recorded 0 earned runs, and still lost.

@_storysmyth @Alexfeinberg If interested Baseball in the Garden of Eden by John Thorn dives into the foundations of our national pastime and the cultural purpose the participants believed the game served prior to n after money entered the picture in 1858, followed shortly thereafter by Tammany n the Irish.

@IbelWetz @Alexfeinberg Ancient civilizations practiced some kind of 'sport' but it never occupied so large a cultural space as it does now. There's an argument for personal participation, but modern sport is consumption wherein the subject is a passive spectator rather than an active participant.

@PeteATurner @AOWD1976 @podoffame @CREID2852 @BloggerTubbs @RedSoxAlmanac Lots of geat pitchers then too. I think its a common perception that starters IP & CG continuously dropped slowly over the decades but '68-80 makes the '50s like noodle arms.

@IbelWetz @AOWD1976 @podoffame @CREID2852 @BloggerTubbs @RedSoxAlmanac It was hard to see Blyleven then. Folks now will say it was obvious…it was not. He played on a lot of second division teams. We saw the shutouts, Ks, CGs…But he didn’t get to 300. He didn’t get Cy love despite being great.

@TheCaseFor @AOWD1976 @podoffame @PeteATurner @CREID2852 @BloggerTubbs @RedSoxAlmanac And 3700 at that. I just wonder how I’d feel about that lost weekend in the middle of his career if I lived through it. I mean I’m not nuts 3700 K you’re in the hall. Just trying to look at the other side.

@IbelWetz @AOWD1976 @podoffame @PeteATurner @CREID2852 @BloggerTubbs @RedSoxAlmanac More so than his playing career Bert (along with Dale Murphy) was one of the first players that really got me interested in the HOF debate. I remember being shocked he didn't get in despite 3,000 K's and really stumping for him for years.

@_storysmyth @Alexfeinberg Every culture played/plays sports. Physical camaraderie that doesn’t involve killing each other. “Sportsball” yikes man. What’s a better outlet for my leisure besides softball/basketball? Should we be at Walden Pond writing manifestos? Tie a bear to a pole n watch it fight dogs?

@Alexfeinberg Sportsball is bread & circus to keep corporate wagie in rat race through distraction by simulacrum of war. You were a well-paid gladiator at the upper end of the social/cultural heirarchy and upper-middle end of the economic heirarchy (without knowing specificis of your case).

@AOWD1976 @podoffame @BobPagesports you saw his whole career was Blyleven a disappointment mid-career? Did you think he would make the hall of fame? @Jimfrombaseball any thoughts?

I’m not one of the crazies who disregard wins before ~2015. Wins were especially indicative of talent in an era so heavy on complete games as Bert’s. If you saw his whole career I’d be interested to hear how he was viewed over the years. Were the low CG/W totals in Pittsburgh disappointing? Was everyone expecting Catfish Hunter-like stuff on a contender and instead got 14, 12 & 8 wins in what are typically prime late 20s seasons? He does have 242 CG, 60!!! shutouts and went 5-1 in playoffs. Teams weren’t world beaters except Pittsburgh. Considering teams he was on those five 17 win and the 19 win years feel like “spiritual” 20 win outings. But I wasn’t there.

@AOWD1976 @podoffame @PeteATurner @CREID2852 @BloggerTubbs @RedSoxAlmanac @TheCaseFor how much of Bert did you see? I can’t remember how old some of you guys are lol

@AOWD1976 @podoffame @PeteATurner, @CREID2852, @BloggerTubbs, @RedSoxAlmanac how much of this did you guys experience/remember with Blyleven?

@podoffame Going off memory so someone correct me if I’m wrong but Blyleven was one of the first guys SABR really helped get in the hall of fame after George Davis and Deacon White.

When anyone learns a new pitch aren’t they technically reverse engineering it? How would your steps in teaching this or any pitch differ from pre-2010s? *Foster famously taught Mathewson the screwball. Is there something they’d teach “1-2-3-4” that you would do “2-1-3-4,” or whatever, due to the limitations on what they could see? *I know it’s old but pitch is kinda similar, story is fairly well known amongst dorks and main point is it’s pre-pitching lab tech

Read about the Imai reverse slider... reverse-engineered in the @DrivelineBB Pitch Design Lab! We used Computer Vision seam segmentation models built in-house. There is *probably* a fair bit of non-magnus movement, but with high gyro, it is hard to tell.