Hillman on 810 at 3

by Randa4life on Feb 18, 2008 3:18 PM EST

Hey just a heads up, they just said hillman is gonna be on 810 am and will be doin a q and a segment for the fans. Just thought maybe some of you all would want to shoot him a question. Filllllllllllllllllllllerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..... and mooooooooooooreeeee fiilllllllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer

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did anyone hear it?

i was at work

I wanna know what love is, I want you to show me

by LeoBloom on Feb 18, 2008 6:47 PM EST reply actions

I missed it too

Any earth-shattering revelations?

I probably disagree with you.

by Scott McKinney on Feb 18, 2008 6:50 PM EST reply actions

Nothing earth shattering.

The only real notable thing I heard was that he mentioned that even if Butler doesn't play a lot of first base this year that doesn't mean they've given up on him at first by any means. Hillman said he doesn't agree with the analysis that Butler will never be any good in the field and should be reserved to DH for his career. I thought that would probably make some of you pretty happy.

by Randa4life on Feb 18, 2008 7:46 PM EST reply actions

makes me happy

but what's more, I bet it makes Butler really happy.

by royaldaddy on Feb 18, 2008 9:00 PM EST up reply actions

Here's a link to the interview

and also interviews with Mike Sweeney and Ryan La(Whatever)Fever...

http://www.810whb.com/podcast.asp

BELIEVE!! 162 WINS IN '08!!

by Shooter on Feb 18, 2008 10:11 PM EST reply actions

Just caught a few minutes

He said he's not a huge sabermetrics guy, but he does rely heavily on matchup stats - lefty vs. lefty, how a guy fares against a certain pitcher, in a certain park, etc.

Danny Clinkscale followed up with the obvious question - what about sample size? What is a significant sample? Hillman didn't really answer the question in relation to the previous answer, he said 200-250 at bats is statistically significant. Which I agree with, however that doesn't square with his previous answer.

I personally think that for a team with such young players, aside from maybe Guillen and Grudzielanek and maybe DJ you're not going to have statistically significant matchup histories on this team. Is the fact that Mark Teahen is 13-30 against Mark Buerhle statistically significant? Or was he just lucky? Its hard to tell in just 30 at bats, so I hope Trey is not relying on that too much.

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Feb 19, 2008 9:05 AM EST reply actions

At least he knows what OBP is

...and knows that it is the most important thing for a player at the top of the order.

With regard to matchups, I don't think he's going to rely too much on small samples. I think he's going to take those individual matchup stats (which will often be small-to-moderate samples) and view them in the context of everything else he knows about the batter and hitter. So, I think he'd view Teahen's 13-for-30 against Buehrle in the context of how well Teahen hits against lefties overall, and how well he hits soft tossing changeup/breaking ball pitchers.

I probably disagree with you.

by Scott McKinney on Feb 19, 2008 3:35 PM EST up reply actions