Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Login-facebook
Around SBN: Newcastle Battle Injury Woes Ahead of Tottenham

Brian Bannister: Auditioning for General Manager Job on 810 WHB


I logged on to 810's website today to listen to their reaction to last night's bullpen collapse (again) and Trey Hillman-san's post-game semi-meltdown ("You guys are grilling me on every point in the game!").  Before I listened to Soren's podcast I tuned in to Rany's radio show tonight. 

They played a clip of Brian Bannister after last night's game where he talked about how he's re-made himself into a solid pitcher again. The more and more he talked, the more I realized that he may very well be the smartest guy in the organization---and the most qualified to run this team. Seriously.  Listen to his interview and forget the context of him being a player. Doesn't he sound like a smart GM/Front office type?

Basically what he said is that he's used the Pitch F/X data now available online to track/study his pitches and their break. He basically scrapped last year's plan of trying to throw more 4-seamers in an effort to get more strikeouts after last year's disaster of a season, mainly because the results weren't there...and he was giving up too many fly balls.

Instead he's gone to primarily throwing a cutter (which "baseball men" had said a righty can't throw as his primary pitch as a starter) and the "power change" he learned from RamRam and James Shields. He says these pitches have more downward break...and even though there isn't that classic speed differential between fastball & changeup that you normally see (he's only got a 2-3 mph difference on them), the movement on them is what's allowing him to get a lot more groundballs than in the past.  He references Derek Lowe and Brandon Webb's pitches as being similar to some of the break he's got on his pitches now.


He even mentions his FIP this year being much better, whereas in his 2007 the insane BABIP kept his ERA down, but left his FIP lacking.  He also mentions how he knows the game from an offensive standpoint and where it's headed with regard to OBP, etc....

Honestly, it's refreshing to see a guy take statistics/analysis to help himself become a better pitcher, while not being afraid to scrap last year's plan when it was obviously not producing results.  (Insert Dayton's "trust the process" joke here).  I shouldn't have been stunned listening to the Banny interview since we've known he's a smart guy who is into sabermetrics, but everything this guy was saying was just gold Jerry....GOLD! 

Anyone else crafting up a "Banny for GM" paperbag to wear to the game---complete with replica Trey moustache?


Listen to the Banny interview on 810whb.com  Go to Podcasts....and it's at the bottom under "additional programming" for 7/23/09.  Trust me........it's a must listen.

**Banny's interview comes on at about the 33:00 or 34:00 minute mark.......the first half hour is railing on Hillman's use of the bullpen this weekend.  

http://www.810whb.com/podcasts

Comment 32 comments  |  5 recs  | 

Do you like this story?

Comments

Display:

Well my oh my!!!!!!

Banny, the coolest SOB that happens to be a MLB starter, ever!!!!

You mean to tell me, you can study your own stats, and then adjust? And then you can study that stats apposing players use against you, then adjust again?

Banny is some kind of magician!!! Lazerous perhaps? Because he has risen from the dead, and completely redeemed himself!!!

soon to change name to, "The Not So Curious Case of Benjamin Bratt"

by MarioVanPeebles Republic of China on Jul 23, 2009 9:47 PM EDT reply actions  

Just a breath of fresh air really

soon to change name to, "The Not So Curious Case of Benjamin Bratt"

by MarioVanPeebles Republic of China on Jul 23, 2009 9:48 PM EDT up reply actions  

but, but I feel educated right now!

it’s liberating! I’m on top of the world

"Things could always be worse." - Buddy Bell

by buddyball on Jul 23, 2009 10:32 PM EDT reply actions  

Get Banny and his hi IQ outta here!!!!!!!!

soon to change name to, "The Not So Curious Case of Benjamin Bratt"

by MarioVanPeebles Republic of China on Jul 23, 2009 10:40 PM EDT up reply actions  

just about to say the same thing

Banny may be higher than DDJ on the “outta h ere” list now

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.

by Matt Klaassen on Jul 23, 2009 11:12 PM EDT up reply actions  

Dayton Moore's next trade:

Brian Bannister to the Seattle Mariners for Scrappy the Scapegoat.

Oh yes. DMGM is working for this now. Don’t try to deny it!

by Decatur on Jul 24, 2009 12:33 AM EDT up reply actions  

cool interview

I had been speculating about his changeup being the difference maker this year, woo, validated!

-

by slayor on Jul 23, 2009 11:07 PM EDT reply actions  

very cool

I have to admit that I had (and still have) my doubts about exaclty how much knowledge of stats would actually help players themselves change their game, and I guess we’ll have to keep following Bannister, but this is very exciting (obviously) for him, but also for baseball in general.

I’d love to know whether he had to do all the research himself or whether someone inside teh Royals org helped him at all.

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.

by Matt Klaassen on Jul 23, 2009 11:14 PM EDT reply actions   1 recs

haha what's that a reference to?

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.

by Matt Klaassen on Jul 23, 2009 11:37 PM EDT up reply actions  

is time zone a factor in all these?

maybe that’s what GMDM’s problem is. He learned his baseball in the Eastern Time Zone and he hasn’t been taking the time zone difference into account in his algorithms! It all makes sense now!

"Things could always be worse." - Buddy Bell

by buddyball on Jul 24, 2009 12:59 PM EDT up reply actions  

yeah, i listened to it and was going to do a similar post

it’s very interesting coming from the player’s perspective.

Kansas City Royals - rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic since 1994.

by Home Run Tony Cogan on Jul 23, 2009 11:27 PM EDT reply actions  

Rec'd

soon to change name to, "The Not So Curious Case of Benjamin Bratt"

by MarioVanPeebles Republic of China on Jul 24, 2009 12:24 PM EDT up reply actions  

That is incredible.

He is now my favorite baseball player. He already pretty much was, but this pretty much seals it.

Game over, man. Banny wins.

by rockchalk on Jul 24, 2009 2:06 AM EDT reply actions  

Let's just trade them Minaya and agree to pay his salary

King of the bling come to lay down the evidence//Not George Bush, L-Millz be da president

by Sam Page on Jul 24, 2009 10:11 AM EDT up reply actions  

You'd really want Dayton Moore?

F%#& Billy Beane. Actually... I kinda like Holliday

by vivaelpujols on Jul 27, 2009 12:03 PM EDT up reply actions  

how would you tell the difference?

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.

by Matt Klaassen on Jul 27, 2009 12:34 PM EDT up reply actions  

The only thing impressive about this is he didn't all on his own

The Royals front office/coaching staff, PITCHING COACH should be breaking down his film.

A pitching coach has what 5 starters? He can devote 10 hours a day to one of his starters

by GobbleforCyoung on Jul 24, 2009 10:13 AM EDT reply actions  

Banny

First off-

Brian is one of the greatest guys you could ever meet. Second, when I was interviewing him he did his best to tip me off on this type of stuff. I, unfortunately, did a poor job of following his leads with the proper questions. (Before the interview I was thrown off a bit by a very minor EGO brush with another media member so I don’t think I was on my game- I really should have just trusted the plan)

    Anyway, I listened to the interview as we aired it on the post game and could not believe I did not grab his cues(again, Brian was trying to educate me, but I was like most the fans and can not be educated, quite simply)…But, I drove home that night and thought “man, Banny would be a great GM if that is something he wanted to do” I really do believe this-but I do not think it is something he would be interested in after his career is over….

"our deepest fears are not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fears is that we are powerful beyong measure."

by gashousegang on Jul 24, 2009 11:14 AM EDT reply actions  

At Fanfest...

he seemed to be a very humble individual… And he has a flawless signature. I asked him about the Banny log, and it seems to me he didn’t really like it… Though i wouldn’t mind the occasional one every now and again.

Desperately hoping for Desperate Measures

by averagegatsby on Jul 24, 2009 11:44 AM EDT up reply actions  

EGO brush with another media member

Has to be Poz, right?

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.

by Matt Klaassen on Jul 24, 2009 11:22 AM EDT reply actions  

Trust the process.

Drink the Kool-Aid!

At least Wally Joyner's not on the team....

by tcon125 on Jul 26, 2009 6:56 PM EDT reply actions  

Banny's really doing some groundbreaking stuff here...

the most relevant factor here probably is that he’s willing to tell everyone what he’s doing. I think we’d be naive to believe that there aren’t teams analyzing all this pitch data and applying it to their guys. I’d guess there’s also a pitching coach or two out there with a pretty good understanding of it all. The really impressive thing about Banny is that he’s able to bridge the gap between statistics and future performance. To date, there hasn’t been many in baseball who have credited statistics/data with improvement. Moneyball was about player evaluation, BannyBall is about player improvement. Really interesting stuff. If we trade him now, I quit.

by Bart41 on Jul 30, 2009 8:34 PM EDT reply actions  

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

Welcome to the SB Nation blog about Kansas City Royals.

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recommended FanPosts

Nacho_small
Interview with Royals Review Editor Jeff Zimmerman
Small
OT: Determining the exact date of Ice Cubes "Good Day"
Royalsretro_small
The 100 Greatest Royals of All-Time - #26 Al Cowens
Small
2 years, 2 months and 22 days ago: Never Forget

Recent FanPosts

+ New FanPost All FanPosts >


Managers

Cimg0036_small Freneau

Editors

Dayton_small Jeff Zimmerman

Authors

Royalsretro_small RoyalsRetro

Headshot_small Old Man Duggan