CLUB IS A CHEMISTRY LESSON
SAN FRANCISCO — WAR, OPS, OPS+, wWOBA, wRC, BABIP, ISO, FIP.
The analytics-heavy Giants can track all of those advanced statistics.
Including this extremely advanced baseball metric: MOJO.
Yeah, that’s actually not an acronym for anything. But it is the Giants’ secret sauce.
In this new era of the 139-year-old franchise, the sabermetrics have, in some ways, ceded to the age-old intangibles of team chemistry and a magical mojo.
The Giants have simply found a way to win. Early. Late. With role players. With stars. One hundred and seven times in all.
Now the Giants start their postseason journey against the Dodgers, not only their historic rival but also the team that birthed the Giants’ current model. President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi was the Dodgers’ general manager and right-hand man to Dodgers president of baseball ops — and fellow stathead — Andrew Friedman. Manager Gabe Kapler came through the Dodgers organization and was a finalist for the team’s managerial position that went to Dave Roberts. The teams have similar philosophies — though not similar payrolls.
Despite the early fears of some Giants fans, the team has not become a nonpersonal analytic equation. When Kapler stood on the field to address the Oracle Park crowd shortly after the Giants clinched the NL West with their 107th win, the manager spoke at length about all the “intangibles” that early-season projections for the Giants failed to consider. Like “toughness,” “grit” and “chemistry.”
All those things that can’t be fed into a computer and spit out on a spread sheet.
Sometimes, however, you can actually measure mojo. The Giants set an MLB record for pinch-hit home runs, the illustration of clutch, with 18.
“That’s one of the milestones, accomplishments, records that I take more pride in, on behalf of our team, than others,” Kapler said. “I think it’s really cool that our team was as unselfish as they were all year. That the players were as prepared, and that they took the responsibility of coming into games — sometimes early, sometimes in the middle, sometimes late.
“It’s not like that always; I’ve seen it be different. I’m just really proud of the players for preparing themselves like they did for those moments.”
They are third in the league in runs scored in extra innings. They have players who rise to the occasion, like LaMonte “Late Night” Wade Jr., who was a key factor in lategame heroics, with 12 RBIs in the ninth inning this season. His six game-tying or go-ahead hits in the ninth are the most by any player in a season in the past 40 years.
Of course, analytics used correctly can create mojo. The tangible can lead to the intangible. So Kapler and his staff are in many ways responsible for conjuring up this magical quality.
The Giants’ extensive platooning and rotating of players resulted in a prepared and unselfish corps of players. As many of them shuttled back and forth between Sacramento and San Francisco, they were secure in the knowledge that they might be called on at any moment to contribute.
That they were part of the big-picture plan.
The Giants were careful to manage days off for veterans like Buster Posey, the kind of “load management” that gets so much attention in the NBA. The coaching staff built a trust so that players were honest about how they were feeling on a daily basis, instead of holding to the old-school tough-it-out mentality.
The team had brief meetings every day — both pitching and hitting — to run through their opponent and assignments. Kapler’s staff had a microfocus and a sharp attention to detail and specifics. The results continued to produce wins, which meant everyone continued to buy in.
Everyone buying in led to the players supporting staff decisions and setting aside their egos. It created an atmosphere in games that Kapler described as unusual: Players being lifted in games and heading over to their replacement in the dugout, patting him on the butt, and offering some words of support.
“To a player, they all are on board,” Kapler said.
“I find it to be really, really endearing. I don’t think it’s all that normal. Oftentimes it’s an opportunity to sulk. But this group is just different. ”
And all of that unselfishness and support leads to — ta da! — that intangible shunned by so many sabermetricians: chemistry.