The riddle of defensive evaluation is slowly being untangled by sabermetricians. Taking a different tack, Gennaro examines a secondary ramification of fielding – its effect on pitchers and the quality of pitching. An unmade fielding play, after all, is more than just an extra baserunner or an unrecorded out. It also adds to the pitch count, moving the pitcher that much closer to the end of his stint on the mound. Studying the interaction of defense and pitching, Gennaro investigates the effects of poor fielding on pitches per game, length of starters’ outings, and bullpen usage patterns.

The first few minutes of this presentation were not recorded at SABR 39. Vince Gennaro re-recorded this segment later, and the audio on this page is a merged version of the two. The transition occurs approximately 3 minutes and 40 seconds in, and is clearly audible.

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Vince Gennaro

Vince Gennaro (VAGennaro@aol.com) is the author of Diamond Dollars: The Economics of Winning in Baseball and a consultant to MLB teams. In his business career, he served as CEO of a public company, led a billion dollar division of PepsiCo, and was an owner of a women’s pro basketball team. His business of baseball analyses have been featured in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and he has written for The Hardball Times and Yahoo! Sports. A frequent guest on CNBC, he teaches in the Graduate Sports Business Management programs at Columbia University and Manhattanville College. He has an MBA from the University of Chicago and lives in Purchase NY with his wife and daughter.