Neil Wagner a smart dude in Jays bullpen

[Angrioter]

Coming into the 2013 season, Neil Wagner was a 29-year-old right-handed reliever with all of five big-league innings under his belt. Prior to signing with Toronto last November, he had bounced from the Indians to the A’s to the Padres. A former 21st-round pick out of North Dakota State, he was a minor-league journeyman.

 

With the help of his trusty notebook, Wagner became a bona fide Blue Jay. After beginning the campaign in Triple-A Buffalo, where he logged a 0.76 ERA and 16 saves, he ended up being one of the most-reliable arms in the Toronto bullpen. Called up in late May, he went 2-4, 3.79 as one of the few pleasant surprises on a underachieving team.

 

Wagner talked about his stat-influenced road to success when the Blue Jays visited Fenway Park in September.

 

Wagner on using data to his advantage: “If you see a guy is hitting .340 against certain types of pitches, or on pitches in certain locations, it bears looking into why. The same if he’s hitting poorly against something. With any sort of statistical outlier, you want to look into why it is happening, and how you might be able to use that to your advantage.

 

“We have a lot of stuff at our fingertips, and what I find most useful is the sheet of scouting information we get before each series. It has versus-right-and-left, pitch types, first-pitch swings in a number of situations. From that, you have to parse out what is useful to you. You can’t commit all of those things to memory, and not all of them are things you’d want to commit to memory.

 

“The pitching coaches also give their thumbnail sketches of the hitters. You take that, and then watch the game, and video. Again, you parse out what is most useful to you.”

 

On video and visualizing the strike zone: “If you look at the standard nine-box strike zone, a pitch at the bottom outside corner of one of the quadrants — say, on the knees, away — it’s different than a pitch in the upper right-hand quadrant of that same box. One is closer to the middle. You have to watch video and put some of those numbers into the proper context.

 

“Actually visualizing the quadrants — when you’re on the mound — is hard to do. The reality is that you’re not going to put the ball in a 2×2-inch spot every single time. I mostly have a plan of where I want to go and try to put the ball in that area. I don’t usually get that specifically precise with my visualization.”

 

On his in-game notebook: “What I’ve done all year is keep a book during the game. We have those statistics here, but in Triple-A it was especially useful. I want to know if guys are swinging early in the count, because depending on who they are and how they swing, I may change how I pitch to them. And not just good hitters. A very-limited hitter might only do damage if he catches a fastball in the middle of the plate early in the count.

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/qa-neil-wagner-thinking-man-in-the-blue-jays-bullpen/

[Angrioter]

On his in-game notebook: “What I’ve done all year is keep a book during the game. We have those statistics here, but in Triple-A it was especially useful. I want to know if guys are swinging early in the count, because depending on who they are and how they swing, I may change how I pitch to them. And not just good hitters. A very-limited hitter might only do damage if he catches a fastball in the middle of the plate early in the count.

 

Neil can help us in the PENIS mesuare

[Angrioter]

I love how keeping notes and looking at rudimentary metrics makes Wagner a "smart dude." Mentioning FIP or WAR on Twitter in a constructive sense makes a player a hero of sorts in the internet baseball community.

 

With millions of dollars on the line, it's shocking that not everyone puts a similar amount of thinking in. Baseball players must be really stupid.

 

Wagner is a studious of the game (on his way) that makes him different. While the talented play with their Smartphones, Neil is building his game plan, that makes him smarter than others...

[jays_fever]

The majority of professional athletes are really stupid.

 

Not really, they made it to the show so they know a lot more about the game. They're god gifted athletic abilities has nothing to do with it..like at all.

[Angrioter]

His current fare is Wild Heron, by Daniel Whitehead Hicky, a poet from Georgia who died in 1976. Wagner found the thin, dusty volume in a used bookstore in Buffalo, where he pitched for the first two months of the season.

 

“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always read,” Wagner said. “I’d read with my parents before I went to bed. Now my wife and I sometimes read a book together before we go to bed, and we have our own stuff to read too. It’s not anything unusual for me.”

 

It is, of course, unusual in the culture of professional baseball, although in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse, R.A. Dickey usually has a book or two in his locker. He and Wagner are exceptions that prove the rule.

 

Wagner likes dead poets — Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson are favourites — but his taste is eclectic. He just finished Dan Brown’s Inferno, a current best-seller, and before that he read The World Until Yesterday, Jared Diamond’s exploration of traditional cultures, published last year.

 

From his childhood in Minnesota, Wagner cherished the written word. His current job allows him to pursue his passion for reading as well as pitching.

 

“I pick up anything I see in a bookstore that I think might be interesting,” he said. “This job has a lot of travel, a lot of time in the hotel where you don’t necessarily have much to do. You have the time and the availability to do it. At some point, I will probably be in a job where I can’t, so I enjoy it while I can.”

 

A guy who likes the read.

[Captain Adama]

Not really, they made it to the show so they know a lot more about the game. They're god gifted athletic abilities has nothing to do with it..like at all.

 

s*** son, that better have been intentional.

[Stangstag]

Not really, they made it to the show so they know a lot more about the game. They're god gifted athletic abilities has nothing to do with it..like at all.

 

Haha, I see what you did there

[jays_fever]

s*** son, that better have been intentional.

 

O fak off