Craig R. Wright
Encyclopedia
Craig R. Wright is a major proponent of sabermetrics
, a baseball
writer
and historian
.
He was a very early pioneer in integrating science into major league baseball and first began working under that premise for the Texas Rangers
, after the strike of 1981. He later became the first front office employee to work under the title sabermetrician, but he abandoned the title around 1990 because he felt "... the meaning had shifted too far from a scientific approach to baseball to one focused on statistical analysis of baseball."
He worked over 20 years in major league baseball, mainly in the area of player evaluation and acquisition. His longest association with a big league team was the Los Angeles Dodgers with whom he worked ten years as a year-round consultant during a period when they had the second best record in the league behind the Atlanta Braves. With LA he significantly helped advance the career of Mike Piazza
from non-prospect to blue chip prospect. Wright was an early proponent of Piazza's hitting, argued for his staying at the catcher position, and pushed hard for his rapid advancement to the big leagues while persuasively arguing for the moves that cleared the way for Piazza to be the club's #1 catcher in his rookie year.
Along with Wright's consulting arrangements, from 1989 to 1996 he also provided a supplemental Advance Scout service for post-season play that was used by six pennant winners and four world champions. He ended that service to have the time to serve two years as a year-round consultant to the Arizona Diamondbacks in preparing for their expansion draft. The Diamondbacks' draft is the only expansion draft to produce a 40-homer player (Tony Batista
) and two All-Stars (Batista and Damian Miller
.)
Wright was the primary author of The Diamond Appraised (1989) with 10% of the material being provided by pitching coach Tom House
. With most of Wright's work taking place outside the public domain, it was a rare look at the type of work he was doing and how it was being used - or not used. In this book Wright was the first to give a sabermetric perspective on many issues within baseball
, including the optimal way to utilize a bullpen
and pitching
rotation, how to better develop pitcher
s so that they are primed for future success, the significance of home field advantage, and catcher's ERA (CERA)
. Wright's chapters on pitching included a ground-breaking study on pitcher workloads and how they might be better managed. They inspired a wealth of studies, and looking back at the book nearly a dozen years later, Rany Jazayerli
, one of the founders of Baseball Prospectus
, called Wright's study one of the five most important ever done in baseball. After The Diamond Appraised was translated into Japanese
, the Hanshin Tigers
of Japan's Central League became a client of his consulting service. The other client of Wright's business that was not a major league team was STATS Inc.. For a dozen years they used Wright as a consultant to design their products for the major league teams.
Few details were publicly known about Wright's pioneering career until he wrote a few vignettes about that period on his web site for The Diamond Appraised Baseball Column. Of particular interest is the different take he has on those early days of sabermetrics in major league baseball that is quite at odds with the theme in Michael Lewis's Moneyball. Lewis portrayed the early practitioners within the game as simply being ignored. Wright acknowledges the scarcity of teams back then that were adding such a perspective, and that the usage was at times on a frustratingly small scale, but he makes a strong case that there were pockets where it was not only valued but had real impact. He gives interesting examples from his career and he scores a key point with his question: "All my contracts were 1-year contracts. Do you really think teams are going to keep shelling out the money year after year just to have you give advice that they will ignore?"
Dodgers GM Fred Claire
backed up that point in a 2004 interview: "I was very impressed by [Craig's] approach, his evaluation process. This really kind of pre-dated a lot of what's happening in the game today. Using Craig's services went with the philosophy that I had as a GM: Gain as much information as you possibly can and make your decisions based on that information. ... Craig added some valuable input to the process. ... I felt he was very good as it related to players in not only their major league careers, but also in their minor league careers. You had your scouting looking at certain other organizations—there is always a large emphasis on pro scouting. But Craig was able to add a different dimension with his own analysis ... . There was a lot of looking at prospects, but also him helping on the major league level. I can recall when we signed Tom Candiotti (1991) we were looking at free agent pitchers, and Craig felt he could be a guy who could give a lot of innings and pitch successfully." (Candiotti proved to be the bargain of that free agent class. During his four-year contract he led the Dodgers in innings and ERA. His 3.38 ERA was actually the fourth best in the whole league.)
Wright was known for his support of the sabermetric movement. He was one of the very early members of SABR, served on the Board of Directors of Project Scoresheet, the forerunner of Retrosheet
, and he was very open about his appreciation of the early work by Bill James
when such a view was still anathema in MLB. He gave recommendations, help, and encouragement to those who aspired to similar careers in baseball, including Eddie Epstein, Mat Olkin, John Sickels
, Keith Woolner
, and Bill James
. In his retirement from major league baseball, he has responded to offers of employment from the teams by making recommendations of others in the sabermetric community.
Wright is semi-retired and lives in Montana where he continues to write about baseball. When asked if he would ever return to major league baseball, he has said it is "very unlikely," and that he would never accept a job that would move him from Montana. But he adds, "I have a distinct vision of where things should go from here in the application of the science of baseball within major league baseball. If a team wanted to explore that vision and decided they wanted my help in bringing it to life – that would certainly catch my attention."
Wright currently maintains two subscription services: A PageFrom Baseballs Past and The Diamond Appraised Baseball Column. Rob Neyer
, senior baseball writer for ESPN.com, subscribes to both and advised his readers: "I'm not one of those people who refuses to pay for anything on the Web, ... but if I could pay for just one thing, it would probably be Craig Wright's baseball writing."
----
Baseball Historian
Wright is the researcher and writer of the radio show A Page from Baseball's Past which celebrated its 25th anniversary as a pre-game show in 2009. He created the show with producer Eric Nadel
who is also the voice of the show. In 2008 Wright began doing a subscription text version emailed to subscribers. This text version is enhanced with pictures, charts, research notes, and added details that often had to be cut in the time constraints of the radio show. Bill James
, author of the popular Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract has praised the new text version as "... just excellent. I learn a lot from reading it."
Sabermetrics
Sabermetrics is the specialized analysis of baseball through objective, empirical evidence, specifically baseball statistics that measure in-game activity. The term is derived from the acronym SABR, which stands for the Society for American Baseball Research...
, a baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
.
He was a very early pioneer in integrating science into major league baseball and first began working under that premise for the Texas Rangers
Texas Rangers (baseball)
The Texas Rangers are a professional baseball team in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, based in Arlington, Texas. The Rangers are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League, and are the reigning A.L. Western Division and A.L. Champions. Since , the Rangers have...
, after the strike of 1981. He later became the first front office employee to work under the title sabermetrician, but he abandoned the title around 1990 because he felt "... the meaning had shifted too far from a scientific approach to baseball to one focused on statistical analysis of baseball."
He worked over 20 years in major league baseball, mainly in the area of player evaluation and acquisition. His longest association with a big league team was the Los Angeles Dodgers with whom he worked ten years as a year-round consultant during a period when they had the second best record in the league behind the Atlanta Braves. With LA he significantly helped advance the career of Mike Piazza
Mike Piazza
Michael Joseph "Mike" Piazza ; born September 4, 1968) is an American former Major League Baseball catcher. He played in his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Florida Marlins, New York Mets, San Diego Padres and the Oakland Athletics....
from non-prospect to blue chip prospect. Wright was an early proponent of Piazza's hitting, argued for his staying at the catcher position, and pushed hard for his rapid advancement to the big leagues while persuasively arguing for the moves that cleared the way for Piazza to be the club's #1 catcher in his rookie year.
Along with Wright's consulting arrangements, from 1989 to 1996 he also provided a supplemental Advance Scout service for post-season play that was used by six pennant winners and four world champions. He ended that service to have the time to serve two years as a year-round consultant to the Arizona Diamondbacks in preparing for their expansion draft. The Diamondbacks' draft is the only expansion draft to produce a 40-homer player (Tony Batista
Tony Batista
Leocadio Francisco "Tony" Batista is a former Major League Baseball infielder who is currently a free agent. He played in the major leagues from to and to , and with the Softbank Hawks of the Japanese Pacific League in .-Career:...
) and two All-Stars (Batista and Damian Miller
Damian Miller
Damian Donald Miller is a former Major League Baseball catcher who last played for the Milwaukee Brewers.-High school years:...
.)
Wright was the primary author of The Diamond Appraised (1989) with 10% of the material being provided by pitching coach Tom House
Tom House
Thomas Ross House is a former left-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball, as well as an author and a pitching coach.-Player:...
. With most of Wright's work taking place outside the public domain, it was a rare look at the type of work he was doing and how it was being used - or not used. In this book Wright was the first to give a sabermetric perspective on many issues within baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, including the optimal way to utilize a bullpen
Bullpen
In baseball, the bullpen is the area where relief pitchers warm-up before entering a game. Depending on the ballpark, it may be situated in foul territory along the baselines or just beyond the outfield fence. Also, a team's roster of relief pitchers is metonymically referred to as "the bullpen"...
and pitching
Pitch (baseball)
In baseball, a pitch is the act of throwing a baseball toward home plate to start a play. The term comes from the Knickerbocker Rules. Originally, the ball had to be literally "pitched" underhand, as with pitching horseshoes. Overhand throwing was not allowed until 1884.The biomechanics of...
rotation, how to better develop pitcher
Pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...
s so that they are primed for future success, the significance of home field advantage, and catcher's ERA (CERA)
Catcher's ERA
Catcher's ERA or CERA in baseball statistics is the earned run average of the pitchers pitching when the catcher in question is catching. Its primary purpose is to measure a catcher's game-calling, rather than his effect on the opposing team's running game. Craig Wright first described the...
. Wright's chapters on pitching included a ground-breaking study on pitcher workloads and how they might be better managed. They inspired a wealth of studies, and looking back at the book nearly a dozen years later, Rany Jazayerli
Rany Jazayerli
Rany Jazayerli , a Chicago-area dermatologist, is a co-founder of and writer for Baseball Prospectus. He developed the statistical concept of Pitcher Abuse Points , which relates to high pitch counts in baseball....
, one of the founders of Baseball Prospectus
Baseball Prospectus
Baseball Prospectus is an organization that publishes a website, BaseballProspectus.com, devoted to the sabermetric analysis of baseball. BP has a staff of regular columnists and provides advanced statistics as well player and team performance projections on the site...
, called Wright's study one of the five most important ever done in baseball. After The Diamond Appraised was translated into Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, the Hanshin Tigers
Hanshin Tigers
The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team based in Koshien, Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and are in the Central League. Hanshin Electric Railway Co., Ltd., the subsidiary of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., owns the Hanshin Tigers directly...
of Japan's Central League became a client of his consulting service. The other client of Wright's business that was not a major league team was STATS Inc.. For a dozen years they used Wright as a consultant to design their products for the major league teams.
Few details were publicly known about Wright's pioneering career until he wrote a few vignettes about that period on his web site for The Diamond Appraised Baseball Column. Of particular interest is the different take he has on those early days of sabermetrics in major league baseball that is quite at odds with the theme in Michael Lewis's Moneyball. Lewis portrayed the early practitioners within the game as simply being ignored. Wright acknowledges the scarcity of teams back then that were adding such a perspective, and that the usage was at times on a frustratingly small scale, but he makes a strong case that there were pockets where it was not only valued but had real impact. He gives interesting examples from his career and he scores a key point with his question: "All my contracts were 1-year contracts. Do you really think teams are going to keep shelling out the money year after year just to have you give advice that they will ignore?"
Dodgers GM Fred Claire
Fred Claire
Fred Claire is a former major league baseball executive who served in numerous roles for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1969–1998 including the role of general manager from 1987–1998.-Early life:...
backed up that point in a 2004 interview: "I was very impressed by [Craig's] approach, his evaluation process. This really kind of pre-dated a lot of what's happening in the game today. Using Craig's services went with the philosophy that I had as a GM: Gain as much information as you possibly can and make your decisions based on that information. ... Craig added some valuable input to the process. ... I felt he was very good as it related to players in not only their major league careers, but also in their minor league careers. You had your scouting looking at certain other organizations—there is always a large emphasis on pro scouting. But Craig was able to add a different dimension with his own analysis ... . There was a lot of looking at prospects, but also him helping on the major league level. I can recall when we signed Tom Candiotti (1991) we were looking at free agent pitchers, and Craig felt he could be a guy who could give a lot of innings and pitch successfully." (Candiotti proved to be the bargain of that free agent class. During his four-year contract he led the Dodgers in innings and ERA. His 3.38 ERA was actually the fourth best in the whole league.)
Wright was known for his support of the sabermetric movement. He was one of the very early members of SABR, served on the Board of Directors of Project Scoresheet, the forerunner of Retrosheet
Retrosheet
Retrosheet is a non-profit organization whose website features major league baseball box scores and play-by-play narratives for almost every contest from 1871–1872, 1874, 1911 NL, and 1918–2010...
, and he was very open about his appreciation of the early work by Bill James
Bill James
George William “Bill” James is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics...
when such a view was still anathema in MLB. He gave recommendations, help, and encouragement to those who aspired to similar careers in baseball, including Eddie Epstein, Mat Olkin, John Sickels
John Sickels
John Sickels is an American baseball writer, formerly of ESPN.com, who specializes in minor league baseball and amateur baseball.-Biography:...
, Keith Woolner
Keith Woolner
Keith Woolner is an author for Baseball Prospectus and is the creator of the runs-based statistic VORP or Value Over Replacement Player. VORP is acknowledged by the sabermetrics community as one of the key concepts in the analysis of a player's performance and market valuation.-Education and early...
, and Bill James
Bill James
George William “Bill” James is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics...
. In his retirement from major league baseball, he has responded to offers of employment from the teams by making recommendations of others in the sabermetric community.
Wright is semi-retired and lives in Montana where he continues to write about baseball. When asked if he would ever return to major league baseball, he has said it is "very unlikely," and that he would never accept a job that would move him from Montana. But he adds, "I have a distinct vision of where things should go from here in the application of the science of baseball within major league baseball. If a team wanted to explore that vision and decided they wanted my help in bringing it to life – that would certainly catch my attention."
Wright currently maintains two subscription services: A PageFrom Baseballs Past and The Diamond Appraised Baseball Column. Rob Neyer
Rob Neyer
Rob Neyer is a baseball author and writer for SB Nation. He started his career working for Bill James and STATS, and then joined ESPN.com as a columnist from 1996 to January 2011 before becoming SB Nation's National Baseball Editor...
, senior baseball writer for ESPN.com, subscribes to both and advised his readers: "I'm not one of those people who refuses to pay for anything on the Web, ... but if I could pay for just one thing, it would probably be Craig Wright's baseball writing."
----
Baseball Historian
Wright is the researcher and writer of the radio show A Page from Baseball's Past which celebrated its 25th anniversary as a pre-game show in 2009. He created the show with producer Eric Nadel
Eric Nadel
Eric Nadel is a sports announcer on radio broadcasts for the Texas Rangers baseball organization.-Biography:He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, as a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and decided at a young age that he wanted to be a sports broadcaster...
who is also the voice of the show. In 2008 Wright began doing a subscription text version emailed to subscribers. This text version is enhanced with pictures, charts, research notes, and added details that often had to be cut in the time constraints of the radio show. Bill James
Bill James
George William “Bill” James is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics...
, author of the popular Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract has praised the new text version as "... just excellent. I learn a lot from reading it."