YBE 071: Nuanced Game Planning (Even Without Data) with Tommy Hottovy

Tommy Hottovy, Chicago Cubs' Coordinator of Advance Scouting—Run Prevention, has a fun job. But what can you and I do, given that we don't have the benefit of reams of data? How can we still help our teams improve their odds of success? This is Part 2 of a two-part interview. If you missed Part 1, you can catch it here. Plus, Justin Stone of elitebaseball.tv answers the Question Of The Week about how to make hitting sessions in practices more efficient and less boring.

In this 41-minute episode, you'll learn:

• whether the Cubs make up their own metrics and data models
• whether Tommy gives real-time feedback to the team or not
• why Tommy pays attention to fielder positioning between pitches
• how Tommy juggles scouting for two different teams at the same game
• how much game planning is Tommy's vs Cubs manager Joe Maddon's
• how to game plan with subs
• when results don't match expectations, should that be an error in game planning or an outlier
• whether to incorporate data from other teams' pitchers
• whether players can analytically game-plan while playing
• two things youth and high school coaches can do in lieu of having tons of data
• how youth pitchers can work on sequencing pitches
• how high school pitchers can work on sequencing pitches
• whether high school pitchers with a mediocre secondary pitch should bother throwing it in games
• when a pitcher should use his/her secondary pitch vs his/her best pitch to get an out
• whether it's better to be consistent or unpredictable in sequencing pitches
• whether coaches should focus on errors and fielding percentage for defensive ratings and metrics
• a good metric for measuring defensive efficiency
• one metric you can use to help defend against the opponent's run game

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Fangraphs article on the Cubs' Run Prevention Coordinator

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