For the last couple of weeks, the United Cardinal Bloggers have been taking turns posing and replying to roundtable questions ranging from whether the team erred with Lohse’s contract to favorite non-Keith Hernandez mustaches. On our turn this week, we posed the following lighthearted yet, in our opinion, revealing question:

If you could customize the main scoreboard at Busch Stadium, what would you put on it and why? (e.g., specific different stats, minor-league news, pictures of player mustaches, etc.)

Following are the various responses from UCB members, whom we thank for their participation:

Obviously, selected quotes from the blog posts of the day.  : )

It would be nice to expand into some of the more esoteric stats, if you will.  (I say that from a layman’s perspective.  Some of the stats are probably vital to the sabermatrically inclinded.)  The way to educate the fan base is to put it out there.  Have them ask what VORP is or how you calculate OPS.

– Daniel Shoptaw, C70 at the Bat

I’ve always thought it would be good to have scores from the top three or four minor league affiliates, with maybe a blurb as to what the top prospect or two for that team did. Of course I’m sure most of you expected that to be my answer.

– Erik Manning, Future Redbirds, Play a Hard Nine

Definitely more shell-game-under-Cards-caps.  I kick ass at those.

More Kiss Kam. Because trying to explain via hand gestures that you are sitting next to your brother and NOT your boyfriend while an entire stadium tries to get you to kiss is really awesome.

Posted text messages that focus entirely on STDs.

– Andrea Reiher, Bugs and Cranks

I like the idea of expanded stats. How cool would it be to have a short video of Adam Wainwright explaining k/9 and why it matters? Then they could start working that kind of info into the mix.

Obviously, more kiss cam, and, Andrea, sitting next to your brother does not disqualify you for the kiss cam in MO.

– Ryan, Cardinals Diaspora

I’ve not been to the new Busch Stadium.  Based on some grainy pictures from on line, though, I would mandate:

• Less blatant advertising chewing up scoreboard space.
• Numbers of the umpires working the game.  List of all umpires in MLB would also be included on the scorecards sold at the ballpark.  One of the unique features of the Dodger Stadium of my youth.  I’d like to know the name of the guy when he blows a call.  It would also give me a clue as to what kind of strike zone to expect walking into the game.
• Space to list who’s warming up in the bullpen – Instead of on one of the satellite scoreboards in the park.
• I’d shorten the lineups to the player number and position.  The stadium emcee announces the player’s name before every at bat, and the scorecard insert includes their name with their number.  I don’t need to stare at their name the entire game.

— Mike Metzger, Stan Musial’s Stance

I like Mike’s suggestion of listing who’s warming up in the ‘pen, and also Daniel’s idea for displaying lesser-known stats like OPS. I’d also include some random odd facts about the ballpark or the team or the player at-bat, things that maybe the majority of fans don’t know.

– Sarah Purkett, La Beisbolista

I like the odd facts idea. For example, so-and-so collects tropical fish or so-and-so played the role of the Cowardly Lion in a high school production of the Wizard of Oz.

— Deaner, Cardinal Nation Globe

In this time of even most casual fans understanding OPS, why not begin to include more run-influential stats?  BAvg is old news – show me OBP and OPS.  Show me BAbip for pitchers, so I know if Ryan Franklin is terrible or unlucky.

Perhaps most importantly, why not fielding statistics?  It often shocks me how much the casual fan underestimates defense in game outcomes.

Finally, how about some milestones that each player is chasing – IE ‘Albert Pujols needs X more HR to reach 400.’  I’m a history buff, what can I say?

Perhaps just showing something different each inning instead of the same stale stats – mix it up

– Nick, Pitchers Hit Eighth

History Nerds unite! I’m with you man — give me live updates on stats, no matter how trivial. I would even take it one step further and show Brett Wallace updates and a Jess Todd watch to the Big Show.

As much as it is probably a no-no, give me a Matt Holliday On-the-Move percentage when the trade deadline nears. I love competition and looking over your shoulder is never a bad thing in the baseball business.

– Josh, Redbirds Row

And how would we answer our own question? We’d still keep the scoreboard largely stats-oriented, but we’d change the stats a bit (big surprise, right?). Specifically, we’d replace the dinosaurs of Batting Average, Home Runs and RBI with On-Base Percentage, Total Bases and Runs Created. And for pitchers, readers know how we feel about Win-Loss records. We’d post ERA, FIP, K/9, K/BB and OBP Against. Speaking of pitchers, we’d love to see replays of the MLB Gameday pitch tracker — such as when a player strikes out, animated images of each pitch from the umpire’s point of view, with type of pitch, etc.

Finally, one of the best scoreboard ideas we’ve heard — in addition to several of our fellow UCBers above — comes from sometime Fungoes contributor Nate McKie, who has been quietly agitating for a plate-appearance-based Win-Probability to be displayed (also on TV), along with a running graph (a la Fangraphs) of the game’s WPA changes. How exciting would it be to give fans a statistical understanding of how each play bears on the outcome of a game? Not only would fans know just how improbable the Cardinal win back on July 5 was, they’d also be able to distinguish between cheap saves and clutch performances. Who knows — maybe fans would never be interested in seeing Saves or pitcher Wins ever again. One can dream, anyway.

This entry was posted by Pip on Friday, March 6th, 2009 at 11:55 pm and is filed under fun, group blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.