"They'll be posted on the locker room door each day and every player will know exactly where they stand," Groce said. "I think players want that."

Groce's obsession with statistical data will please the sabermetricians who have rewritten the way we analyze Major League Baseball, but there's an old school aspect to Groce's approach that will please the old-schoolers.

"We chart everything," he said. "But there are two parts to it. One is statistics. The other side is the coach's feel for how tough you are, how together you are, body language, all of the things that don't show up on the state sheet."

Tupper