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Keeping track of Baseball-Reference.com and the stathead world / RSS/Atom FeedTuesday, February 13
ESPN.com - Major League Baseball - Rumblings and Grumblings
To Jayson Stark's credit this appears under "Useless Information". I shouldn't find it surprising, but I do, that this sort of "trivia" is trumpeted as valuable information, but things like the actual number of outs a player makes in the field is disregarded as a "phony stat". The idea behind real analysis is not to support people's preconceived notions, but to determine what is real. Perhaps Rey Sanchez and Neifi Perez don't have as much style as Derek Jeter or Omar Vizquel, but they are more effective.
Perhaps, writers have a problem understanding this. They are graded on how stylish their work is and they might feel that the same standard holds for player effectiveness. That is why they constantly bring up clutch hitting for flashy plays. Those things are entertaining. They sell papers and increase viewership. A more scientific approach is solely concerned with effectiveness and quantification. A stathead run team would be very boring to watch. Lots of walks, lots of solid defense. These two approaches are in direct contradiction with each other
Jeter on Opening Day 2001:
Age: 26 years, 9-plus months
Full seasons: 5
200-hit seasons: 3
Total hits: 1,008
Pete Rose on Opening Day 1968:
Age: 26 years, 11-plus months
Full seasons: 5
200-hit seasons: 2
Total hits: 899
To Jayson Stark's credit this appears under "Useless Information". I shouldn't find it surprising, but I do, that this sort of "trivia" is trumpeted as valuable information, but things like the actual number of outs a player makes in the field is disregarded as a "phony stat". The idea behind real analysis is not to support people's preconceived notions, but to determine what is real. Perhaps Rey Sanchez and Neifi Perez don't have as much style as Derek Jeter or Omar Vizquel, but they are more effective.
Perhaps, writers have a problem understanding this. They are graded on how stylish their work is and they might feel that the same standard holds for player effectiveness. That is why they constantly bring up clutch hitting for flashy plays. Those things are entertaining. They sell papers and increase viewership. A more scientific approach is solely concerned with effectiveness and quantification. A stathead run team would be very boring to watch. Lots of walks, lots of solid defense. These two approaches are in direct contradiction with each other
posted by Sean Foran # 10:56 AM 
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