This. DD sounds like those old dudes in the movie Moneyball when Brad Pitt tries to change everything up, they're like "WTF" like everything is going through their heads because they were too stubborn to accept new and more logical ways.
It's going to take a while. You still have plenty of baseball fans (maybe even the majority) who think that batting average, RBIs, and Fielding% mean something. People will come around, eventually.
Thanks durv, I've always been interested to see where Lowry ranks along with Rondo, who I think is not better than Lowry.
He's being overworked. It gets to the point where you can tell he's completely gassed, but he's still beasting fueled entirely by heart alone. Get the kid some help. How bout Bogut?
Batting average, RsBI and fielding percentage DOES mean something. They simply aren't the ultimate measure of a player. I'll certainly take a guy on my team who hits .350, drives in 125 runs and has a fielding percentage of .995 regardless of his other stats.
They're largely meaningless without context though, especially when used in comparison to other players. Does fielding % tell you anything about an outfielder's ability (unless he's completely awful and botches a bunch of flyballs)? How valuable is a guy with 125 RBIs if he's a DH sporting a .290 OBP, and batting cleanup behind three guys with .400 OBPs (i.e., the story of Joe Carter's career)? I guess BA has some meaning because it can correlate to a high OBP, particularly if it's extremely high (as in your example) or extremely low. But it generally doesn't tell you a lot, especially when using it to compare two players. Point taken though, I guess.
Certainly most stats should be taken in context, but there are some numbers (e.g. the kind I posted), that can stand on their own. In baseball (as well as other sports), it's when things are more pedestrian that can skew perception.
DD, I think you just have to accept that ALL of types of analysis are helpful. The issue is that the way in which you word many your arguments and comments is often extremely "matter of fact". In that is the way it is, and there is black-and-white, no alternative or shades of gray. I would you don't actually feel that way, but it is the way you often come off, which leads to others' inanely impetuous intrusions and impugnations. Anyways, back to the topic at hand. A few people kept talking about how Kyle is not staying in front of his man as much etc. But could that no be the defensive plan now? This is the first year since Kyle has really started where he has a defensive stopper/presence in the paint. As a result, team defense would dictate you force the player driving into him as part of the prescribed plan, as opposed to do everything possible to stay in front of your man. Furthermore, with McHale as the coach, I can understand that he would put more drive defense responsibility on his big men. I mean that's part of how he made his living as a player. That could also a big reason why the younger players like Hill & Patterson are not playing as well, more unsure of themselves, and appearing out of position. They are being asked to recognize situation better and react quicker due to more responsibility.
Or they will look at those A's teams with all the high on base% getting smoked in the plyoffs. Know why? In the playoffs, the pitching is better and they don't walk players. Even a team with similar payroll, the twins, beat the brakes off the A's and moneyball. As the saying goes from the dominicans, you got to swing your way off the island.
I think DD is right that a 10 to 11 men rotation would be good but I disagree with the fact that the players outside of the 9 player rotation are good enough For me Bud Twill Flynn and even Hill are not good enough.....We should seek others
Or it might just be that a 5-game series, and MLB's playoffs in general, are a crapshoot (none of those A's teams "got smoked" btw, they all took it to a deciding Game 5). And lol at the continued misperception that Moneyball = OBP. Moneyball means taking advantage of market inefficiencies (OBP was one for a time) so that a team can be cheap with their payroll and still field a competitive team. But sure otherwise good point, getting on base doesn't work in the playoffs, making outs is better.
Nope, people talked about how they were so good with the small payroll and got rolled by a team with a small payroll. It has nothing to do with getting outs as much as in the playoffs you're facing better pitching. You still have to be patience while batting, but you also have to expand your zone some because of the quality of pitchers. I already how you see these things vs how I see things. It doesn't make sense to go into this thread and try to convince one another to change their thinking.
