from Amazon
Friday, May 25, 2012
What sabermetrics is NOT
This guy says thiings about sabermetrics that are either not true, or the direct opposite of what sabermetics is:
Sabermetric fanatics believe that you can predict the outcome of any game or what a player will do in a certain situation. ... Bill James started this Sabermetric movement in the early 80’s, claiming that by using complicated data you can predict every outcome.
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They also believe that you can predict a players future worth so when a player hits a down trend it’s time to let him go. Johnny Damon was a good example…
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The numbers guru’s don’t believe that clutch hitting exist, sitting a their computer crunching numbers would have had guys like Reggie Jackson on the bench. Reggie was a below avg. fielder, struck out too much yet come playoffs “Mr. October” would come to life with multiple home run games and clutch hitting.
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If you’ve ever played the game yourself, you’ll understand baseball is full of streaks and trends, you can use whatever numbers or stats it takes to prove your point, yet game in game out your still the same player.
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Carlos Pena had only hit .115 in the month of May so the coach moved him up to lead-off batter. Sabermetrics would say bench him or bat him 9th in the lineup
None of the above are claims that sabermetrics would support. The bolded part is, if anything, the one thing that may most exemplify what sabermetrics actually is!
