THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

A couple I do differently:

1) I’ve always done wOBA as “wahbuh, using a short O
2) For FIP, I use eff-eye-pee instead of a ‘sounder’, because it is similar in spirit to ERA.

wOBA should be spelled: “double-u oh bee [long-a]” out or worded: “weighted on base average”. Every time I hear someone say “woe-bah” I want to punch a baby kitten in the kidney. It’s not a word.

How is it not a word? 

“intel” is an abbreviated word for “intelligence” or “intelligence report”.

wOBA is whatever I say it is, and I say it’s a word.

Why is the grammar police out in force around here alot?

wOBA is a backronym, which are usually pronounced as words.

PECOTA I presume fits the bill?

Right, when I created wOBA, the intent was that it would be pronounced.  I could have as well called it wOBP, but I didn’t want that.  I wanted wOBA because I wanted it linked to the sesame street song.  It’s wubba.

"Wubba” just sounds weird (mainly because I don’t see how the “O” can make a short-U sound; I can say “xfgty6” is pronounced “dog,” but that doesn’t mean it should be.). I always considered it an abbreviation like RBI or ERA. Sure, some people say “ribbie” to be cute, but acronyms are rarely pronounced (we say EM-EL-BEE, not milb or mulb or something else that adds a non-existant vowel). I actually can’t think of very many abbreviations that are pronounced.

PECOTA is based on a person’s name. Makes sense for that to be pronounced.

Also, I don’t think wOBA really is a backronym unless you had the letters “wOBA” in your head and decided the words “weighted on base average” based on the already-decided-upon abbreviation. Of course, this didn’t happen. After all, you could’ve just come up with something that actually spells “wubba” in that case.

I don’t think you were in my head, were you?  I use to call it lwtsOBA
http://www.tangotiger.net/files/clutchdata.txt

I didn’t like that name.  I wanted a name you can sound out as a word.  I was watching alot of Sesame Street.  Then it hit me: wOBA.  Wubba-wubba-wubba. 

Are you seriously telling me that I have to follow some protocol in order for me to say that my intended pronunciation of wOBA is wubba?

Boy, oh, boy.  Damn grammar police.

Listen, I intended it to be pronounced as I said.  If you personally don’t want to pronounce it that way because of some arbitrary, biased, and capricious reason of yours, that’s cool.

But I invented the word.  I’m telling you how it’s pronounced.

My god this is ridiculous!

WAR by the way is an acronym, and it should also be pronounced, as in the song.  FIP too.  It’s fip like whip.

Let me have this little fun of mine that I can create terms, that I get to say how it’s pronounced, and you don’t give everyone else a hard time about it.