THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

I don’t remember writing that, but I must say, it is one of my better ones

When we were writing The Book, I wrote the preface, and MGL liked it.  About 9 months later, I resent it to him, and he liked it, thinking he read it for the first time (but was the second time).  And the funny thing, for each “first” read, he had the exact same comments!  He’s consistently honest.

I always get a kick whenever MGL says he doesn’t remember stuff that directly involved him.  Makes me smile for some reason.

And, yes, I remember that quote of your MGL… probably took place about 4-5 weeks ago.  Let me look for it.

Actually took place 3 months ago:

http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/comments/uzrnew_and_improved/#108

No but after reading two articles, they seem to REALLY like you.

Looks like a site designed to call attention to solid sabermetric research.

Authors have many reasons for a desire to remain anonymous.  For instance, when I began my Orioles blog, a college teammate and friend of mine pitched out of their bullpen; I wanted to be able to write objectively, and I thought that maintaining a pseudonym would enable me to do that.  He’s since been traded, and I feel much more comfortable revealing my identity.

Haha 3 articles back is the briefest post, making fun of ME. I feel famous (and dumb)…

The point of that site is to mock sabermetrics and its practitioners.  It would be one thing to have a blog run by a skeptic that pointed out errors/weak points/unsupported assumptions/etc. in sabermetric reasearch.  But that’s not it--there hasn’t been a single constructive thing posted there.

The post making fun of the appearance of the BP intern is pretty indicative of the tenor of the blog.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I think the point of the site seems to be to mock bad, misapplied, or muddled sabermetrics. The author seems to know a little too much about metrics to just roundly mock everything.

They haven’t called me an idiot yet

Where are the posts mocking bad sabermetrics?  I suppose the one about PECOTA does that.  The rest of them poke fun at people’s writing or the pictures they post on their blogs.  They’re not about shoddy methodology. 

You’re probably right that his goal is not to mock sabermetrics itself, but he definitely is out to mock sabermetricians for things other than methodology.

Well the article of mine he mocked was...um...not the best. I was mostly just trying to get my thoughts out in the open for some conversation. In retrospect it could have been done via the yahoo group.

That site is pure awesome.  I mean the guy’s a dick, but it’s cool in a way.

Yeah, he’s a dick. He’s also a coward. The combination of the two really irks me. And I know that responding like this gives him attention, which is probably what he wants. So this is probably the last time I mention him.

But what he’s doing isn’t about sabermetrics. It’s about sabermetricians. It’s not about the methods, it’s about the work. It’s about the people. It is, specifically, about saying unkind things about the people.

And he’s doing it while hiding behind anonymity. Now, I understand there are a lot of reasons while people in our community may want to participate anonymously, and I respect that. But this guy is being anonymous so he doesn’t have to be accountable for the, uh, absurdly uncalled for things he’s saying about people. And that pisses me off.

We shouldn’t have to explain sabermetrics to you. The fact that you’re reading Praiseball Bospectus (and reading our about page, no less) suggests that you’re the type of person already familiar with sabermetrics, you nerd. But this blog isn’t about sabermetrics; there’s an endless supply of other sites about that. This blog is instead about SABR. Not SABR, the organization, but SABR, the people.

--from his About page

C’mon Colin this is no different than FJM.  He’s not broadly criticizing sabermetricians, he’s criticizing specific things they say or write which he thinks are stupid, and then applying those things to that person.  That kind of stuff has been going on the in the saber world with regards to the MSM forever, and this is the first time that I’ve seen a blog devoted to making fun of the sabermetricians. 

I think it’s kind of funny, with the exception of the Stephanie Bee post which was pointlessly cruel.

I don’t have a problem with an FJM directed at mocking the sabermetric world.  Turnabout’s fair play, right?  But FJM, as far as I know, only mocked professionals in the mainstream media.  Praiseball is mostly mocking unpaid or poorly paid part-timers, with a few exceptions.  His cruelest and oddest stuff is aimed at the bit players and behind-the-scenes people, and so forth.  So that’s pretty lame and not funny.

Some of his stuff mocking the bigger players in the sabermetric world is funny in a way.  I wouldn’t have a problem with his blog if he would stick to that.

I don’t think FJM is a particularly good comparison, because a lot of what they did was mocking what they saw as shoddy logic in the articles.  That’s not to say that they didn’t get personal and that they didn’t mock people for being bad writers--they certainly did, and much of it was over the top, and some people in the saber community said so.

Still, part of their schtick was aimed at the content itself.  Next to nothing of what Praiseball has written is about the content.

A few of the posts attempt to critique saber work.  But it’s mostly personal attacks for non-saber reasons.  Which is awful.  I really hope the site goes away.

I think the general idea is to point out that SABR folks maybe take themselves a bit too seriously and are a bit too sensitive. It’s one thing to get into a flame war about healthcare reform, it’s another to get into it about UZR. 

There’s also the issue that SABR folks are really good at one thing (stats) but are often called to duty doing something else (writing). The results are usually comedic and it’s often worth pointing out, for a laugh.

You all realize this will all show up on the site, right?

Also, did you read the “Burn-baums?” They’re hysterical: http://praiseball.wordpress.com/about/burn-baums/

I love the site.

I love the site too.  Saberists, not necessarily here, have long given folks in the media a hard time.  They’ve given managers a hard time.  MGL has called some of them unnecessary names.  I’m sure others have.  I have.  While saberists generally try to stick with facts, discussions have sometimes turned into personal attacks.  Yes, the site is mean-spirited, but so was FJM.  There are many better ways to critique a journalist, but FJM chose to insult them and it was hilarious.  It cracks me up when journalists insult bloggers and then pretend they have not done so.  It seems that people just don’t want to be insulted, but don’t have much of a problem doing it themselves.

Ha, I love it.  And they seem to really hate THT, too--not much grudging respect there.  Maybe that means we’re really, really good.

I don’t find it the least bit amusing or intelligent…

Also, he calls himself Demosthenes.  Very Ender Game-ish of him.  Where is Locke?

I wonder if Locke is running him (Demosthenes) so he can become Hegemon (Commissioner?)of Baseball.

I just read Ender’s Game for the first time, about a month ago.

everything can be made funny when taken out of context. there is a lot of conviction in the sabr-world. conviction without context is extra funny.

in my opinion, satire should always be delivered anonymously when it can. it makes it funnier, cause you are allowed to create any persona you want.

I don’t find it the least bit amusing -mitchel

really? do you think seinfeld, the simpsons, the daily show, or arrested development are/were funny?

It is, specifically, about saying unkind things about the people. -colin

you are not your internet persona. but, from where i sit, it’s perfectly understandable to be irked by satire. Nixon was. but for heaven and st.James’ gate’s sake don’t write about it publicly in direct response to making fun of people for appearing to have too strong a sense of self-importance, especially when taken out of context. that can lead to nothing good for you at all.

also, from where i sit, it’d be perfectly understandable to be flattered.