Joe Simpson’s Saturday Night Rant

VirginiaBrave said:
But those of us who do not value analytics or we adhere to traditions like myself, Joe, and Tom have our opinions and they are just as valid and should be expressed freely.
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Denying all analytics is as valid as denying evolution.

You’re entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts.
 
VirginiaBrave said:
Joe sees the same thing I do. Manfred's zeal to put his own stamp on the game is ruining it in a lot of ways. The no pitch intentional walk, unnecessary. The coming DH in the NL, unnecessary. The analytics genie is out of the bottle and not going back. I see the players and Joe's aggravation. I laugh my ass off when a manager plays the analytics card vs the traditional and it doesn't work. As far as Manfred goes, he best be careful with his ideas, he needs to look no further than NASCAR and Brian France to see what overdoing it with rules can do.
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I truly don't understand what is lost by not throwing four balls to the catcher instead of just getting on with it. That's the best rule change baseball has had in ages.
 
You can enjoy the game casually, but I still wish some people would hold at least somewhat of a better understanding on offensive value. Not every .300 bat is truly a very good offensive player, and not everyone that gets a lot of RBI is actually a good offensive player. Sometimes that has to do with spots, like while I've moved on (and he's truly widened the gap anyway), I laughed a little bit at the idea that Baez having more RBI than Albies meant anything, and searching through baseball reference revealed to me that Albies had a better RISP average than him. But in the end, Baez is more toolsy than him from what I can tell, so idgaf.
 
GeorgiaGirl said:
You can enjoy the game casually, but I still wish some people would hold at least somewhat of a better understanding on offensive value. Not every .300 bat is truly a very good offensive player, and not everyone that gets a lot of RBI is actually a good offensive player. Sometimes that has to do with spots, like while I've moved on (and he's truly widened the gap anyway), I laughed a little bit at the idea that Baez having more RBI than Albies meant anything, and searching through baseball reference revealed to me that Albies had a better RISP average than him. But in the end, Baez is more toolsy than him from what I can tell, so idgaf.
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Now see I don't understand that opinion, 80 RBI is 80 RBI. You're saying that you would rather a guy drive in 65 if his metrics graded out better?
 
CyYoung31 said:
What she’s saying is that RBI is right below pitcher W/L as the most useless statistic in baseball.
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Yep, has a lot to do with spot in the lineup.

For example:

Player A with RISP: .278/.348/.548
Player B with RISP: .342/.354/.618

Which player is the above? If you think RBIs mean anything, it'll shock you. It's from this year. That's all I'll say.
 
VirginiaBrave said:
Name of the game is putting runs on the board.
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Freddie Freeman has 69 RBI this year. If he'd been batting 8th all year he'd have a lot fewer than 69 RBI. If he'd been batting leadoff he'd have a lot fewer than 69 RBI. If he'd been playing on a team where literally no one else got on base, he'd have 18 RBI.

If RBI were a good indicator of how good Freddie Freeman is at hitting, it would mean he was somehow worse at hitting when he hit leadoff or 8th or surrounded by terrible hitters. That doesn't make much sense, does it?

Edit: To go back to the Ozzie/Baez example: Baez has 84 RBI on the year to Ozzie's 59. If RBI are an important measure of a hitter's ability, that would seem to mean Baez is a better hitter than Ozzie. But Baez is batting cleanup with Anthony Rizzo, Ben Zobrist and Jason Heyward (three guys who are exceptionally good at getting on base) in front of him; Ozzie bats second and has the 8-spot, pitcher spot, and for much of the year a struggling Ender Inciarte up in front of him. The consquence of this is that Baez has come to the plate with runners on base 217 times this season, Ozzie has only done it 148 times. Why are Baez' 69 extra plate appearances with men on being held against Ozzie in this comparison?
 
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VirginiaBrave said:
Doesn't mean I'm incorrect either. But I hated math as a kid anyway. So maybe that's it.
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I’m not a math guy, either, but analytics are part of the narrative now, and you don’t have to crunch the spreadsheets yourself anymore to glean some wisdom from them.
 
rawwr said:
Freddie Freeman has 69 RBI this year. If he'd been batting 8th all year he'd have a lot fewer than 69 RBI. If he'd been batting leadoff he'd have a lot fewer than 69 RBI. If he'd been playing on a team where literally no one else got on base, he'd have 18 RBI.

If RBI were a good indicator of how good Freddie Freeman is at hitting, it would mean he was somehow worse at hitting when he hit leadoff or 8th or surrounded by terrible hitters. That doesn't make much sense, does it?

Edit: To go back to the Ozzie/Baez example: Baez has 84 RBI on the year to Ozzie's 59. If RBI are an important measure of a hitter's ability, that would seem to mean Baez is a better hitter than Ozzie. But Baez is batting cleanup with Anthony Rizzo, Ben Zobrist and Jason Heyward (three guys who are exceptionally good at getting on base) in front of him; Ozzie bats second and has the 8-spot, pitcher spot, and for much of the year a struggling Ender Inciarte up in front of him. The consquence of this is that Baez has come to the plate with runners on base 217 times this season, Ozzie has only done it 148 times. Why are Baez' 69 extra plate appearances with men on being held against Ozzie in this comparison?
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Baez has separated himself since the break, although probably helped due to Ozzie having to sit due to being hurt and he just recently until today seemed to finally have it clicking some again, but that was why I loved people using Baez's RBIs as a separating stat before the break. I uncovered that, and that's fun, Ozzie hits better than him in RISP situations (and with runners on in general).

I don't ask that people become sabermetrics gurus, heck, I hated math myself, but I just ask that people be a little smarter. You can enjoy the game casually and at the same time, realize that a guy getting 200 hits isn't necessarily a great offensive player if their power is average, because while a single is great, it doesn't have much value unless the guy behind him gets an XBH. If you're hitting a single, and most others are hitting singles, it takes sequencing luck to get runs in.

It's not knocking Ender, but he's been a little overrated just because.... .300 bat! 200 hits!
 
Southcack77 said:
I truly don't understand what is lost by not throwing four balls to the catcher instead of just getting on with it. That's the best rule change baseball has had in ages.
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Occassionally, the pitcher makes a mistake and it affects the game. Yes it's rare, but it's happened enough times that it's not irrelevant.
 
CyYoung31 said:
What she’s saying is that RBI is right below pitcher W/L as the most useless statistic in baseball.
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Exactly. Going with the W/L thing. Can anyone argue that DeGrom isn’t the best pitcher in baseball right now? But those who still subscribe to the W/L being the end all of the CY Young discussion won’t even consider him because he plays on an awful team and gets no run support.

It’s exactly like RBI. It’s a stat that really doesn’t take into consideration what the player is doing for the team. It more so takes where the player is batting in the lineup, which is no fault or positive of the players doing.
 
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