That's cute. Since we are comparing brain pans....
I played D1 college baseball. I have a physics degree and a computer science degree. I have taught every single undergraduate level math course, including statistical analysis and applied mathematics. I have spent the last 10 years as a software engineer earning well into the six figures writing mathematical analysis tools for the largest gaming company on the planet, tools that are used by mathematicians and game designers to build the math behind wager games. I don't use these tools to analyze data, I write them.
I can promise you, with 100% certainty, that I'm right when I talk about how stats relate to baseball.
I know it makes most of you mad to be told you are wrong. It's fine and perfectly normal to react that way. Doesn't make you any less wrong though.
Dave Cameron is right. Inciarte isn't going to "cover up" for Kemp's bad defense by much, or make him any better. You can argue and cry about it all you want. That's what message boards are for, but you are still wrong.
Enscheff, in all seriousness, I've got, like, advanced degrees and all that but I'm not a French model, didn't play D1, nor do I have a nuclear physics degree. But I have this nagging feeling that I can't shake that the UZR/DRS stats overvalue the impact of defense, much to the annoyance of Giles and others.
I've glombed onto the Inside Edge stats in Fangraphs to make my point. Of course, they look at all the chances fielders get and divvy them up according to difficulty (I'm sure there are better ways to do it) but what strikes me, especially with outfielders, is that there just aren't that many non-routine plays to be made to impact runs and wins to the extent that the two WAR methodologies say they do.
The whole Matt Kemp thing on the other thread is a good example. Looks to me like he makes all the routine plays, 3/4 of the likely plays and 36% of the 50/50 plays, which means there aren't many plays he should have made and didn't, and that there just weren't that many balls hit in his vicinity to where he could make more than a few runs difference from an average (or even above average) fielder.
In a few sentences, and without condescension, since we've all agreed that we're all smart, athletic and extremely good-looking, can you help me understand why the defensive element of WAR isn't wildly inaccurate and overweighted, as I feel that it is?