Comments on: Statistics Are Not Like Bikinis http://www.baseballdailydigest.com/2009/06/21/statistics-are-not-like-bikinis/ Covering America's Favorite Pastime Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:04:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Sky Kalkman http://www.baseballdailydigest.com/2009/06/21/statistics-are-not-like-bikinis/comment-page-1/#comment-3723 Sky Kalkman Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:06:42 +0000 http://www.baseballdailydigest.com/blogs/2009/06/21/statistics-are-not-like-bikinis/#comment-3723 I wrote about the relationship between statheads and non-statheads today, picking on the statheads a bit (I'm one myself.) We can definitely do some things to improve how people look at us and stats. http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2009/6/22/919854/defending-harold-reynolds (Hopefully this isn't seen as spam, as it's relevant.)<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('3723','Sky Kalkman'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('3723','Sky Kalkman','I wrote about the relationship between statheads and non-statheads today, picking on the statheads a bit (I\'m one myself.) We can definitely do some things to improve how people look at us and stats.\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.beyondtheboxscore.com\/2009\/6\/22\/919854\/defending-harold-reynolds\r\n\r\n(Hopefully this isn\'t seen as spam, as it\'s relevant.)'); return false;">Quote</a></div> I wrote about the relationship between statheads and non-statheads today, picking on the statheads a bit (I’m one myself.) We can definitely do some things to improve how people look at us and stats.

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2009/6/22/919854/defending-harold-reynolds

(Hopefully this isn’t seen as spam, as it’s relevant.)

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]]> By: Bill Baer http://www.baseballdailydigest.com/2009/06/21/statistics-are-not-like-bikinis/comment-page-1/#comment-3721 Bill Baer Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:40:51 +0000 http://www.baseballdailydigest.com/blogs/2009/06/21/statistics-are-not-like-bikinis/#comment-3721 Googled it and found the OBP/SLG thing I was talking about: http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/story/2006/2/12/133645/296 <i>This makes OBP about 53% more important than SLG, a fairly typical result.</i><div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('3721','Bill Baer'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('3721','Bill Baer','Googled it and found the OBP\/SLG thing I was talking about:\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.beyondtheboxscore.com\/story\/2006\/2\/12\/133645\/296\r\n\r\n<i>This makes OBP about 53% more important than SLG, a fairly typical result.<\/i>'); return false;">Quote</a></div> Googled it and found the OBP/SLG thing I was talking about:

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/story/2006/2/12/133645/296

This makes OBP about 53% more important than SLG, a fairly typical result.

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]]> By: Bill Baer http://www.baseballdailydigest.com/2009/06/21/statistics-are-not-like-bikinis/comment-page-1/#comment-3720 Bill Baer Mon, 22 Jun 2009 04:38:01 +0000 http://www.baseballdailydigest.com/blogs/2009/06/21/statistics-are-not-like-bikinis/#comment-3720 I wasn't saying that you said that the behavior was exclusive to Sabermetricians; I was saying that you implied it by writing this article about Sabermetrics specifically. If you went onto an Xbox 360 forum and said, "Gosh, I hate it when people flame me for having a PS3," you're going to have a bunch of Xbox 360 fan boys wondering why you're accusing them. I agree with you about the behavior, but I think you're being A) a bit too emotional about it and B) making the exception the norm. Lots of people exhibit poor manners. Dwelling on it is just going to drive you nuts. I've been cut off in traffic twice in the last three days, but I don't think that every driver on the road is an a-hole. Most people who fancy Sabermetrics are your typical run-of-the-mill people who aren't looking to stir up any trouble. Regarding Reynolds, perhaps he made a quote I wasn't aware of, but the comments he made that I was talking about referred to PECOTA. If you had watched the video, you would see that Reynolds had never heard of PEOCTA until five minutes before the show aired. I doubt he'd ever read Baseball Prospectus. His rant was a steaming pile of ignorance. Yes, there's perspective to be gained from his experience as a former player, but he has no value when talking about Sabermetrics because he's read absolutely nothing on the subject. Sabermetricians have already discovered that OPS is flawed because it weights OBP and SLG evenly. I forget the exact numbers, but OBP is something like 1.5 times more valuable than SLG as it relates to run scoring. I'd rather know a player's BABIP, his K/BB rates, and his batted ball rates than his batting average. You can't use batting average to make judgments about future success; it merely tells you about the past. Case in point: Carl Crawford. His batting average rose every year since his rookie season, so everyone thought he'd hit .330 last season. He hit .273. Walk rates aren't good for just knowing how many times a hitter draws a walk. You can also infer a hitter's place discipline. If a pitcher's getting tired, or if the umpire has a tight strike zone, or if the pitcher loses control pitching out of the stretch, etc. then I'd go with the OBP guy over the AVG guy.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('3720','Bill Baer'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('3720','Bill Baer','I wasn\'t saying that you said that the behavior was exclusive to Sabermetricians; I was saying that you implied it by writing this article about Sabermetrics specifically. If you went onto an Xbox 360 forum and said, \"Gosh, I hate it when people flame me for having a PS3,\" you\'re going to have a bunch of Xbox 360 fan boys wondering why you\'re accusing them.\r\n\r\nI agree with you about the behavior, but I think you\'re being A) a bit too emotional about it and B) making the exception the norm. Lots of people exhibit poor manners. Dwelling on it is just going to drive you nuts. I\'ve been cut off in traffic twice in the last three days, but I don\'t think that every driver on the road is an a-hole. Most people who fancy Sabermetrics are your typical run-of-the-mill people who aren\'t looking to stir up any trouble.\r\n\r\nRegarding Reynolds, perhaps he made a quote I wasn\'t aware of, but the comments he made that I was talking about referred to PECOTA. If you had watched the video, you would see that Reynolds had never heard of PEOCTA until five minutes before the show aired. I doubt he\'d ever read Baseball Prospectus. His rant was a steaming pile of ignorance. Yes, there\'s perspective to be gained from his experience as a former player, but he has no value when talking about Sabermetrics because he\'s read absolutely nothing on the subject.\r\n\r\nSabermetricians have already discovered that OPS is flawed because it weights OBP and SLG evenly. I forget the exact numbers, but OBP is something like 1.5 times more valuable than SLG as it relates to run scoring.\r\n\r\nI\'d rather know a player\'s BABIP, his K\/BB rates, and his batted ball rates than his batting average. You can\'t use batting average to make judgments about future success; it merely tells you about the past. Case in point: Carl Crawford. His batting average rose every year since his rookie season, so everyone thought he\'d hit .330 last season. He hit .273.\r\n\r\nWalk rates aren\'t good for just knowing how many times a hitter draws a walk. You can also infer a hitter\'s place discipline. If a pitcher\'s getting tired, or if the umpire has a tight strike zone, or if the pitcher loses control pitching out of the stretch, etc. then I\'d go with the OBP guy over the AVG guy.'); return false;">Quote</a></div> I wasn’t saying that you said that the behavior was exclusive to Sabermetricians; I was saying that you implied it by writing this article about Sabermetrics specifically. If you went onto an Xbox 360 forum and said, “Gosh, I hate it when people flame me for having a PS3,” you’re going to have a bunch of Xbox 360 fan boys wondering why you’re accusing them.

I agree with you about the behavior, but I think you’re being A) a bit too emotional about it and B) making the exception the norm. Lots of people exhibit poor manners. Dwelling on it is just going to drive you nuts. I’ve been cut off in traffic twice in the last three days, but I don’t think that every driver on the road is an a-hole. Most people who fancy Sabermetrics are your typical run-of-the-mill people who aren’t looking to stir up any trouble.

Regarding Reynolds, perhaps he made a quote I wasn’t aware of, but the comments he made that I was talking about referred to PECOTA. If you had watched the video, you would see that Reynolds had never heard of PEOCTA until five minutes before the show aired. I doubt he’d ever read Baseball Prospectus. His rant was a steaming pile of ignorance. Yes, there’s perspective to be gained from his experience as a former player, but he has no value when talking about Sabermetrics because he’s read absolutely nothing on the subject.

Sabermetricians have already discovered that OPS is flawed because it weights OBP and SLG evenly. I forget the exact numbers, but OBP is something like 1.5 times more valuable than SLG as it relates to run scoring.

I’d rather know a player’s BABIP, his K/BB rates, and his batted ball rates than his batting average. You can’t use batting average to make judgments about future success; it merely tells you about the past. Case in point: Carl Crawford. His batting average rose every year since his rookie season, so everyone thought he’d hit .330 last season. He hit .273.

Walk rates aren’t good for just knowing how many times a hitter draws a walk. You can also infer a hitter’s place discipline. If a pitcher’s getting tired, or if the umpire has a tight strike zone, or if the pitcher loses control pitching out of the stretch, etc. then I’d go with the OBP guy over the AVG guy.

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