S5Dewey

Sorry, but I don't! I've been a baseball fan and a Sox fan all my life and I've learned that whatever will be will be, and I have no control over it. I just sit back and enjoy the ride, some years more than others. One more home game and ST season is over. Let's hope we can make it down at the same time next year!

What??? I've never tried to hide where the quote came from. Im the one who providedthe link to it!! 'If you can't convince them with facts then baffle them with ********' Haha

No again. The "flawed assumption " you refer to was the attack on the veracity of Bill James' quote. And I still don't understand why anyone would take the time and energy to debate a clever, tongue-in-cheek statement. I don't disagree (much) with the rest of your post though. Had you started there rather than by 'going after' James' quote this whole dust-up could have been avoided.

Naw. Most of the advanced metrics don't bother me at all. When I look at B/R and see all of those numbers I just ignore them. I don't need all of that extraneous stuff in my life in order to enjoy baseball. I'll admit that WAR is a pet peeve of mine though. When we consider that there are at least two entities that calculate WAR and they frequently get different totals WAR has to be considered an "inexact science." You're a numbers guy so you know that a small difference in the beginning of an equation can result in a big difference in the end. There are just too many moving parts in WAR (either one) for me to accept it as a true value. That's not to say that I think WAR is useless. I just think that most discrepancies that show up in WAR also show up to the naked eye, and those that don't show up don't matter. I'm just here to enjoy the game. That's my opinion and I'm entitled to it!!

No. I mean like when someone tries to discredit something based on their assumptions that theres a possibility it may not be true. Look, it was a great line because (IMO) for most people it's true. Most people who enjoy baseball would rather enjoy baseball than doing their taxes. I don't understand why anyone would take the time and effort necessary to try to discredit that. Sheesh.

No, the gist of the latest "rant" is that it irks me when someone makes assumptions and then tries to pass them off as facts.

Yeah, I do love that quote. It's because it's true. Sabermetrics reduces the grand ol' game to nothing more than numbers and IMO that's a shame. Do you have evidence that those weren't his words and that James didn't say it, the writers liked it and inserted them in the episode? Because "Bill James gets to deliver one line in his own voice: 'I made baseball as much fun as doing your taxes!"' https://philipschaefer.com/2010/11/12/the-simpsons-recognize-bill-james/ If you've read James at all you know that he has a keen sense of humor and at times has alluded to how 'dry' sabermetrics makes baseball.

At the distinct possibility of pissing some people off here.... To me WAR is something invented by stat geeks to aid in the strategy of baseball. At the fan level it serves to form and then validate the opinions of other stat geeks. Let's face it... none of us see enough games with enough different players to form opinions of our own as to who's the better player. We all have biases created by what we see and read and when we read that WAR is saying that Player A has a better WAR than Player B we believe that Player A is better because... WAR said so. And then we repeat that Player A is better than Player B and we use WAR as "proof". It's a self-perpetuating thing. Is JBJ better than Kiermeyer? Is Bogearts the best all around SS in baseball? Do I care? No, I don't. I'm watching the game to watch the game, not to be trying to establish an opinion of who's better. I like the old fashioned stats- BA, ERA, etc.. I've even taken a liking to OPS because they tell me something I don't need to take someone else's opinion of. I prefer to make my own opinions based on what I see. Sometimes I'm right and sometimes I'm wrong by at least the opinions are MINE and I'm not parroting what I have read someplace else. I see a place for advanced metrics in baseball and it's at the management level. IMO when advanced metrics are applied at the fan level I'm reminded of what Bill James said, "I've made baseball as much fun as doing your taxes." But.. as usual, that's JMO.

Wouldn't that be WAR? I'm not sure whether it's bWAR, fWAR, or xyzWAR, all of which are calculated differently, but it's definitely WAR. Since the eye test is unreliable because we don't see every player make every play in every game AND we all have biases we need something... anything.. to tell us that our eyes are unreliable and our years of experience is worthless. That's WAR...or is it fWAR? /s/

Again.. Devers has literally been the worst defensive third basemen in all of baseball. It's interesting that when we had an OF who was one of the best in baseball we couldn't get him out the door fast enough because "he can't hit". Now we have the worst defensive 3B in baseball and we don't want to move him to another position because because he CAN hit.

Like WAR, it's far too complicated for us mortals to understand. It's better to just accept it and move on. /s/

Michael Walsh from Over the Monster: However, since 2016 (using Defensive Runs Saved) Devers has literally been the worst defensive third basemen in all of baseball. His struggles on defense was something I was willing to deal with during his first couple of years, but now that we’re in year five, my patience has run out. Additionally, MLB Pipeline rates Bobby Dalbec’s fielding at 55/80, and he projects to be an above average third baseman. I don’t see any reason to not give Dalbec a few reps at 3rd base. Devers is a superstar at the dish, but it’s time to try something different in the field

Bobby Dalbec continues to make it look like the IF should be: 3B - Dalbec SS - Bogaerts 2B - Story 1B - Raffy ... or switch Bogearts & Story The pieces are all there. It's just a matter of Cora getting them in the right places.

There are so many assumptions wrong with that. 1) We are assuming that he's coming up with two outs. 2) We are assuming that there's nobody on base. 3) We are assuming that he chooses that opportunity to get his 'one hit per week'. 3) We are assuming that the next hitter (Kiki?) makes an out. Now, one can cue up data saying that it's more likely that a player comes up with two outs and nobody on more times than he will come up with two runners on base. I suppose that validates the OP. Since the next hitter is batting However, I'm not certain that using a worst case scenario with four negative assumptions in an effort to make a point is conducive to making that point. One hit a week is still one hit a week and since baseball is obsessed with statistics ... are we now going to become equally obsessed with when hits occur???

Outstanding! He only pitched one inning (3 hitters, 1K) but IMO he overpowered every batter. However, I temper that with this: I don't know what other teams are doing with their home/away games but with the exception of the first game the Sox are putting 7-8 'regulars' on the field for every home game while the visiting team is sending a bunch of players who are down on their depth chart only 2-4 regulars. The Sox lost to Baltimore (BALTIMORE!) 8-5 yesterday but Kiki was the only player for the Sox who is one of (my definition of) the starting 9. So very possibly the Sox are doing the same thing. A few meaningless ST notes: If the crowd is any indication RSN is glad to see JBJ back. Every time he gets introduced he gets a loud round of cheering and applause, more than any other player. The Sox signed Story on Wednesday, they played at the O's yesterday and they're on the road again today. I'm hoping to see Story for the first time at JBP tomorrow when they take on Tampa Bay. Because of the shortened ST the Sox are only playing home games with teams that are geographically close to Ft. Myers. The home schedule seems to be a rotation of Tampa Bay (2x), the Braves (2x), and the Twins (4x) with one game each with Baltimore and the Pirates thrown in just for good measure. Oh well, it beats waiting around hoping for positive information from their negotiations - and it is, after all, baseball!

I watched him and while I know that this is the proverbial SSS I thought that "horrible" was an understatement. When a pitcher faces five hitters, gets nobody out and all five scored it's had to find good things to say about him

I've always liked Bogaerts as a player but this dust-up highlights what I've always had as a concern about him - that he's a 'tail wagging the dog' type of player. When asked to move to 3rd base to allow Iglesias to play SS his offense fell off and it was attributed to the defensive change. Now he's being asked to move to 2B to accommodate Story and he's saying that he "sees himself as a shortstop". Jeter fell a few rungs on my ladder when he refused to move to 3B for Arod. Is this situation with Bogaerts any different?

Wow. There are some pretty big generalities there. When you say "kids" do you mean my 45 year old son or his teenage children? Since we're talking in generalities.. "They'' (meaning teenage children) don't even care that WHIP and FIP are accessible - or even exist. What they care about when they go to a game is watching someone hit the ball, watching someone field the ball, and the final score, and when they use their phones they use the phone to text their friends. IMO that's a part of the problem. Old people (that's us) have become so rapt in statistics that we think everyone is - or should be -when what is really wanted is simply baseball as a game.

...which was the crux of Will's position. Furthermore he made suggestions as to how to make it happen.

That sounds right, too. Thanks

At the risk of not making a post not related to baseball... One of the things that irks me the most is seeing what I call "The Steph Currie effect on basketball" when I see Jr. High or HS kids shoot from behind the 3-point line with a shot that starts at their waist with their shooting elbow extended to the side. They do this because they want to "jack up the three" but don't have the strength in their arms to shoot properly. I see too many good athletes who can't shoot a basketball successfully because they've built bad shooting habits earlier in life. That's my non-baseball related rant for today.

I find Will to be interesting. After all, he's they guy who said, "No matter how little you trust your government you are too trusting".

I agree with that at the NBA level but not below. But that doesn't negate the excitement level that the 3-pointer brought about.

Grr.. There was an issue during negotiations about something - and IIRC it was the shift - that they couldn't come to an agreement on so they decided that if it wasn't mutually decided by November they would have to renegotiate it then AND the CBA would become null and void in 2023 (2024?). But then more negotiations followed and I lost track of what happened to that issue. Help? Anybody?

Are they? Isn't this the thing that they have to reach agreement on before November 1 or the sky is going to fall? Please catch me up on that.