re: Not a single player in the National League is hitting .300

Analytics don’t even take entertainment into consideration.

Basically analytics/sabermetrics are designed to tell teams what gives them the greatest mathematical probability of a successful outcome. Period. That outcome generally is a “W” at the end of the day, not providing memorable moments for fans during the nine innings it took to get there.

I believe in analytics but they are not infallible. I go back and forth on batting average but still think RBIs is a valid stat. Neither of them are infallible either.

One can ask the question, “What should a team’s No. 1 priority be, doing that which gives them the greatest mathematical probability of a successful outcome, or entertaining the fans?”

I fully agree that doing that which gives you the greatest mathematical probability of a successful outcome can be far from entertaining for those watching. And as long as you are asking people to pay ginormous amounts to attend games, entertainment needs to be part of the equation.

There has to be a balance, and achieving it isn’t helped by old farts who dream of the way things were when Curt and Tony were on Game of the Week, and arrogant newbies who think they know everything.

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Well, at least I am providing some insight as to how my mind is trained, while you are not.

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Well, we know the driving force behind offense is getting on base, and extra base hits. So When a traditional slash line (ba/obp/slg) is presented, there is zero reason to look at BA. This is just the very basic premise of what is being discussed here.

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And you are providing very little context as to what your goal is in using any stat beyond BA.

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If I am looking at offensive statistics, my goal would always be to determine who provided the most offense for my team. And BA would be way down the list of things I would look at.




Which 10 Players would you choose here in a blind test?

Pool A
1. Aaron Judge
2. Jacob Wilson
3. Jonathan Aranda
4. Jeremy Pena
5. Jake Meyers
6. Alejandro Kirk
7. Maikel Garcia
8. Jose Ramirez
9. Brendan Donovan
10. Josh Naylor

Pool B


1. Aaron Judge
2. Shohei Otani
3. Cal Raleigh
4. Pete Crow Armstrong
5. Seiya Suzuki
6. Riley Greene
7. Eugenio Suarez
8. Kyle Schwarber
9. Pete Alonzo
10. Brent Rooker

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It kinda sounds like we agree...

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on specific aspects of BA, sure

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Why do we have to make baseball more complicated than it is?

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It sounds like your argument attempts to make baseball a lot more complicated

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Well, we know the driving force behind offense is getting on base, and extra base hits. So When a traditional slash line (ba/obp/slg) is presented, there is zero reason to look at BA. This is just the very basic premise of what is being discussed here.

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That is ridiculous. BA makes the other two more useful. It is one of the two variables in OBP, and provides individual context for SLG%. This is proving my point that people do not understand what they are looking at

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If I am looking at offensive statistics, my goal would always be to determine who provided the most offense for my team. And BA would be way down the list of things I would look at.

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Well, if I'm watching a game and not familiar with any of the players, and it's the bottom of the 9th and the home team needs a hit, I would look to BA to determine if I should keep watching the game. It's all about what you are trying to accomplish and in how much time.

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Which 10 Players would you choose here in a blind test?

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Choose for what? To form a team? A batting order? A clutch hit?

Batting averages have been dropping for years due to better pitching skills. Baseball needs something to correct it because more balls in play is better for the fans.

An old hockey guy once said an 10-8 game is much better than a 1-0 one.

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It sounds like your argument attempts to make baseball a lot more complicated

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Let me make it easier for you: stats are results, not goals

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That is ridiculous. BA makes the other two more useful. It is one of the two variables in OBP, and provides individual context for SLG%. This is proving my point that people do not understand what they are looking at

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No. BA is literally useless when the other two are available. Why do you need it for context.

That is the whole point of this thread. And then you are going to say I don't know what I am looking at? There is nothing to draw from BA when looking at all 3. lol.

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Choose for what? To form a team? A batting order? A clutch hit?

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?


to generate offense

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Correct, it causes people to project the stats onto a player instead of understanding how the numbers are produced. You invert the understanding of statistics that way. Stats are just an accentuation or a consistency of fundamentals but they can be influenced by peripheral factors. I’m sure even the stat people will agree that sports are a copycat enterprise but that doesn’t mean as we progress through time that you can’t build teams in different ways. Usually it’s cyclical where trends can go so far to one end that a simple “against the grain” strategy can counter it at that point or even start a “new” or recycled trend in the opposite way. We see this all the time but for some reason certain people think there’s only ever one trend in one direction which is not the case.

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AI generated lies

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Like I said, trying to move the goalpost because the original argument has failed.

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don’t even know what these terms mean?

This entire thread I’ve made the same argument that OBP is a better stat than BA and getting on base was more important than “putting the ball in play”. Please note that’s all part of the same argument. No goalpost was moved and nothing in that argument failed.