Hi. It might have been me that posted the item the author was referring to. Unfortunately I can't access the full article from this computer. Perhaps in the evening I can take a look. I have nothing against calculus. Far from it. I love it and it loves me and I wish I could read more about it's applicability to baseball.

I found this:

13. Bitter Calculus Instructor Posted: September 28, 2012 at 08:49 PM (#4248544)

Has anyone here ever encountered calculus in a baseball paper?

The physics of baseball uses calculus. I remember in a math modeling competition a few years ago, one of the choices was to find the sweet spot on a bat. I imagine calculus would be involved in that.In terms of baseball statistics, projections, ect., though, which is the topic on hand, no. Calculus is not involved. Statistics are based on discrete events: at bats, pitches, plays in the field. Calculus has no place in baseball statistics

here is the thread

I like that the username of that poster is "Bitter Calculus Instructor".

Calculus is just one of those obscure old theories no one uses and no one is even sure works, like Astrology and xFIP.

With the advent of massive, cheap, computing power, calculus has become much less necessary. Many of the problems you used to need calculus to solve, can now be solved with brute computational force.

The easiest example is finding the area under a curve. You could always do it by calculus, or by approximation, drawing a series of thin rectangles under the curve and adding up the area. With a modern computer, that latter is very, very easy.

How do you check that the computer program is doing it correctly?
See if it matches the theory.

I think you're missing the point of numerical applications on the computer.

Oh wow. I didn't realize that quote would come back to bite me.

It was a good article, though. And shows how the ideas of calculus relate well to looking at functions. Like the derivative of pythagorean record showing why 10 runs is equal to a win. I should probably think about what I say more carefully.

I should probably think about what I say more carefully.

Why set yourself apart from the crowd?

With the advent of massive, cheap, computing power, calculus has become much less necessary.

Not even wrong. Just missing the whole point of numerical computing.

I sure was good at calculus in college, and boy does it never come up.

snapper (#6) - So what can happen is that the computer allows you to just do Simpson's Rule directly, without allowing it to finish up as calculus. That's actually very funny, using Simpson's Rule directly because the computer can do that. - Brock Hanke