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Tuesday, April 10, 2001

A Little Help From His Friends

From what I’ve read, Bill James doesn’t like being referred to as a “statistician”. If that is indeed true, I’m sure he won’t like the beginning of this piece.

Jim Furtado Posted: April 10, 2001 at 11:54 AM | 3 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
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1. Robert Dudek Posted: April 10, 2001 at 07:43 PM (#66650)

Calling Bill James a statistician is like calling Stephen Hawking a technician.

What Bill James is is a thinker. He just happens to think a lot about baseball.

2. Robert Dudek Posted: April 10, 2001 at 07:43 PM (#67107)

Calling Bill James a statistician is like calling Stephen Hawking a technician.

What Bill James is is a thinker. He just happens to think a lot about baseball.

3. Robert Dudek Posted: April 10, 2001 at 07:43 PM (#67893)

Calling Bill James a statistician is like calling Stephen Hawking a technician.

What Bill James is is a thinker. He just happens to think a lot about baseball.

4. scruff Posted: April 10, 2001 at 09:17 PM (#66651)

I haven't read past the first two paragraphs of the article, and this author already had me steamed. Excuse me if he explains himself later, but my impulsive personality drove me immediately to comment. It DRIVES ME INSANE when people slam the QS because in it's worst case scenario you can get one with a 4.50 ERA.

As James himself explained when introducing the stat (it was awhile ago, but this is how I remember it anyway), you can get an RBI while hitting a weak grounder to short with a man on 3rd. But if you get a 140 of them in a season, the odds are you didn't get too many that way.

Almost always, the league leaders in quality starts are the top pitchers in the league. Of course the stat is influenced by ballparks, etc. It is not a "precision metric" but an "eyeball metric" that is pretty solid at what it was designed to do; I'll bet the top 10 in QS are better than the top ten in Wins almost any year.

W/BBRef on the DL right now I can't run numbers to back my argument up (on W vs. QS) but I'm fairly confident I'm right here.

5. scruff Posted: April 10, 2001 at 09:17 PM (#67108)

I haven't read past the first two paragraphs of the article, and this author already had me steamed. Excuse me if he explains himself later, but my impulsive personality drove me immediately to comment. It DRIVES ME INSANE when people slam the QS because in it's worst case scenario you can get one with a 4.50 ERA.

As James himself explained when introducing the stat (it was awhile ago, but this is how I remember it anyway), you can get an RBI while hitting a weak grounder to short with a man on 3rd. But if you get a 140 of them in a season, the odds are you didn't get too many that way.

Almost always, the league leaders in quality starts are the top pitchers in the league. Of course the stat is influenced by ballparks, etc. It is not a "precision metric" but an "eyeball metric" that is pretty solid at what it was designed to do; I'll bet the top 10 in QS are better than the top ten in Wins almost any year.

W/BBRef on the DL right now I can't run numbers to back my argument up (on W vs. QS) but I'm fairly confident I'm right here.

6. scruff Posted: April 10, 2001 at 09:17 PM (#67894)

I haven't read past the first two paragraphs of the article, and this author already had me steamed. Excuse me if he explains himself later, but my impulsive personality drove me immediately to comment. It DRIVES ME INSANE when people slam the QS because in it's worst case scenario you can get one with a 4.50 ERA.

As James himself explained when introducing the stat (it was awhile ago, but this is how I remember it anyway), you can get an RBI while hitting a weak grounder to short with a man on 3rd. But if you get a 140 of them in a season, the odds are you didn't get too many that way.

Almost always, the league leaders in quality starts are the top pitchers in the league. Of course the stat is influenced by ballparks, etc. It is not a "precision metric" but an "eyeball metric" that is pretty solid at what it was designed to do; I'll bet the top 10 in QS are better than the top ten in Wins almost any year.

W/BBRef on the DL right now I can't run numbers to back my argument up (on W vs. QS) but I'm fairly confident I'm right here.

7. scruff Posted: April 11, 2001 at 12:16 PM (#66653)

Sean C., the situation you describe is not a quality start. It isn't because the definition is 6 innings or more, 3 runs (earned?) or less. I think on the fringe of a quality start it could go either way, but overall, it's a solid eyeball metric.

8. scruff Posted: April 11, 2001 at 12:16 PM (#67110)

Sean C., the situation you describe is not a quality start. It isn't because the definition is 6 innings or more, 3 runs (earned?) or less. I think on the fringe of a quality start it could go either way, but overall, it's a solid eyeball metric.

9. scruff Posted: April 11, 2001 at 12:16 PM (#67896)

Sean C., the situation you describe is not a quality start. It isn't because the definition is 6 innings or more, 3 runs (earned?) or less. I think on the fringe of a quality start it could go either way, but overall, it's a solid eyeball metric.

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