S.I.: Andrecheck: Moneyball opened our eyes, but it wasn’t a game-changer

Us SLOBS…forgotten again.

In fact, the above chart of walks per plate appearance below doesn’t support that line of thinking. While the amount of walks has fluctuated over the past 30 years, there’s certainly no evidence that walks are overrunning the game. Walk rates peaked in 2000—three years before Moneyball hit the shelves. Last season, seven years after the book’s debut, players walked no more than they did during parts of the mid-1980’s, when nobody had ever heard of OPS and Bill James was just an egghead who couldn’t know a thing about the game because he had never played it.

...In all, the fact that teams are now using more sophisticated statistical analysis has a very small effect on the look and feel of the game. For fans uninterested in sabermetric ideas, all of that statistical inside baseball can remain, well, inside baseball. The types of players who play the game and the way they perform on the field has remained remarkably constant in the face of this new style of thinking. While teams may now better understand the true value of Franklin Gutierrez’s defense in center field or the value of Kevin Youkilis’ walks, good players continue to come in all shapes and sizes. The main difference is that rather than being undervalued, these players now earn money in proportion to the value they bring to their club.

Regardless of current statistical thinking, the variety of types of players that populate the major leagues has not and will not change significantly. The only difference is that the advanced numbers have been able to more accurately assess the value of each player. While that’s useful, it’s not going to affect the view from grandstand. Juiced balls, a changing strike zone, artificial turf, steroids and the height of the mound all changed the aesthetics of the game far more dramatically than subtle shifts in statistical analysis ever will. While Moneyball may have changed the landscape of the game inside front offices and in the media, traditionalists can breathe easy that the sabermetric revolution has not dramatically changed the on-field product, and likely never will.