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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The Good Phight: jonk: Fighting the good phight

The Adventures of Sabreboy!...(with Marcus Hayes as arch enemy…The Stuck-In-Time Trapper!)

Get a grip, sabreboy.

Burrell is paid to produce runs, not get on base. Period. Any season with fewer than 110 RBI is a flat-out failure. He’s not paid $13 million to walk. He misses strikes, he slumps, he tries to hit home runs. He is mediocre, at best, at the job to which he is assigned.

Soriano is overrated. Carlos Lee is an RBI machine. I don’t know what your problem is with Ramirez, who is arguably the best offensive 3B in the NL since 2003.

OBP and OPS are geek numbers, especially for run-producers. I’d rather have my 3-4-5 guys drive the best strike they see rather than wait for the perfect pitch and jog down the baseline.

Sabremetrics are the bastion of wannabes who never could quite figure out which hand the mitt went on, a false industry created and fueled by people whose association with the game always will be vicarious, and, frankly, pathetic.

Offensively, scoring runs and driving runs in matter in baseball. Everything else follows. That’s it. Ask any player.

Repoz Posted: August 21, 2007 at 12:27 AM | 13 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: media, phillies

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1. frannyzoo Posted: August 21, 2007 at 12:44 AM (#2492939)

And remember, all you ##### bikers suck!

2. vortex of dissipation Posted: August 21, 2007 at 12:52 AM (#2492948)

Just in case you don't RTFA, the lead-in is taken from an article that the blogger is ridiculing.

3. Jonk Posted: August 21, 2007 at 02:42 AM (#2493034)

Who is this Jonk that I keep seeing linked on here? I'm Jonk! Ahh.

4. The importance of being Ernest Riles Posted: August 21, 2007 at 03:45 AM (#2493074)

Just in case you don't RTFA, the lead-in is taken from an article that the blogger is ridiculing.

If I understand it, it is actually an email that Marcus Hayes sent this writer.

5. E., Hinske Posted: August 21, 2007 at 03:54 AM (#2493085)

"I'd rather have my 3-4-5 guys drive the best strike they see rather than wait for the perfect pitch and jog down the baseline."

I'm not as up on my sabr research as I should be but this strikes me as a fair enough point. For all I know, it's already been argued to the bone but I'd be interested in seeing how run expectancy changes if a guy trades BB for swings w/RISP. I don't know how you'd structure it, how you'd go about proving it or (most importantly) if it would produce enough evidence to allow for real world alterations in approach in these situations but it still strikes me as an interesting question.

6. vortex of dissipation Posted: August 21, 2007 at 04:13 AM (#2493101)

If I understand it, it is actually an email that Marcus Hayes sent this writer.

Right you are - sorry about that!

The basic point is still valid, though - the quote was not from the writer of the blog, but from a "professional" writer ridiculing him. (backpedals furiously...)

7. Ray (RDP)

Posted: August 21, 2007 at 04:59 AM (#2493116)

I'm not as up on my sabr research as I should be but this strikes me as a fair enough point. For all I know, it's already been argued to the bone but I'd be interested in seeing how run expectancy changes if a guy trades BB for swings w/RISP.

But then you're basically asking a hitter to swing at a pitch he's not comfortable with. Even if the pitch was a strike, a lot of times a hitter lets the ball go by because he was looking for a certain type of pitch, or looking in a certain zone. I don't see how dramatically changing a hitter's approach -- call it the Dunn question -- is all that great an idea.

8. cardsfanboy

Posted: August 21, 2007 at 05:27 AM (#2493144)

by this guys method of rating players Burrell is the 4th best run producer in the NL since the all star break. He's 4th with rbi's 29, beating out that run producing machine carlos lee by 5.

9. Mattbert Posted: August 21, 2007 at 06:20 AM (#2493178)

Sabremetrics are the bastion of wannabes who never could quite figure out which hand the mitt went on, a false industry created and fueled by people whose association with the game always will be vicarious, and, frankly, pathetic.

As opposed to your typical sportswriter, whose chiseled athleticism mirrors his deep and intimate connection with the game he covers. Indeed, were it not for a nation's desperate need for someone to report on the game, your typical sportswriter would just as soon cast aside his laptop and spring into action on the field itself. No vicarious living there!

Who wants to cobble together a team of barnstorming Primer All-Stars and go challenge the sportswriters of every MLB city to a friendly nine innings?

10. Slinger Francisco Barrios (Dr. Memory) Posted: August 21, 2007 at 12:28 PM (#2493242)

Sabremetrics are the bastion of wannabes who never could quite figure out which hand the mitt went on

Ooh! Why, I oughta...ooh...um...hey, no wonder my mitt has felt funny all these years. Much better.

O.K., now RBIs and BA make so much more sense to me.

11. The cushions are crowded for Edmundo

Posted: August 21, 2007 at 12:34 PM (#2493248)

who never could quite figure out which hand the mitt went on

OH, IT GOES ON A HAND!

12. Biscuit_pants Posted: August 21, 2007 at 03:53 PM (#2493400)

who never could quite figure out which hand the mitt went on

OH, IT GOES ON A HAND!

uh, thats not a mitt, {shakes head} OK let's try this again...

13. The Bones McCoy of THT Posted: August 21, 2007 at 06:31 PM (#2493597)

who never could quite figure out which hand the mitt went on

Aw fuddle-duddle, I spent all that time trying to get it back on the cow.

Udderly embarrassing.

How where do I put this doohickey that looks like an oxygen mask?

Best Regards

John

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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The Good Phight: jonk: Fighting the good phight

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