Jump to content

Is WAR (baseball) utter nonsense?


Recommended Posts

23 hours ago, paul secor said:

Baseball has always been more statistically oriented than other major U.S. sports.

None of the other major sports could possibly match baseball for "stat usefulness".  Just the fact that each play can be isolated gives baseball an edge that can never be matched by basketball or hockey.  Also,the pace of the game  is an advantage. With other sports, you're forced to go back later and analyze the game; with baseball you could get into a statistical discussion between pitches. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 79
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

On 2/15/2017 at 7:33 AM, paul secor said:

Baseball has always been more statistically oriented than other major U.S. sports. Football has moved somewhat to that orientation, but nowhere to the degree that baseball has been and is today. So it's no surprise that there seem to be new formulations constantly appearing. For myself, I'd rather watch the games and not get caught up in numbers - especially numbers which are supposed to predict performances. I'll leave that to the geniuses who run the teams. For me, the quirks of humanity are always more interesting than numbers.  

Exactly, Paul.

I see the numbers as a passing interest. I live for that journeyman bench player hitting .152 or some low BA who comes to bat in a winner take all game situation only to jack one out of the park on a two-strike count. That's the fun in the game after all: The underdog makes good.

Travis Ishikawa anyone? WAR would have placed him at the bottom of the heap.To wit:
 



<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZFKDsFYj3E4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Edited by Tim McG
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/15/2017 at 7:33 AM, paul secor said:

Baseball has always been more statistically oriented than other major U.S. sports. Football has moved somewhat to that orientation, but nowhere to the degree that baseball has been and is today. So it's no surprise that there seem to be new formulations constantly appearing. For myself, I'd rather watch the games and not get caught up in numbers - especially numbers which are supposed to predict performances. I'll leave that to the geniuses who run the teams. For me, the quirks of humanity are always more interesting than numbers.  

For sure!

Where the conflict arises is that a nontrivial share of fans simultaneously (1) believe that knowing the numbers makes you "a better fan" & (2) can't or don't want to the homework.  That's a recipe for frustration.

I agree with Paul that 1 is BS, 100%.  But I get the feeling this is not a consensus among thread participants.

Edited by Guy Berger
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...