Jun 29, 2011

Reading assignments

First, read this article about misleading sabermetric statistics on the new Grantland website by Jonah Lehrer.

Finished?

Okay, now read this article on Fangraphs by Joe Pawlikowski as a response to that stupid argument.

That is all.

PS - Gia performed in the Paper Bag concert last night (or as you are reading this), so we are gonna be out late and sleeping in most of the morning on Wednesday. 

7 comments:

Slyde said...

sounds good.

please update us as soon as you have breakfast.....

sybil law said...

I read both articles, but I'm not sure I feel any smarter. The first one was definitely stupid, though.
Woohooo for sleeping in!!

Verdant Earl said...

Slyde - If the first meal comes after 12 Noon, does it still count as breakfast? Then consider it had.

Sybil - Definitely stupid. You got it.

RW said...

I am finally starting to figure out sabremetrics and don't have a thought one way or the other. However in my opinion one of the four greatest managers in the history of baseball seemed to have the answer to it all over twenty years ago when he said "The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and three run homers." That of course would be...?

I don't know enough to make the call about which of the articles were stupider yet. I'll let you know when I get there though.

Verdant Earl said...

RW - That would be Earl Weaver, right? My problem with the first article is summed up by the second article. It's the idea that some people think that statheads ONLY trust stats and not other intangibles. That is absolutely untrue. The premise behind the first article is a fallacy.

RW said...

Yes that'd be Earl.

I'm intrigued by sabremetrics if only because I spent an inordinate amount of my life making speed figs for horses (Beyer Speed Figures to the uninitiated), and I've come to appreciate the merits of them when used correctly. The whole point behind speed figs being the effort to find the horse who raced big in similar situations that may be being overlooked or overvalued because people misread its last few results, not having accurate figures for its past performances - or one key past performance.

So it's interesting to me.

Verdant Earl said...

RW - You might enjoy the book Money Ball, about Billy Beane's reign as GM for the Oakland A's. It's not really about sabermetrics, specifically. Although a lot of people make that assumption. It was more about identifying undervalued assets in a market that could be exploited. During that time period, in particular, that undervalued asset was On Base Percentage. Now, everyone values OBP, so they are targeting speed and defense. All about maximizing the money they spend on players. Very interesting.