Amazin' Avenue Book Club: Moneyball, Chapter Four

and so far my favorite thing is the picture of a man on page 38, which has the caption, “This man played more than 1,000 major league games, and is mentioned only once in passing in this book. And none of you has any idea who he is.” How awesome is that?

I do enjoy learning about the game through advanced metrics and the methods of scouting like pitch f/x; I find it reveals much more about players and restrains me from being inclined to make a knee-jerk reaction. I actually got my first exposure to Bill James from a book I received in 7th grade from a WWII vet involved with my Boy Scout troop. He heard I liked baseball, and a copy of the 1983 Bill James Baseball Abstract was in my hands the next week. I, being 12 years old, read it and hated it. All I remembered from that book was that there were a ton of numbers I didn’t comprehend and a lot of Mets were really low on his positional rankings, so I just thought he was a Mets hater and went on my teenage way.

While I disagree with James’ premise about intelligent people drifting away from the game, I will concede that once you develop an appreciation for sabermetrics it can make baseball conversations very troublesome with certain people, even in my case members of my own family. I really have to fight myself to not be a condescending jerk to people I like and anyone in general who accuse me of being clueless about baseball because I dared to say that Felix Hernandez deserved the Cy Young and not C.C. Sabathia. An analogy would like Galileo being ignored and hated much like whenever I talk sabermetrics or attempt to do so with certain people. They think what I’m arguing is tantamount to blasphemy in baseball circles and that I’m trying to ruin the game when I really enjoy it immensely. It’s funny because there’s a faction in my family of baseball fans: the older people are much more swayed by the traditional stats, but the younger people (including my cousin who introduced me to Fire Joe Morgan and got me started on a sabermetric kick) are much more SABR oriented. It’s gotten to the extent that I don’t even look at the “traditional” stats first on baseball-reference anymore when I seek a player’s numbers. I immediately go to WAR and OPS+ for players and WHIP and ERA+ for pitchers.

There will always be a chasm between sabermetrics and the baseball “purists”. Ironically enough, as much as I have benefited from various Bill James formulas and analysis, I really do not want to become arrogant and bitter over baseball statistics. I can certainly understand why he would be so egotistical since people treated him like shit for so long, but I don’t want to have resentment for people over baseball analysis. It’s not an end-all for me.

She puts up with a lot of sports watching on my part, including wrestling of all things (oddly the one sports-related thing that she has even moderately gotten into). My only recompense is the occasional romantic comedy.

I read the James Abstract from 2000 or so, and enjoyed it. He’s a good writer, and I guess I don’t remember it being overly stuffy or arrogant. As to my favorite saber-inclined writer, it has to be Joe Posnanski. Is there really any other choice?

I’ve actually only started down this path recently. I read Moneyball a couple of years ago and it was a cool story. I started getting interested in OPS and WHIP, but really didn’t make anything of it. it was only when I started reading this site last year that I started asking questions about advanced stats.

I read Moneyball again this weekend while on a plane. But this time, I read it from the perspective as Paul DePodesta as the real main character. Hopefully, his computer still has some magic in it.

As for my relationship and baseball, I’ve been fortunate enough that she watches most fo the games with me. And for that, I will forever be grateful to the current announcing team. I know that many on this site have their issues with GKR, but it’s their engaging dialog (whether you agree with them or not) that has made for a happy home during baseball season. 5 years in, she’s even calling balls & strikes now.

at least not for baseball. she’s a football girl. so it’s kinda funny to watch us take turns yelling at the tv over different sports. at least she gets it.

I read this chapter & I found it extremely fascinating & infuriating. The dedication Bill had in finding out how to properly evaluate offense & get his message out despite limited resources is fascinating. Seeing how easily Bill debunked errors as something valuable on defense & seeing it still being used as something useful in measuring a defender(see Derek Jeter) is a bit comical & sad. This quote was crucial & should always be remembered when people try to discount saber with “the old executives used the traditional stats & they worked!”:

The statistics were not merely inadequate; they lied. And the lies they told led the people who ran major-league baseball teams to misjudge their players, and mismanage their games.