Quote:
Originally Posted by Airdrop01
Everyone gets an opinion, bro. Citing a made up stat, subjective in nature anyway (just because it’s a number doesn’t mean it’s not subjective, any more than the 5s or whatever we write on paper for players’ skills) made up by a guy who has no idea what it is like to catch 130 games in 9 months, for the purpose of proving the worthiness of an opinion, is where I must point out the absurdity of the argument.
Everyone still gets an opinion. But that means everyone does. Tell me why Mauer is the seventh (!!!!) best catcher of ALL TIME. Don’t cite a subjective made up number...especially from a guy like THAT, and say ipso facto he’s the seventh best catcher in the history of Baseball.
The dude is a writer, supposedly, and the best he can do is a number...which he MADE UP.... for his argument? That’s why I mock him.
|
1. Your opinion isn't disqualified because you are a journalist and statistician. Every front office in baseball is ran by numbers guys that understands and knows the game. Are you going to call Luhnow and Epstein's opinions wrong because they didn't play the sport?
The idea that you can be disqualified from an understanding of something due to a lack of physical experience with it is squashed everywhere else in life, but a few people in baseball seem to allow it ring through without cause. Every single person, including Jaffe, who writes on the sport has played it, loves it, and understands it. Just because he didn't play minor league baseball or whatever level you would require to consider him a relevant expert is ridiculous.
2. JAWS, WAR, and these other 'subjective' stats were created with great insight, vetted information, detailed analysis, and years of thought experiment. And they are still only value added, snap shot numbers. They don't have to be all inclusive and absolute. Nobody walks around saying, well, his WAR is this, so that's it. It's a great starting place. Not the ending place (for discussions).
3. Usually when people are against these stats, they are the individuals who have zero clue how the stats are computed and figured out. WAR and JAWS are both incredibly easy and simplistic, and make a ton of sense. They also correlate to real wins remarkably well. Much better than other made up stats, like batting average.
4. We use statistics and analysis because our brains are giant fail factories. Our memories incredibly flawed, and in a sport with 750 full time players in it each year, it's easy to neglect some players, divisions, or even leagues and not realize what players are doing. This keeps the players on the same level playing field and allows us to measure them and compare them to each other. If you are a Yankee fan, I doubt you are paying any attention to what a player on the Rockies is doing unless you think you are trading for him or really watch all 30 teams really well. It doesn't allow you to objectively measure those players. So we use statistics, and advanced statistics are going to be vastly superior for this purpose.
5. You are also like 10 years too late to be complaining about this stuff. It's long been accepted. And the front offices are ran by people much smarter than all of us.
6. Why don't you give us your list of top 10 catchers of all time, and we can all discuss where Mauer fits on that list (assuming he continues to qualify as a catcher)?