As a whole imo stat nerding has devalued MLB to much. At the end of it all, game by game, these are athletic confrontations and acts, not stats.
A player who springs to mind in terms of stats v entertainment was Ozzie Smith For yrs he barely hit his weight, but he was such a tremendous athlete at SS you would watch games just to see him make spectacular plays.
It's just how Padre was brought up growing up. He's older than we are so he's been trained to look at the simple stats HRs, RBI, AVG, pitcher W/L, saves etc. He either doesn't realize or doesn't want to adapt to the newer way of thinking and there are better stats out there to better judge player's real/actual value. In a way Padre represents the "old school baseball writer's way of thinking" and would vote for Cabrera simply based on him winning the Triple Crown, while someone like you and/or myself are the "newer school way of thinking" where we look outside of the "box score" and look at other stats to tell us a bigger and deeper story. My only issue I have with the old school thinking is that they automatically dismiss the newer school's thoughts instead of trying to learn and understand them. They need to realize there is a better way on analyzing stats, it's not just looking at the back of a baseball card anymore and what we are doing is what all 30 MLB front offices are doing in determining the value of players. There defense is to call us stat geeks or nerds or tell us to get out of our parents basement and stop looking at a computer instead of trying to read and understand what the stats are saying. But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong as I didn't check out the stats to tell me what was right or not.
The best example of "stat nerds vs. jocks" is Joe Morgan, IMO. Joe Morgan HATES sabermetrics. Hates the way they're calculated, hates who they're calculated by, the whole deal. Then you look at Joe Morgan's numbers in his career and realize, Wow, this guy has great stats. Stats that people in the SABR community consider the best ever for a second basemen, and it makes you think "Why does this guy hate the idea of advanced stats so much?" Baseball is religion. People that play/played the game object to any new scientific evidence that challenges their beliefs about the game, the same as do people who are of devout faith. They reject any notion that what they've believed their whole lives may not actually be accurate. That's how I view it, anyway.
I don't dismiss the stats based approach RF, to me though it is a bit to detached from the actual games. To me, that detracts from the athletic side of the ledger in what is essentially entertainment. A bit like not watching film, merely totaling demographics of those who go to see a given film.
Stats are a recording of those athletic acts. What you're saying is the height of ridiculousness. "More accurate information has devalued the game" And you still have yet to answer my question. As a stat nerd, why do you assume I'm incapable of appreciating baseball on a game to game basis? Why do you assume I am incapable of appreciating a well executed 'Daylight' play or wheel play, or maybe a difficult backhanded pick from a catcher with a sore thumb, or a well informed defensive shift of the RFer on a 2-1 count or a bases clearing opposite field double where the batter got his front foot down, stayed closed and kept his hands inside of the ball. I freakin' love baseball. I've been lucky enough to have the opportunity to teach the game to young ones, and even luckier still to be compensated for it. Guys like you saying that my being able to cite OPS, BABIP, or WAR, somehow devalues baseball is beyond insulting.
I don't see that nor understand why it would. Stats are a function of output from that athletic side of that ledger.
Oh god I hope so too. Nothing better than reading stories of Joe Morgan high fiving Red players in the clubhouse without any pants on.
I understand what Padre is saying is a certain light. If people aren't watching the games and just looking at stats its one thing. But people are still watching too. The stats is the after thought mostly.
