Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim65
Brian Kenny is a pompous ass, his book was interesting but his "I know more than everyone else" attitude and constant referring to people who use advanced stats as "the smart people" made me really hate him.
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A big +1 there! While Kenny always starts the show by claiming "This is the show for the thinking fan," his real agenda is to use it to show off what he believes his his incredible, albeit largely undiscovered, genius. He is the epitome of the old phrase "a legend in his own mind." His ego is boundless, yet without any real foundation. He had, for example, the single person in charge of calculating defensive runs saved as a guest on the show. Ken Rosenthal put to this guest the direct and pointed question: "But a defensive run save is not actually a defensive run saved, now is it?" The guest had to admit that it was not, because the context of when an outstanding defensive play is made, robbing the batter of a hit, is totally ignored (such a play therefore counts the same, whether it is made with two outs and the bases loaded, or two outs and no one on base). Defensive runs saved is an integral part of the WAR ("worthless analytical ratshit") stat, yet we can see that it is grossly overrated due to the lack of accuracy in the defensive evaluation of a player alone. The same is true concerning WAR's weighting of baserunning, i.e., the ability to take the extra base. We know from Bill James' formulas concerning runs created, which were consistently accurate within 2-3 percent in correlating to the actual number of runs a team would score, yet considered no aspects of baserunning except stolen bases versus times caught stealing, and times grounding into double plays, that the aforesaid ability, while productive, really does not play a huge factor in the ability of a team to score runs. Luis Aparicio, for example, was very fast and undoubtedly among the best at taking the extra base, yet he NEVER EVER scored over 100 runs in a single season in his career! Ralph Kiner, on the other hand, who certainly never had exceptional speed at all, scored 100 or more runs six times. So much for WAR, upon which Kenny has largely built his ego and claim to undiscovered genius!
Kenny has also been told many times by baseball insiders (especially former and current general managers) that WAR is simply one stat that is looked at, strongly implying it does not carry the special weight Kenny accords to it. When he is contradicted, on this point, however, he is likely to rudely interrupt and do his best to talk over the more knowledgeable person! Why? Because he has built that legendary genius that exists solely within his own mind by his reliance upon it.
Simply stated, the show is a far better one, and enormously more informative, when it has a guest host and Kenny is elsewhere!
Best wishes,
Larry