Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth
Perhaps Nola 's pitches burn more calories on their way to the plate, or the balls hit off him have an average angle 0.174 degrees lower than Verlander, or his spin to velocity raiio on his curveball is better in games played on Tuesdays. Data is only useful IMO if the result somewhat comports with common sense and observation. I suspect their analysis of batters may be similarly flawed but have not reviewed yet.
|
I was all in on the advanced stats, until they started to divorce from actual reality. I wouldn't say the data has to comport with observation; one of the big benefits of it is that it can highlight things that have been undervalued, it can be genuine inquiry and not just to use as alignment to current narratives. When they were tied to actual performance or comparison to the league, I think they were much more valuable than the traditional stats that tend to just reward players on the best teams. Win Shares root concept, using teams actual results > WAR's root concept using a completely fictional baseline. Somewhere though, we went from realizing Craig Biggio is a great player to asserting that a dude with half the ERA of others is better and yanking starters for journeyman relievers at X pitch count regardless of how well the starter is doing.