OT: baseball stats are out of control

[jimivintage]

While I agree that baseball stats seem ridiculous (and my dad and I have argued that point for years), we tend to live in a data driven world these days. Schools are now driven by data and incentives, and so are businesses (the same as ESPN and MLB.)

When I see Terry Francona walk out to the mound to take Corey Kluber out of the game when it seems he has complete control in the 8th inning, there is some sort of data that Francona looked at that made him go get Scott Atchinson out of the pen. I scream for a bit, but then what do you do when you see the stats (Atchinson has a 0.45 ERA lifetime during night games on the road since 2006 against so-and-so on deck?)

I love and hate all this data!

Jimi

[DaClyde]

While I love the level of analytics being done that the managers can use to get an edge, I do hate it that no pitcher is allowed to work themselves out of a jam past the 4th inning. Seeing a guy with a shutout thru 8 getting pulled because he walks a batter or allows a hit is irritating. It is especially irritating when the reliever then proceeds to give up 3 runs and lose the game.

[nebboy]

Yep they are way way aggressive with 2 strike counts but that is their style. Go back and do numbers on hits on first pitch thrown, and the stats would be outstanding.

[Jobu]

I like baseball stats, though I like sabermetric stats (BABIP, FIP, etc) more than the type that you posted here. Part of my problem with the Elias-type matchup stats that you mention is that the tiny sample sizes make most of them meaningless.

For those interested, I think the best site for sabermetric stats and analysis on the internet is fangraphs (www.fangraphs.com) - they have a definition section that tells you what each stat is along with articles explaining them and tons of great articles about player performance. The database also goes really far back - speaking of which, Ty Cobb hit .323 in his age 41 season, how crazy is that?