Live Chat
Dave · August 31, 2010 at 9:42 am · Filed Under Mariners
Since the team isn’t giving us that many interesting things to post about, I figured I’ll try something here that’s been a pretty big success over at FanGraphs – the live chat. From 11 to 12 pm today, swing by for an hour of Mariner talk. Should be more fun than last night’s game, at least.
Sweet, I’ll try to drop by. Should be fun.
I’ve always wanted more ways to talk to some of the regulars around these parts. A forum would be a nightmare to moderate at peak times, but there are some pretty cool folks around here that have a lot of great thoughts to offer.
Anyhow, thanks for doing this.
Sounds fun. I’ll try and be in there!
Thanks for hosting the chat, Dave!
This was a helluva lot of fun. Thanks. Please do it again. I love the format: Dense and information-rich.
Sorry I missed the live version but that was an awesome read. Hope to make the next one & participate. It has been a painful season but I am happy to be going to the game tonight – happy Felix day!!
This is brilliant – I really hope there are more of these in the future. As great as Dave and the guys are at thumbing through the comments and responding to a select few, it would be most excellent to have more opportunities like this to get instant feedback.
Reports say the rockies are interested in LOLopez. I can’t help but think that is impossible.
This was a nice format Dave. I appreciated being able to read through the question/answer session.
@Nelson: You made a comment about the usefulness of stats. You also made a comment about “rubbish” or some other statistical term that I am not familiar with … and I am in my mid 40-s.
Context of your comments and Dave’s retort: The RBI statistic in and of itself is not a valuable metric when comparing the offensive contribution of one player vs. another player. The reason is that something has to happen that is outside of the “hitters” control. That “something” is the fact that someone else usually has to get on base … unless, of course – you consistently mash the ball and can hit yourself in (HR) and collect one RBI. That would be a “power stat” – and very well quantified within what is known as the “Slugging Percentage.” Simply stated, there are more valuable metrics to measure the contribution of offensive players in comparison to other offensive players. The wOBA stat is the best stat I have ever seen as far as being comprehensive and useful. I have not been aware of the stat for very long – but once I learned what it was, I embraced it. It’s very useful!
In regard to the value of an RBI … hell yes they are valuable – for a team. Someone has to hit them. The team needs to score runs and someone needs to hit the runners in. However, as an individual metric, they are considered to be an inflated stat and of nominal value. Like I said though – a very important “team” stat. If it wasn’t you might end up with a team that produces runs like the 2010 Mariners.
If you were to phrase your question differently, I am not certain if you would get the type of response you were hoping for or not, but you might consider giving it a try. The context of the statistical analysis for individual contribution of players (both offensively and defensively) has evolved substantially over the past 25 years. That is a concept that you really shoudl start to embrace. All of the MLB teams have embraced it … some more than others though.
The pilgrims of the game could have very well developed a different set of metrics and called them the “box score”, but they developed and tracked the stats that they dveloped and tracked – and they became engrained within everyone’s psyche. Those stats are commonly referred to as “standard.” The less mainstream stats (but arguably of infinitely more substantive value) are referred to as “advanced.”
Go study the stats at fangraphs – and see if you can reach a different conclusion than the one you have in regard to their value. You may need an abacus to get through some of them (Lord knows I do for some)… but there is a lot of good stuff within those details.
Maybe you don’t like 29 year olds giving you the “what for,” but Dave knows his shit. By the time he is my age, he is going to know a lot more shit.
Keep in mind, statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital … or at least sometimes. There will be more metrics created than you can count, but there are some very, very useful ones. Give them a try.
Heh, I Gotta get that on a bumper sticker!
Fun chat to read through, Dave. Thanks for doing this.