The Wild World of Sabermetrics
It occurred to me that in my post about Albert Pujols, I threw out a ridiculous amount of numbers, formatting and unusual stats. Forgive me if I seemed like I was trying to overwhelm; in fact, all I was doing was using basic statistics derived from the Sabermetric system. Sabermetrics, from the root SABR (Society for American Baseball Research), is a fundamentally objective way to measure baseball players’ worth and general performance, as well as a fairly accurate way to estimate production. It was first advocated by Bill James, who is now a Senior Advisor on the Red Sox.
Of course, many fans of baseball–even the really hardcore ones–probably haven’t heard much, if anything at all, about Sabermetrics. After all, most major outlets like ESPN don’t pay it much attention; instead, they pay most attention to batting average, HRs and RBI, which are actually statistics that Sabermetricians generally frown upon. But why? And if those three stats–the holy trinity of baseball stats, if you watch ESPN exclusively–are frowned upon, then what stats are worth looking at?
I don’t quite have the time at this moment to begin delving into that. However, I do plan to slowly and consistently update this post, adding why the basic stats are overrated, what stats are useful, and other things along that vein. Hopefully I’ll open you guys up to an interesting, new way of looking at baseball.
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I wouldn’t say ESPN ignores sabermetrics. Rob Neyer is one of James’ top disciples.