What's with the xgees title of this thread? Could of?

should of would of

It's memey

mozartpc27 wrote:

smitty wrote:

phatj wrote:

Napalm wrote:the WAR debate rages on

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/89006 ... ement-stat

Nice piece by Caple.

Good stuff. His points are pretty obvious. Many posters here have said a lot of the same things he wrote about. But someone needs to beat the drum on a national stage

I can't tell what percentage of this is sarcasm.

I was also unimpressed by the article, moz. The whole point of a WAR calculation is that is to synthesize one's estimates of value into 1 number. The allure is obvious. That the fielding values are imprecise and FIP is imperfect doesnt mean it's not the single best number to use, if one was arbitrarily limited to one statistic. The Jack Morris comment is also silly... the reason that Jack Morris is not voted for by sabermetrically minded voters is NOT because his WAR is too low. Heck, it's a counting stat. The reason is that Jack Morris was only barely above-average with a lifetime ERA of .390, and a large part of his advocacy rests on the impact of one game pitched.

phatj wrote:It's memey

One might say it's cockamemy.

i thought it was kind of a crap article, too.

You have to grade it on a curve. It's pretty good for a mainstream writer, and it's especially nice to see a mainstream writer critical of WAR but not making tired mother's basement jokes.

I think Caple's point was that too often people use WAR alone to the exclusion of other numbers. When there's so much uncertainty about the reliability of the fielding component, and so much disagreement between WAR systems about how to assign credit to pitchers vs. defenders, this is dangerous.

the next time a mainstream writer does a careful takedown of WAR using better statistics instead of spouting off about how shitty a stat it is will be the first

That's not what Caple did. He didn't "takedown" WAR, and he didn't spout off about how shitty it is.

By the way, Cameron wrote a pretty good rebuttal to Caple/defense of WAR today: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.ph ... -good-for/

phatj wrote:You have to grade it on a curve. It's pretty good for a mainstream writer, and it's especially nice to see a mainstream writer critical of WAR but not making tired mother's basement jokes.

I think Caple's point was that too often people use WAR alone to the exclusion of other numbers. When there's so much uncertainty about the reliability of the fielding component, and so much disagreement between WAR systems about how to assign credit to pitchers vs. defenders, this is dangerous.

Yup.

mozartpc27 wrote:What's with the xgees title of this thread? Could of?

It's like "moar" and "is a PluralTeamName". Just go along with it

phatj wrote:That's not what Caple did. He didn't "takedown" WAR, and he didn't spout off about how shitty it is.

By the way, Cameron wrote a pretty good rebuttal to Caple/defense of WAR today: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.ph ... -good-for/

I haven't read Cameron's rebuttal yet, but my point was not necessarily directed at Caple. The minor complaints with WAR have been registered ad nauseum. Caple is, predictably, years behind the curve.

Brandon Webb is retiring

this is an excellent article.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/ ... bermetrics

BigEd76 wrote:Brandon Webb is retiring

Such a shame.

kruker wrote:

BigEd76 wrote:Brandon Webb is retiring

Such a shame.

Had six semi-fabulous to fabulous seasons in a row. Finished 1st, 2nd and 2nd in Cy Young vote. Then went Sayonara.

FTN wrote:this is an excellent article.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/ ... bermetrics

Fuck that. I much prefer going by Amaro's gut and general instinct.

agreed.

Fat Andy Garcia can play Rube in Smuggyball

Trent Steele wrote:Fat Andy Garcia can play Rube in Smuggyball