Bill Plaschke

This will ruffle some feathers, since Plaschke is a board favorite, but this blog (BLOGS!) has very skillfully picked apart an especially overwrought column.

http://firejoemorgan.blogspot.com/

 

Yawn, the sabermetricians' Anti-Christ is targeted. The column was supposed to be a slice of life thing about a couple of old scouts doing their job in a world hostile to them. It wasn't intended to damn figures and stat analysis. Someone needs to calm down.

And I don't care if Ethier was the A'S FUCKING MINOR LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE YEARS IN 2005 (the BLOGGER'S caps). Minor league stats are fairly meaningless. Issues of athleticism, personality and hustle, among other things, are things that you kinda hafta watch and bring your experience to bear on analyzing it. Plenty of people who have thrown 100 mph who couldn't cut it.

And at Maddux's age and recent performance level, it couldn't be assumed that he'd help. Some eyes on the ground would give you an idea.

I daresay that I don't think anything was particularly picked apart.

 

I'll only say, there's a hell of a big difference between Googling someone and knowing them.

The story wasn't written to be a scouting manual. Calm down, indeed. Dooley's right on.

 

Reading that blog makes me happy other sports have not been exposed to such statistical analysis paralysis.

 

Wasn't Brad Komminsk the Braves' minor league player of every year for a while?

 

I heard that David Clyde guy was pretty well-regarded, too.

 

Only because the Braves, like every other team in the 1980s, were relying on detailed computer analysis and not the advice of grizzled, 93-year-old scouts.

 

I'm curious about why so many sports fans have something against Plaschke - I never think of him in the Mariotti mold. I understand why fans don't like the Mariottis of the world who tell them what they don't want to hear about their teams. But I've never understood the animosity toward Plaschke, who seems more like a feature/tear-jerker/human interest columnist.

 

...is not dead.

 

Love him as a columnist, hate him on ATH.

 

Point being that being named Minor League Player of the Year in and of itself isn't quite the big deal it might seem to be.

Could be that the organization is filled with lousy players, could be that the player honored is one of those guys who hits his peak at AA or AAA.

 

Pretty hilarioius dissection of the column.