Bob Ryan on baseball's WAR

So what is the "round world" hitting stat?

Are you saying the top 10 OPS hitters were not the 10 best hitters in baseball?

 

Except that zero as a concept is not just used for temperature. Again, that isn't what you said. That is you making shit up later to try to justify the failed point you initially made.

Even the comparison to zero degrees doesn't hold up because what we use as a baseline there doesn't keep changing as replacement does in WAR.

The willful ignorance is getting very old, Dick Try some other tactic for once.

 

How does it change? From position to position? That's a strength of the metric, not a flaw. It exists as a tool to measure players against players at their same position.

 

What was that failed point again? Sure, zero isn't just used for temperature. But in this case, it's a pretty good comparison. Replacement value is an artificial "zero," a statistical fiction, but it's still a baseline and useful as such. I wrote an article recently about rising sea levels, off of a panel discussion I covered. When discussing the lake level, there was a baseline they used - I can't remember exactly how it was determined, perhaps by the average depth for a certain time period - and references to current lake levels were always framed in comparison to that baseline.

 

1) There isn't one.
2) Not necessarily.

 

Thanks

Is OPS the best combination of simplicity and accuracy?

 

Top 10 in OPS last season:

1. Miguel Cabrera
2. Ryan Braun
3. Joey Votto
4. Giancarlo Stanton
5. Mike Trout
6. Buster Posey
7. Andrew McCutchen
8. Edwin Encarnacion
9. Prince Fielder
10. Josh Hamilton

Robinson Cano had a better season than Hamilton, but Hamilton plays in a video game stadium. Posey and your guy McCutchen get screwed when they clearly were two of the three best hitters in the NL yet somehow rank below Stanton, also because of their stadiums and because OPS favors the slugging component. Chase Headley put up great numbers considering his home park but he's .055 away from making the list.

There is no one stat. It's too complicated for that. That's what I mean by flat and round. You are trying to explain something as quickly as possible that really needs to be considered in more ways than that.

I don't care whether you want to use WAR. I don't care if you don't want to use any new statistics at all. But if you're going to try to end the discussion on who the best hitter in baseball is with OPS and nothing else, then you're a simple-minded toddler who shouldn't be discussing these things with any hope of being taken seriously. And if you're fine with that, then I will take note and make sure to point it out at every turn.

 

What are hitter's OPS numbers in away games?

 

I think of it as the Yahoo tone. Adrian Wojnarowski and Dan Wetzel and Michael Silver can be just as condescending.

 

Good thing nobody on Cabrera's side of the debate displayed any arrogance.

http://www.freep.com/article/20121116/COL01/311160108/detroit-tigers-miguel-cabrera-mvp-award

 

That is your opinion, but it is also a weakness when compared to zero. Zero is zero. To say there is a fair comparison and actually try to argue the point as you are simply proves your desperation.

 

Again, you keep trying to drag this comparison all over the place. Please stop trying to cover your failed comparison. If it could stand on its own, you wouldn't have to keep changing your argument.