Credit where credit's due: Rob Neyer

I'm sure that this'll get the panties of spnited and some others in a wad pretty quickly, but nice to see Neyer acknowledge that all managers are not idiots and that there might actually be decisions that can rightfully hinge on old-school observation instead of mathemetics.

The context: The Nationals are starting Austin Kearns instead of Elijah Dukes, and one of Neyer's stathead buddies takes him to task because of Elijah's apparently sky high "UZR/150" and "wOBA" from a year ago.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4046614&name=Neyer_Rob

Maybe we all can really get along after all.


But what if there were some off-the-field transgression we don't know about? What if Dukes came to camp overweight? What if he had showed little enthusiasm about getting his work done during spring training? What if he just didn't seem to give a tinker's damn?

We've a tendency to think -- especially these days -- that we have perfect knowledge. We don't. As anyone who has worked inside baseball can tell you, for every odd thing we hear about, there are a dozen we don't.

 

This changes everything.