Hawk Harrelson in the NYT: Sabermetrics 'the biggest joke I've ever seen'

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/sports/baseball/for-baseball-broadcaster-numbers-arent-the-story.html?ref=todayspaper

(S)aid Jonah Keri, the author of “The Extra 2%,” a book about how the Tampa Bay Rays have utilized Wall Street strategies in remaining competitive with a restricted payroll, “you can love the aesthetic of the game, but if you say sabermetrics are useless and they ruin baseball, then you’re doing a disservice to your viewers.”

 

The more Hawk Harrelson positions himself as the grump old man in this conversation, the more attention he gets.

 

Hawk apparently doesn't own a mirror.

 

Yep. There are enough people who fall in behind him that he doesn't need to worry about who doesn't.

Of note: went to the A's game Saturday afternoon. Packed house, great day, they're awesome. Every batter who came to the plate, they showed his BA/HR/RBI. Not once did I see OPS or anything along those lines. The vast majority of baseball watchers remain part of the old-fashioned crowd.

 

Red Sox scoreboard has showed OBP for years now, and shows OPS, too. Maybe Oakland is just too threadbare to reprogram the scoreboard.

 

That could be. I did pee in a urinal trough too. Thankfully, nobody caused a sewage backup.

 

I'm not sure if the newer stats offer the casual fan that much of an information upgrade on the traditional stats (at least for batting, I think the pitching ones are a big improvement), but the idea they're too complicated is ridiculous. It's the same as always. For batters, the higher the number the better.

 

Hawk Harrelson wants to die doing what he loves.

 

Hard to find fault with what Tampa has done but wonder if their Wall St Strategies are really sabremetrics or just good financial decisions.

Their formula for success is valuing players on a mark to market basis just like
Wall St does in valuing investments. I once heard Stew Sturmberg say that The
Rays had a payroll of 35 Mil but on a real value player basis it would be more like
$95 mil.

Either way that's a smart group of people running that franchise.

 

If they don't sign him that tells you something also.

 

There is roughly a 1% chance he's a Ray by the end of his arbitration years. He's going, and probably this offseason.