Sabermetrics for Dummies...by Bill Simmons

I always thought that once you get past the more commonly-known "new" metrics like OPS or BABIP, all these new statistics were completely lost on the casual fan, which I think is a very bad thing. The last thing baseball needs is to give a regular sports fan another reason not to follow the game, in this case, "because I don't know what any of these numbers mean!" For the longest time, I felt there weren't too many articles out there that effectively informed the masses. Well, leave it to a dummy to help the dummies.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/100402

As much as every rags on Simmons, I think he does an admirable job explaining some of these stats and providing anecdotes on how they apply. A lot of his points ramble (of course), but he effectively brings the topic down to a level where UZR and FIP don't seem so intimidating. (Just keep in mind that our views are biased since, 1), the majority of people here are baseball and/or stat-savvy, and 2), Simmons isn't exactly a holy cow on this site) I even liked how he pointed out that when you use some of these metrics, Richie Allen should be in the Hall of Fame and questions the validity (but stops short of saying) of Jim Rice's induction.

Take it for what it's worth, but all things considered, I think it's a very useful article.

 

Your link sends me to the McNabb newser.

 

Sorry. Had a Polish moment there. Fixed.

 

Ohhhhhhhhhh I get it! So Echan's got a high RPaV? (Redirected Page View)

 

CentralIllinoisan had the best K/9 on this board.