Should newspapers employ a statistical analysis person?

If you're a Canuckistani you'd know better, but I thought the thought on him early was always that he played left field but had the speed and instincts of a center fielder. (And those guys usually don't have very good arms.)

 

That's fair, I just can't get the vision of him 8 hopping the ball back to the infield out of my head.

 

What contortions am I making? I have no idea whether defensive sabermetrics are good or bad, and haven't argued such. All I said was that your "proof" that the A's did not replicate past success by focusing on defense did not prove the argument you were making. I'm on the side good logic and reasoning, not defensive sabermatrics.

 

This is the best response to the original question I've read so far. Well done.

And among writers, Bill James is a master at breaking down stats and ideas like this in a reasonable, readable way.

 

I made my point poorly because, in part, I was particularly irascible yesterday. But VLM makes the point beautifully. Rob Neyer is also particularly good at breaking down concepts in digestable ways for baseball fans to understand.

Steve Campbell of the Houston Chronicle, Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post and Sam Mellinger of The Kansas City Star are guys who execute this well for newspapers. There are others, too. But there remain writers who spit on sabermetrics and others who just haven't given them the time of day.