Too many numbers?

Actually it should be "the last time they'd had 17 or more hits" because by the time the reader read the story, the last time they did it was yesterday.

 

this has been the trend since about four or five years ago when every stat known to mankind went online. 90 percent of those stats are not only useless but they're also meaningless.

the morris stat is so inane that you almost need to stop and think about why it's so useless. for some reason people never do. so let's break it down.

great. but why is this any more relevant than allowing 12 hits in fewer than six innings but only three runs? or allowing 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings and allowing only five runs. or allowing 14 hits in 6 1/3 innings and only four runs. or seven innings, 14 hits and five runs? and how manyl pitchers have done what morris did since 1988 (only one since '98, but why cut it off there?) it's totally absurd.

these stat are just random collections of numbers that tell you nothing about the performance of matt morris.

 

It could be this writer's attempt to be like Tim Kurkjian, who has gone numbers bananas this year in his reports for Baseball Tonight. But I like the way Kurkjian does what he does. Not sure everyone can imitate him.

Agreed on the Matt Morris stat. It would be relevant if it were compared with something. At the same time, don't just not use it. Put it as the last sentence or in the notebook or something. As a baseball fan I can appreciate a writer pointing out something that hadn't happened in 9 years.

 

Spinited, were there post-game notes as well as the gamer in this paper? That's where some of these stats should've been placed.

 

I believe there's a danger in baseball beat reporting to forget your audience over time. You begin writing for the hard-core freaks and/or the inside baseball people, rather than the casual fan.

And with each passing year, the percentage of "baseball people" as opposed to casual fans keeps dropping.

 

Shotty, what does the casual fan want, though? Is there a way to usher a casual fan into more of that freak domain by presenting numbers and what they mean? Or does appeasing the casual fan mean play by play sprinkled with a few quotes and feel-good features? Tough to know where the line is.

 

As much as I hate to say this, X, I think the casual fan wants more of a featurized approach ... humanizing the subjects. Less play-by-play, fewer obscure stats.

Boy, do I hate saying that.

 

There are two points being made here: the Yankees aren't doing well in one-run games this season, and it's unusual to get so many hits yet fail to score many runs.

Home or road doesn't make any difference in the one-run games; the Yanks are .250 in both cases. The exact details of the last high-hit, low-run game don't matter.

So unless the writer was trying to pad out his story, he could have made the same points more concisely.

The Yankees are 4-12 in one-run games. They haven't had 17 or more hits while scoring fewer than six runs since 1991.

 

In that case, Shotty, I'd rather read a story with an obscure Matt Morris stat of giving up 13 hits in less than 6 innings, the first time that's happened since 1998. I can stomach that; not the sugary, featurized approach. Being that Matt Morris is on my roto team, I would've used a bit of perspective with that stat: Morris is having a great year and just had an off-day, but not the worst off day of his career since he gave up, what, 4 runs?

T2, 12 of those 16 1-run games are on the road, and they're on the road right now, so I wouldn't mind seeing the 3-9 road record in this instance. Had it been more even, yes, water it down to 4-12 in 1-run games.

 

Humanizing doesn't have to be sugary, and it can actually incorporate the statistic.

 

I love statistics like that (and no, I'm not a saberhead). If not all bunched up, perfectly fine to have 'em all in. Somebody said they'd randomly whack stats. Bullshit. You will have lost that reporter forever, and for no good reason. A good reporter can weave humanization and statistication.

 

I consider myself a casual baseball fan, and I love stats in baseball stories. I'm amazed that all that stuff is kept and you can find out what A-Rod's batting average in the ninth against left-handed hitters is. That sort of stuff helps me and others understand strategy to an extent.

Play-by-play I can do without. Makes my eyes glaze over and go cross.

If I'm whacking stuff to make a story fit, it's always play-by-play.