"The defensive statistics - I still really don't understand how some of those statistics are...

"The defensive statistics - I still really don't understand how some of those statistics are evaluated, I really don't. When you watch baseball games every single day, its very apparent who can play defensively and who can't."

Shouldn't this be grounds to immediately be fired? Even if you don't agree with defensive statisics, you should have some understanding of them.

Comments

I have literally been blogging for less than a year and that's about the same time that I started paying attention to advanced stats.

I mean, I don’t exclusively mean to toot my own horn here, but if you’re one of only 30 people in the WORLD to have this job, you should be able to do this. Just hang around at the book blog or at fangraphs for like 2 weeks.

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by Jack Moore on Jul 13, 2009 2:48 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Or read a quick definition of the stat.

Unless you’re the one calculating it, all you really need to know is what factors it measures, and what a certain value means.

OverTheMonster - ALLERGEN WARNING: May contain peanut butter.

by bs.uf15bosox9bears23 on Jul 13, 2009 2:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Whaaaaaaaaa?

I’m not going to sit here and say I’m by any means good with stats or anything of the sort, but seriously. DM has no excuse. It’s his job. All I have to say is:

"You end up with a name like ‘Outman,’" he said last week. "What else are you going to do? You’re going to get people out, man." ~ Dallas Braden

Free Travis Buck.

by Blicks on Jul 13, 2009 3:04 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The whole interview is full of fail.

Yes, Dayton, if you signed a Yuni for 2yr/5MM, people would still be criticizing you.

"You end up with a name like ‘Outman,’" he said last week. "What else are you going to do? You’re going to get people out, man." ~ Dallas Braden

Free Travis Buck.

by Blicks on Jul 13, 2009 4:11 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I just went over there to listen to the Dayton Moore interview...

and noticed there’s also a Rany interview. Can’t wait to listen to that one, too.

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by Sky Kalkman on Jul 13, 2009 6:20 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Notes:

- KC is getting money from SEA, making Yuni’s deal about 2/$5. It’s quite possible he earns that and more. Definitely possible he doesn’t. Attitudes have changed before. Still, the two prospects…

- Moore brought up how the Gil Meche signing was panned. Good point, but can we bring up all the other moves he’s made that were panned and didn’t work out so well?

- Willie Bloomquist thinks Yuni will win a Gold Glove. That’s just neat to hear, pretty open stuff from a GM.

- DM’s harping on the fact that

- KC has two sabermetricians on staff that DM listens to.

- DM realized this deal would create some degree of outcry based on the fielding metrics.

- DM thinks Jack Wilson and Marco Scutaro will get big money this off-season as the best shortstops available. Not signing one of them allows them to keep more of their key players, like Mike Jacobs (sorry, cheap jab.)

- DM just sounds like he doesn’t say things like “sabermetrics”, “on-base percentage” and “the slugging percentage” very often.

- DM brings up some decent points about what UZR will miss: speed of ball for one.

- On accusations on not valuing OBP enough: acquired Rafael Furcal, Yunel Escobar, Elvis Andrus; three of the best shortstops of the past fifteen years (I assume he meant to put “prospects” in there somehow.)

- Tried to acquire Orlando Cabrera. Price too high. Same for Miguel Tejada when with the Orioles. “You can only acquire who is available to you.” I think that means both free agent aspect and what you can afford.

I quit with about seven minutes left.

2010 free agent short stops, from MLB Trade Rumors:
Orlando Cabrera (35)
Alex Cora (34)
Craig Counsell (39)
Bobby Crosby (30)
Adam Everett (33)
Chris Gomez (39)
Alex Gonzalez (32) – $6MM mutual option with a $500K buyout
Khalil Greene (30)
Jerry Hairston Jr. (34)
John McDonald (35)
Marco Scutaro (34)
Miguel Tejada (36)
Omar Vizquel (43)
Jack Wilson (32) – $8.4MM club option with a $600K buyout

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by Sky Kalkman on Jul 13, 2009 6:41 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

if he wants a good defensive shortstop

everett, mcdonald, and cora are all very good and way better than betancourt.

"Sometimes Joe (morgan) doesn't like facts to get in the way of his opinions."- billy beane
"That was a great pick...if this was 2002" Me, to guy who selected Barry Zito in a fantasy draft
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by harendaman365 on Jul 14, 2009 10:54 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

UZR doesn’t account for the exact speed, but it does at least differentiate between soft, medium, and hard hit batted balls. It’s so ridiculous when someone nitpicks like that and calls a metric worthless because of that. My other favorite one is about how fielding metrics don’t adjust for the speed of the runner. I guess hitting metrics stink because they don’t account for the quality of fielders.

by VictorW on Jul 16, 2009 9:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

what??

DM: A couple of years ago, Betancourt was considered more valuable than Alex Gordon or Billy Butler
By WHO???

by harendaman365 on Jul 14, 2009 11:00 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Maybe Billy Butler...

Betancourt was supposed to be the premiere defensive shortstop, period.

Obviously this is all wrong, but hey, that’s why the trade was made.

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by Jack Moore on Jul 14, 2009 12:53 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Butler raked every year he was in the minors.

If you were thinking, you wouldn't have thought that.

http://sonsofsamhorn.net/index.php?showforum=129

by Warden11 on Jul 15, 2009 12:09 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

He's also a bad defensive first baseman

Meaning he would have to have a wOBA in the .360-.370 range to even be average.

Derosa.

by vivaelpujols on Jul 15, 2009 1:13 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

More to the point...

…why is being more valuable than Billy Butler a ringing endorsement? Butler is essentially the definition of a replacement level 1B.

I has a blog. | Ask a sabermagician!

by cwyers on Jul 14, 2009 9:36 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well, he was supposed to be a lot more than that.

And he’s on pace for a 1.5 WAR season this year. (FG)

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by Sky Kalkman on Jul 14, 2009 9:56 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

yeah, not sure where you're getting replacement level 1B

he’s only 23 and his defense seems to be sufficient. As Sky says, he’s on pace for about 1.5 WAR at FGs, and that’s without adjusting for league.

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

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by devil_fingers on Jul 19, 2009 10:02 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

In 2005 Betancourt looked like he was a little below average as a hitter and the second coming of Ozzie Smith in the field

by Graham on Jul 16, 2009 11:10 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Dayton Moore did

The original article is off the KC Star’s site,but Sam Mellinger is one of the beat reporters and he says that (a year or two ago?) Moore tried to trade Butler for Betancourt… Who was stupider? Moore for offering or Mavasi for turning it down?

In any case, Moore didn’t come back with the “that’s an absolute lie” line he likes to use sometimes, and these recent comments just confirm what was already rumored.

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

Can't get enough of me? Check out my Twitter feed.

by devil_fingers on Jul 19, 2009 10:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

While it's likely that Yuniesky is never productive again...

I think the odds of that are more like 1:2 instead of the 1:billion like most reactions have implied. Yuniesky did have a decent season with the bat and was pretty solid with the glove in the past. Unlike Francoeur, Yuniesky’s problems appear to be with attitude and effort, which can get fixed. The Royals might get through to him or he might realize that he’s going to stop getting paid eventually if he doesn’t perform better.

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by Sky Kalkman on Jul 14, 2009 1:06 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs