Around the Sabersphere 11/21: Sabermetrics are fighting the man, Are relievers getting better? The value of good coaching

Adam Sobsey writes over at Baseball Prospectus about the important of sabermetrics in baseball. Sobsequy: Why We Need Sabermetrics

The Ai Weiwei retrospective at the Hirshhorn in Washington isn’t about baseball, but it is indirectly about ways of seeing baseball differently. Well, really it’s about ways of seeing everything differently. So perhaps it’s appropriate here to revive the old saw that when your only tool is a hammer, everything tends to look like a nail. I left thinking about baseball—or rather, thinking about thinking about baseball. A dancer would probably leave thinking about choreography, a banker about the economy.

Glenn DuPaul might not have been able to bring you these links today, but he did write about relievers over at The Hardball Times: Are relievers across baseball consistently improving?

A month ago, I wrote an article, entitled "Should we even try to predict future runs allowed for relievers?." In that piece, I tested various ERA estimators, to see which performed the best at predicting future runs for relief pitchers. Each estimator had such a weak performance that I wrote this paragraph in my conclusion:

C.J. Nitkowski writes over at Baseball Prospectus about the value of good coaching: Baseball ProGUESTus: The Value of Good Coaching

One thing that has always bewildered me about the sabermetric community, more specifically its members in the media, has been its general discounting of the value of coaching, especially at the major-league level.

I have read more times than I care to recount how little impact a manager can have on wins and losses, but that’s another topic for another day. What really befuddles me, though, is when a sabermetric scribe plays down the value coaches can have at the big-league level, with doubt about their usefulness dripping from every sarcastic word.

Rob Neyer at Baseball Nation writes about the All Star Curse: The Curse of the All-Star Game

I'll wager that not many All-Stars get non-tendered just a few months later. But you can't really argue with the move. After the All-Star Game, LaHair started only 25 games -- due to the presence of Anthony Rizzo, and also to his own slump -- and batted just .202/.269/.303 in 119 plate appearances. And he'd been struggling well before the All-Star Game, as LaHair really didn't hit like an every-day first baseman after the middle of May.

May you all arrive safely wherever your Thanksgiving plans are.