Read on Twitter
I& #39;ve seen a few tweets about stereotyping analytics, as well as old style baseball. I think this actually leads to an interesting point that can be made about player evaluation in general. I& #39;ll try to summarize simply in a few tweets. Bare with me here.
The way we evaluate players has dramatically changed. New information, analytics, has been presented and allowed us to get a clearer picture of who players are and what they can be. While it sounds like a good thing, a lot of people don& #39;t treat it as such. Why?
Well perhaps, it& #39;s the way it& #39;s presented. Which leads to a stereotype about people who use stats. "People who use analytics and stuff don& #39;t actually watch the game! They just try to shove their views down our throats and like they know more than us! I bet they never played!"
1. I don& #39;t think I& #39;ve ever met a person who uses sabermetrics and doesn& #39;t watch a lot of baseball. Me personally, I probably saw over 500 games of all different levels just last year. (It was my job so take with a grain of salt) Point remains. If you like numbers, you must watch
2. Yes, sometimes people can be a little pushy with their use of sabermetrics and I& #39;m guilty of this in the past. For the record, I& #39;m working on it. However, imagine that you knew you were using hard evidence to present a case, and people were just being ignorant to it.
That would drive people mad, and it can be difficult at times to not tell someone they& #39;re being ignorant. Though I try very hard not to.
3. Do people who use sabermetrics know more than those who don& #39;t? That& #39;s a very vague question and that& #39;s tough. It& #39;s very much on a case by case basis. However, the teams that have been doing well tend to hire people who are more analytically inclined based on what I& #39;ve seen.
4. I don& #39;t know why people think you need to have had experience playing baseball to actually be good at player evaluation. That& #39;s silly. If you read from writers or people who worked in baseball about the way they evaluate players and that& #39;s how you try to do it, then do it.
I think the biggest thing you might hear from people is that result based analysis is bad. However, sometimes people may not tell you why. So I& #39;ll try to explain in short.
It& #39;s bad because results are misleading. There& #39;s some luck in baseball, and some players are a little luckier than others. That& #39;s why analytics is super important. It helps find the players who are good at skills that translate to success.
