cubsavant

You're right. He's a crappy baseball player who happens to be in the Major Leagues (much like Neifi Perez, Rey Rnez, and many others before them). And there's a reason why those men are playing "slow pitch" softball. Fixed. Well the arguement was he wouldn't belong in a line-up of a "slow pitch softball team". However I beleive none of those "slow pitch softball" players, could even break .050 in the majors. So I beg to differ. 8-) If that. Most of them probably couldn't make contact in 10 at bats. One of my friends said he could get a hit off of a major league quality pitcher if given enough pitches (he played 2 years of Baseball in highschool), but I even doubt that. Or maybe not. Perhaps I've giving too much credit to Major League players? I bet around pitch 180 I could start getting some contact. Someone get carpenter ready, he's gonna throw until I hit something But seriously, I assume that pitchers represent the best that someone who is a decent athlete but not gifted in hitting could do against ML pitching. They're not selected for their ability to hit but they get a lot of practice (compared to a regular person) at it. I don't think it's unreasonable to claim that a lot of people could hit .100 if they practiced for years. If you took one of the decent hitting pitchers and put him on your slow pitch team he would hit a homer more than 50% of his at bats. Izturis would hit over .900 on a slow pitch softball team, I think most people have a tough time grasping how much better major leaguers are than the rest of us at things involving a bat and a ball.

That was a really good interview of Kasper. I really have enjoyed a lot of the Bricks and Ivy Radio podcasts.

It might be expensive to get tickets, but it will be easy to get tickets.

His sinker and changeup were on. The five breaking balls he threw looked pretty good as well.

This was a very interesting and insightful topic to read. Does anyone know of a stat that can be used to determine the effectiveness of a leadoff hitter? TransTiger brought up some points about Pierre needing to hit for more power. To me it seems that he should get some credit for the 65 stolen bases, because to me power is more than just homeruns. Doubles and triples are very advantageous to a players slugging percentage. It seems that there should be an adjusted leadoff hitters slugging stat. The hitter should get credit for stolen bases, be penalized for caught stealing, and use normal slugging stats on top of that.

You can retroactive it to the last time he pitched in a major league spring training game.

He really shrank last year. I remeber him saying he got smaller because he wanted to improve his quickness behind the plate, but he was under 200 lbs going into spring training last year.

Has anyone seen any projections as to how the new stadium will play? Is it going to be a hitters park, a pitchers park?

I saw Fuld play four or five times last year. I was impressed with his approach at the plate and in the field. He reminded me a skinny Mark Kotsay.

What value do you give to a measuring device that almost everyone agrees is inacurate? There has to be a common ground between statistical analysis and calibrated observation. Even the advanced defensive statistics like zone rating require evaluation of balls put in play by a human eye. For the time being I am much more inclined to trust the opinion of trained scouts than a complex system which at the end of the day is simply relying on less qualified graders. The problem with intangibles are that if a player does add value to a team with the little things there is no way of measuring that performance against the exact same player not doing the little things. In other words there is no control. I think where we run into problems with the use of sabermetrics is when we forget that they are intended to be used as a macro tool. Sully I think you are completely wrong on this. For beane it was all about getting the most baseball production for the dollar. At that time OBP was the undervalued commodity, great defensive players or speed, or power could just as easily have been the commodit that was undervalued and if they were he would have gone after those talents instead. How do you know it is much higher than that? Observation! And, I can tell you that my level of observation is far superior to what almost anyone I have ever met has. Who are all of these players who you are certain can step in and play GG calibre defense at either middle infield spot for less than $2.5 million. Neifi was over-extended last year, he is after all a backup. He gave wonderfull production offensively and defensevely for a backup middle infielder. It is not his fault that he is not a top of the order hitter. If it isn't a very big contribution then it is not undervalued.

Ok, lets review. 1. Bill James didn't write Moneyball or have anything to do with it. 2. Moneyball did not address the importance of OBP other than that Billy Beane recognized its value. 3. Just because you criticize the moves a GM makes, does not mean you think you could be a better GM. This is similar to arguing that because you criticize a player for striking out you think you could do better. 4. Most people don't scapegoat Neifi other than to point out the fact that his playing everyday and batting at the top of the order probably cost the Cubs a lot of runs. 5. Neifi's production could be obtained from a player making near league minimum. This makes Neifi's contract a bad one. This is not remotely related to fantasy baseball. This is very related to Moneyball. Have you read it? 6. The judge and jury part I don't understand. Yes, Neifi's abilities can be evaluated based entirely on statistics. What does he provide that can't be measured by statistics? Please don't hurt me this is my first post. I would like to refute some of Poudre's six points of light. 1. Although James did not write Moneyball saying he had nothing to do with it is like saying God had nothing to do with the writing of the ten commandments. 2. On the Billy Beane valuation of OBP my thoughts are: Beane recognized that players with high OBPs and lower BAs were being undervalued. To maximize his meager payroll he decided to pick-up as many high OBP players as possible. If high BA low OBP guys were what Beane perceived to be undervalued those are the players he would have been aquiring. It was all about getting the most bang for his buck, not about OBP. 3. Let's be honest here. We all know that we could do no better than the major league hitter who strikes out. But, at the end of the day we all think that we could do Hendry's or Baker's job. 4. Maybe this board needs to adopt some Neifi post traking statistics. My observation tells me that Neifi gets slammed at about a 4:1 ratio on this board. 5. Maybe Neifi's production could be obtained cheaper, but the Cubs are a large market team with a $100 million dollar payroll. Having a major league starting infielder who has won a GG on your bench is a tremendous luxury, and completely useless. Except, when your starting shortstop goes down in April for four months. But, how likeley is that to happen? 6. Obviously a player's abiities can not all be determined by statistics alone. If statistics were the only tool for determining a player's value Todd Walker would not be staring down his fifth team in six years, and D'Angelo Jimenez would have a starting job as a major league middle infielder.