Turned on the radio at 10:30 today to hear Laurence dramatically realize that you really can use sabermetrics and subjective evaluation together after all. Okay, great, but isn't that what everyone thinks? Only the dumbest meatball jocks think numbers don't work, and only Microsoft Excel thinks that scouting has no merit. Oh well.

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This has only been around since the 1970s. Most GMs adopted it 10-15 years ago. Billy Bean led the way. He wrote a book. But I guess it's not valid unless Larry discovers it.

Next Larry will tell us that the Penicillin discovery was really, really, really important.

Billy Beane did not write a book. He contributed to MoneyBall.
He also did not lead the way in SABRmetrics Bill James did.


But I digest

I know Bill James invented SABRmetrics. That was in the 1970s

I was just saying Billy Beane was the first GM to totally apply it. You got me on the book. He didn't write it. He just contributed to Moneyball.

Thats ok Beardown...Its just that MoneyBall gets misrepresented on a regular basis so its one of my things.

Anyways next time I see you...hooker's on me

Beardown has a little Joe Morgan in him

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I think Larry got this revelation by listening to Bernsie. Bernsie always has an emailer provide him with SABRmetric stuff on players. The emailer gave Bernsie +/- win total stats on players yesterday.

Larry heard this and all of the sudden came up with this dramatic realization that Stats and Scouting are important. That's what I think.

I can't believe he needed a "baseball executive" to tell him that statistics and scouting are used in conjunction. I could've told him that.

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Glad to see some other people reacted as I did to this segment. Lar teased it by saying he had this "eloquently written" e-mail from a "highly-placed baseball executive" who had some great revelatons on the scouting vs. statistics argument. So, like the fool that I am, I said, OK, I'll leave the radio on a little longer and hear this. As others have pointed out, the great revelation turned out to be that you can use both in evaluating a player just like you can enjoy pizza and beer together. WTF???!!! No shit!!!

You know, I have nothing personal againt Larry Holmes and in all fairness, I've heard worse radio hosts (unfortunately, one of them is his partner), but it's shit like this that just turns me off. He builds up the most mundane, ordinary crap as great stuff that you absolutely have to hear and when you do hear it, prepare to have your world rocked! When I work at home, I tend to leave the Score on when M&H end and see if LoHo's got anything for me. He never does. Listening experiment over. I gave it way too long as it is.

Based on the pizza and beer simile, the executive was probably Jim Hendry. lulz.

To add my own input to this topic, I think that there are a lot of great sabermetric statistics, but I object to the "replacement player" statistics because you're comparing a real player to a fictitious one, and that has no validity to me. Compare players to their peers; how much better or worse Reed Johnson or Juan Uribe or whoever is than this hypothetical "replacement player" is irrelevant to me. Stuff like valuing on-base percentage is so rudimentary that only the dumbest of the dumb can't do it, though.

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It's just insulting and patronizing when Larry does these dramatic rants about simple and obvious observations.

It can only be one of two things: He either knows he's doing it and has to cuz he doesn't have anything interesting or original to say. Or he's dumb and doesn't know he's stating the obvious.

I could just see Larry at a party...

Larry - It has been my experience from the many parties I have attended that a bunch of cube-like objects, made from water, that are frozen, come in handy to keep drinks cold.

Party host - Larry, are you saying we need more ice?

Larry - That's another way of saying it.

Party host - This is the last time I invite you to anyting, Larry. Just letting you know.

Maybe he can subcontract Jesse Rogers to come up with topics. Tch.

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Middle Aged Crazy, like Uncle Terry