Sheffield = Clown

[hoopsie44]

[ QUOTE ]
I thought you were the guy that said you had to watch a player to judge them. Why're you using stats? Shouldn't you just say "well, Sheffield LOOKS like the better hitter"?

[/ QUOTE ]

Joannie, pay attention. I never said stats were worthless. I took issue with a post last week which cast aspersions on the Hall of Fame membership of certain old time players based solely on their OPS number. I don't feel a players worth can be filtered down to a single number. Different eras of baseball produced different stats, ie, dead ball era, juiced era, lowering of mound, etc. If you use OPS alone to measure a players offensive value that is idiotic. Also, idiotic is the notion that RBI's,and BA with RISP are trivial in relation to OPS. Ask Theo Epstein or Curt Schilling who they want to face on the Yankees with the tying and go ahead runs on base in the ninth, Giambi or Matsui. I guarantee you it isn't Matsui. And to state matter of factly that Giambi has been the best hitter this per at bat based solely on OPS is assinine. He has a great eye.He'll get his walks. I'll take Gary Sheffield free swinging and hitting lasers off the Green Monster any day of the week.

[Jack of Arcades]

[ QUOTE ]
I still think the Moneyball philosophy, as I know it (haven't read the book), is flawed. It is very successful against weak/mediocre pitching, but will falter against better pitching, i.e. in the playoffs. Drawing walks and hitting home runs is far easier against bad pitchers - good pitchers with good control won't walk many people, and won't give up many home runs. It is against these pitchers that manufacturing runs makes sense - giving up the shot at a 3 or 4 run inning for a more likely 1 run inning against a great pitcher can be +EV, IMO.

Let's not forget that had Boston not acquired the then .696-OPSed Dave Roberts, we're sitting here talking about the Yankees fifth championship in nine years. There has to be a departure from that strict philosophy.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is not the Moneyball philosophy in the slightest. The philosophy is to acquire players that are undervalued - which leads to the A's constantly retooling, getting young players and players that can play defense.

As to your point about drawing walks/hitting homers... I guess you don't realize that the Yankees drew more walks and hit more homers than the Red Sox last year.

[Vince Young]

[ QUOTE ]
You can't really compare little league players and major league baseball players.

[/ QUOTE ]
A .400 OBP in little league is weak sauce anyways.

[ QUOTE ]
I took issue with a post last week which cast aspersions on the Hall of Fame membership of certain old time players based solely on their OPS number.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah, you mean my post about Rizzuto and his 706 OPS?

rizzuto sucked

You can take issue with it all you want. But the Hall let a 706 OPS guy into the Hall who wasn't fantastic defensively.

[hoopsie44]

[ QUOTE ]
You can take issue with it all you want. But the Hall let a 706 OPS guy into the Hall who wasn't fantastic defensively.

[/ QUOTE ]

Based on what ?

[sublime]

And to state matter of factly that Giambi has been the best hitter this per at bat based solely on OPS is assinine.

OMG. It combines the TWO most important offensive statistics in baseball, HOW IS THAT ASININE?????????

As a matter of fact, OBP is MORE important than SLG%, so Giambi hasd been more productive than i have been alluding to.

Instead of arguing with Jack, maybe you could investigate on your own and try to find out where he is coming from. education is priceless.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You can take issue with it all you want. But the Hall let a 706 OPS guy into the Hall who wasn't fantastic defensively.

[/ QUOTE ]

Based on what ?

[/ QUOTE ]

You shouldn't even be participating in baseball threads acting like you know what you are talking about if you don't have a basic understanding of baseball statistics.

RBI are a good way to measure offense? I guess that makes Manny the MVP in the American League this year.

We got Joe Morgan Jr. over here.

[technologic]

who's to say if torre gave him those plate appearances that he'd be better?

to say he's the best all around batter right now on the yankees is being EXTREMELY results oriented, since most of his ops, slg, etc. have come off a recent resurgance. if it keeps up, yea he can be the best in the lineup.

[Triumph36]

Right, I should learn to look things up before I use a word thrown around far too often.

As for the Yankees, I'm surprised to see how low their collective average was last season. Then again no one in the lineup hit over .300, and I think the Yankees have 5 players at or near .300 this season. Oh well. At least they don't have any Mark Bellhorn types. FWIW, I think the Yankees lost the 04 ACLS in part because they swung for the fences too much - they expected Game 3's fireworks to last forever.

[sublime]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You can't really compare little league players and major league baseball players.

[/ QUOTE ]
A .400 OBP in little league is weak sauce anyways.

[/ QUOTE ]

its being comared to the rest of the team. His SLG% will suck, but that fact that he leads his team in OBP% is not a reason to call him a bad offensive player. If I can recall my little league days correctly, you could steal scond base at will. IMO, putting this kid in the leadoff spot and teaching him how to steal a base would increse this teams offensive production by a VERY noticable margin.