Ruben Amaro and Phillies Throw a Haymaker at SABR Nerds
Photo courtesy St. Pete Beach Photo, who was kind enough to pass along photos of sun and grass as we hang up here in dreary Philadelphia
Somewhere, Brad Pitt is down, wounded.
Today was not a good day for advanced metrics in baseball.
In case you missed it, Inquirer writer Bob Brookover penned a piece about the Phillies’ relative disdain for Sabermetrics.
Brookover passes along many quotes from Ruben Amaro, assistant GM Scott Proefrock and Charlie Manuel, mostly about how the team uses advanced metrics very little, and, in Charlie’s case, sometimes doesn’t understand them.
Proefrock:
"I honestly can't tell you the last time WAR or VORP or any of those things were brought up in a conversation," assistant GM Scott Proefrock said. "We're aware of them, and we understand what they are. It's just not something we find relevant."
Somewhere, a SABR nerd weeps.
The whole thing is worth a read, if you are interested in that sort of thing, but my favorite part was Ruben’s dig at Moneyball: [Philly.com]
"I understand Hollywood is Hollywood, but there were a lot of unrealistic things that occurred in that movie. The thing that bothered me most is I think the fact of the matter was that Oakland had so much success because they had three of the best starting pitchers in the game. I don't know if that was mentioned more than once, if that. A lot of the movie was based around Scott Hatteberg moving to first base, and I don't think that was the reason why they had so much success."
+1 for The Big Poker.
David Hale, of the Wilmington News Journal, took a practical look at sabermetrics by (check out this crazy maneuver) applying them to real life scenarios. Specifically, the Phillies: [Wilmington News Journal]
How much did it feel like the Phillies missed Utley in 2011?
Well, if you remember those first seven weeks of the season, it certainly seemed like a ton. And when we look at the numbers, Utley’s average WAR (5.2) and Valdez actual total (-0.2), the difference is pretty drastic. Given that Utley missed about one-third of the season, that’s a difference of about two wins, which also sounds about right.
Of course, no one can accurately say just how many wins one player is worth to a team, but the examples Hale provides do make sense when applied to past and future Phillies scenarios. The disconnect, however, between believers and folks like Amaro, is that one group (SABR nerds, Billy Beane, Brad Pitt and perhaps even his leggy wife, Angelina Jolie) thinks that the metrics should be used to dictate actions… the other (Amaro, Phillies) understands them and doesn't discount their accuracy in explaining the game, but relies on scouting and experience to make decisions.
