East Coast Kahuna

Sabermetrics

I don't think the topic of sabermetrics has anything to do with living on the East Coast versus living in Hawaii. However, the topic is on my mind and I feel like writing about it. What is it? According to Wikipedia, Sabermetrics is the analysis of baseball through objective evidence, especially using baseball statistics.

I first got interested in softball statistics by helping out with my daughter's travel softball team. I am not athletic, so I really couldn't serve as a coach - but I'm good at cranking numbers. Since there was a need, I volunteered to be team statistician. While continuing to do the stats for the team, I wondered about the meaning of the numbers of what I was collecting and how to best interpret them.

The literature is full of stuff about baseball statistics. It goes way beyond batting average and strikeouts. This whole area of sabermetrics is like a contrarians view of baseball - lot of what has been uncovered is counterintuitive to many people already in the game (i.e., the major league teams, especially how the player scouts look at prospective players). My eyes were opened to this controversy by reading Michael Lewis' Moneygame on the recommendation of one of the other parents on my daughter's team. Now I'm planning to dig deeper by reading some of Bill James' work - his name will come up right away when you just dig into the surface of sabermetrics.

Any significance to Asian-Americans? One of the key statistics is how often a batter gets on base, rather than his batting average and number of RBIs. A person who is bigger and stronger in physical build is not necessarily at a better advantage. I've noticed a larger proportion of Asian-Americans (and Asians) playing major league baseball, as opposed to football or basketball (Yao Ming is a major exception) for which size is a distinct advantage.

posted by tjh14850 @ 7:02 AM