Tuesday, September 10, 2013
More Poz, More Errors
I think I'll just leave the floor to Poz.? First, I think I've said all I can say about the absurdity of the error. Secondly, Poz is a fantastic writer, so, even if he's said all there is to say, he's going to say it in a different way that makes it seem that there's even more to say. But really, he's just finding different ways of reaching different people, until we can all see the same absurdity in the end. Quoting Poz at length, and I'll just bold the stuff for those who for some reason want to do themselves a disservice and not read Poz at length:
But to get to JRoth’s specific point -- earlier this year, Pedro Alvarez singled to right field and the ball slipped under the glove of Chris Denorfia. Alvarez ran all the way around the bases to score. It was filled (correctly, I think) as a single and three base error. So, if my errorless world existed, how would we score that? As a home run?
OK, two thoughts. One, the Alvarez play is not the sort of error that troubles me. The reason: Alvarez was not credited with an out. He was credited with a single and then a three-base error followed. That may or may not be sloppy scorekeeping, but it has nothing to do with my beef with the error. My beef revolves around errors that punishes a hitter (or rewards a pitcher) by recording an out that NEVER HAPPENED. That just drives me insane.
I’m sure I’ve written the story about the probably apocryphal quarterback in the mountains of North Carolina many, many years ago -- I remember hearing this story when I first started at The Charlotte Observer. The kid apparently was putting up insane passing statistics, so much so that the Observer sent someone all the way out to this little town to watch the kid play.
On the first play of the game, the quarterback threw a pass to a receiver who dropped it. The reporter saw the statistician credit the quarterback with a 25-yard pass.
“You can’t do that,” the reporter said.
“Why not?” he said. “It wasn’t his fault the guy dropped it.”
That is the error stat keeping that I vandalizes our statistics. As far as how many bases Alvarez should be credited for, well, now we’re getting into a different kind of error, one that has its own vagaries and peculiarities and we can discuss at the another time.
But my second thought is this: While I don’t know if Alvarez should get home run credit for Denorfia’s mistake, I do know that if Denorfia had lost the ball in the lights or the sun and Alvarez ran around the bases that WOULD be an inside-the-park home run. I do know that if two fielders went after the ball and collided and the ball bounced away and Alvarez ran around the bases that also WOULD be an inside-the-park home run. If Denorfia mistakenly took a step in off the crack of the bat, and it sailed over his head and just out of his reach and Alvarez rand around the bases, that too WOULD be an inside-the-park home run.
This is why it drives me nuts when people say, “You shouldn’t reward a player for another person’s mistake.” We do it all the time, in every one of our sports. You could argue that every good thing that happens for one person in sports is due, at least slightly, to a mistake by another.
Many people like that baseball places judgment on its statistics. They want a game where a guy who should have been out is called out in his own personal stats. I get it. I just disagree. I’d rather count stuff.
Recent comments
Older comments
Page 1 of 152 pages 1 2 3 > Last ›Complete Archive – By Category
Complete Archive – By Date
FORUM TOPICS
Jul 12 15:22 MarcelsApr 16 14:31 Pitch Count Estimators
Mar 12 16:30 Appendix to THE BOOK - THE GORY DETAILS
Jan 29 09:41 NFL Overtime Idea
Jan 22 14:48 Weighting Years for NFL Player Projections
Jan 21 09:18 positional runs in pythagenpat
Oct 20 15:57 DRS: FG vs. BB-Ref
Apr 12 09:43 What if baseball was like survivor? You are eliminated ...
Nov 24 09:57 Win Attribution to offense, pitching, and fielding at the game level (prototype method)
Jul 13 10:20 How to watch great past games without spoilers