Baseball is Here!! MLB 2012!!!!

[Jaguar]

The real difference to me is that Miggy hit 14 homers more than Trout and Trout stole 45 bases more.

Fielding, fielding, fielding, fielding.

[EPW]

A's, Hell yeah! Sorry slowwy.(NOT)

[-Jrabbit]

I don't think anyone is penalizing Trout for batting leadoff.

To me, it's a simple matter of recognizing the Holy Grail that is the Triple Crown, with late-season performance and post-season eligibility putting Cabrera over the top. You can argue all you want about speed, defense, and the old-school nature of the triple-crown concept. The simple fact is, it's near-impossible to pull off (only 4 previous in my lifetime and no one in 35 years). And Cabrera appears to have done it.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I think dismissing RBIs as useless is plain wrong in looking at how people actually did.

What are you going to do next, say Walter Payton's rushing yard records shouldn't have counted as anything because he needed his linemen to block in front of him?

Football is far more team related, as Payton couldn't have done anything with a great line and the great line wouldn't have mattered without Payton's rushing (this does, btw, come into play in, say, comparing the career of Emmitt Smith to Barry Sanders). In baseball you can isolate individual performance. There is a reason that RBI has become just about completely devalued in sabermetric circles - because it tells you far more about the people getting On Base before you than it does about how good of a hitter you are (remember OBP has become very much elevated as a stat in recent years - esp if you want to pick a stat the correlates with runs).

[Imran Siddiqui]

At least on the bright side, even though Cabrera is going win it, a LOT more people are going to hear about WAR and perhaps understand what it stands for.

[-Jrabbit]

Yet runs are scoring as a direct result of hits. That's pretty straight-line causation.

So why isn't there a saber-stat for "RBIs per man-in-scoring-position" or whatever? Actually, hard to believe there isn't. So assuming there is, how do our plucky little statisticians account for this phenomenon?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yet runs are scoring as a direct result of hits. That's pretty straight-line causation.

So why isn't there a saber-stat for "RBIs per man-in-scoring-position" or whatever? Actually, hard to believe there isn't. So assuming there is, how do our plucky little statisticians account for this phenomenon?

If you do the statistical correlations you'll find that OBP is the closest correlation to runs scored - basically showing that getting on base will generally result in runs. ie, just about anyone can drive them in. You take the same hitter and put them on the Yankees and on the Astros - he's going to have FAR more RBIs on the Yankees, even if he does everything exactly the same. RBIs are directly related to the OBP of the players in front of you in the lineup.

The reason sabermetricians haven't done more RBI specific stats is because of the lack of value that is seen in the RBI stat. Why prop up a flawed stat because some person in 1920 thought it was important?

[-Jrabbit]

Why not find a better way of measuring it?

So seriously, no one has devised a "real RBI" stat? Considering some of the hoops sabermetrics has jumped through to create more relevant stats, that seems like an enormous oversight to me.

Quick, alert Keith Olbermann.

I think there's an interesting dynamic between "let's explain things better with our own special twist on statistics" and deciding "OK, we have our new stat set, we can just improve tracking and crank numbers now." I find it LOLarious (some would say ironic) when a sabermetrician stops trying to do the former in favor of the latter -- employing the very attitude they worked so hard to topple as their new discipline turned serious.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The better way of measuring it is not using flawed stats .

It's kind of the reason sabermetrics people don't use BA. They use OBP. It's not a BA replacement, it is just a good way to measure who gets on base better, because getting on base is really really good (it also tends to avoid outs - which is the only thing that an MLB team has a limited supply of during a game).

I mean why don't you go off on sabermetrics guys for not developing a "real W-L" stat? When you recognize a stat is HIGHLY dependent on what other players do (other hitters in RBIs and defense in W-L), how do you "re-tool" that without just destroying it and starting from scratch?

[OzzyKP]

Clearly it has to be Cabrera. Triple crown!!

And JV should get another Cy Young.

(and they should both get a WS win)

[EPW]

Not likely.

[OzzyKP]

Another achievement for the Tigers, this one for the fans:

Tigers on pace to win local TV ratings crown

With an outright American League Central Division title and a playoff berth within reach, and a star who's closing in on an historic season, the Tigers are giving fans plenty of reason to pay attention.

It's been reflected in the TV ratings.

According to a report in the SportsBusiness Journal, the Tigers are on pace to win Major League Baseball's local TV ratings crown, which includes each team's television affiliate. Games on Fox Sports Detroit have averaged a 9.13 rating, up 42 percent from last season, and average 168,000 homes that tune in each game, according to the report.

"A lot of great story lines have captured the attention of Tigers fans this season, and it's reflected in the ratings," Greg Hammaren, senior vice president and general manager of Fox Sports Detroit, told the SportsBusiness Journal.

One story line is the Tigers' push toward a division title, something they can clinch outright Monday night with either a victory over the Royals or a White Sox loss to the Indians.

Another is Miguel Cabrera, who is in contention to become baseball's first Triple Crown winner since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. Cabrera entered Monday's games leading the American League in average (.325) and RBIs (136), and tied for the league lead in home runs (43, with the Rangers' Josh Hamilton).

Reds games on Fox Sports Ohio are on pace to finish second, with an 8.64 rating, according to the SportsBusiness Journal.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...#ixzz28I5LXnpy

[EPW]

Trout was much much much better defensive, and better offensively when you include steals and baserunning. Hell he's only third in the AL in WAR. Its not even close really.

[OzzyKP]

All you sabermetric folks are always obsessive about balancing out various factors like different parks, etc. Do you all do that with fielding? Center field seems to be quite a different position then third base. Based on Fielding percentage Trout is the 5th best Center Fielder in the AL while Miggy is the 3rd best third baseman. All this while considering Cabrera played 1st base for the last several years, I don't see how you'd count his defense against him.

[EPW]

Trout +13 fielding rating (really good)
Cabrera -9.2 (really bad)
0 is average.
Not even close