Did you hear Johnny will not give a hometown discount ?
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I heard that. Don’t believe it. Free Agency 101 says that you aren’t supposed to say “I really want to be a Yankee and I will take whatever crummy contract they offer”

adam-
gee adam , you were doing so good being reasonable and rational and all.

have i ever read a baseball book before?

i bought dewan’s book to argue against it. i guess you’d say i read a lot of it.

i see some value in it , but i believe it’s biased.

using terms like “people like you” in your other comments really sounds very elitist and kind of bigoted.

maybe you’d like to clear that up.

Absolutely.

And CB has taught me a lot of statistics that I’ve found really interesting and even fun. But I suspect that CB loves the entire game, not just the number side, and it shows. He seems to use statistics in the way they are meant to be used – to enhance the game and to appreciate some of the nuances.

And I agree that baseball is a very “mathematical” game. And I personally love the neatness and symmetry of numbers.

But, as you said, you can’t disregard the human element. And I keep thinking about Jeter’s season last year, where he played hurt at diminished capacity. Is there a variable in the statistical formulae that take this into account (not just for Jeter, obviously, but in general)? And if a player doesn’t announce his infirmities, how would one even know to use such a variable?

So, all I’m saying is, numbers are not perfect, but can be useful. And neither side (sabermetrics vs. “authentic”) should be told they don’t know what they’re talking about.

Long before the use of statistics (and I maintain that the growth of that industry is directly attributable to the growth in salaries), no one had any trouble identifying who the better players were, who the mediocre players were, and who the worst players were.

NO!

That makes no sense.

The HP umpire cheats us moreso than our opposition.

When we get 5 cheap calls in our favor in a game, and the opposing team gets 20 cheap calls, the advantage goes to them.

When our pitchers have smaller strike zones than their pitchers, and our hitters have wider strike zones than their hitters, the advantage goes to them.

Going into every postseason, because of the HP umpires, it is Advantage: Opposition of Yankees.

Because this team was so talented and so together and had that will to fight adversity all year long, they overcame the umpires, making it that much more special.

Let’s hope the HP umpires decide to put aside their anti-Yankee bias next postseason, if the Yankees are fortunate enough to be in it.

Did you hear Johnny will not give a hometown discount ?

Just wondering if he will go for the last buck or really wants to play here, that’s all.

Still wearing his jersey.

At least I didn’t get the dreaded hiss.