MLB 2025 Season

Moneyball at its finest.

Poncier said:

Moneyball at its finest.

The A's play moneyball the best.  It appears the Yanks are following suit.

I have said before that the Yanks are relying heavily on analytics now and the reason for their manager now is because he is on that same train.

If you rely on WAR though Machado is below superstar numbers.  All-star caliber numbers or better is a 4.0 and higher.  He has been below the last 2 years.

Take that for what it is worth but I'd like to have him on my team.

Same goes for Harper.  He was a 10 WAR his MVP year and has only maintained a 3 WAR since then.

If you take WAR as a good indicator then both guys are trending down.

Just an example if WAR isn't your thing, Trout is regarded as the best baseball player every year.  His WAR has never been below 6.7 and has had it at 10.5 3 times already.

Another example is Mookie Betts.  Dude was lights out last year.  His WAR was 10.9.  That's insane...

Cliffy6745 said:

tempo_n_groove said:

Poncier said:

Moneyball at its finest.

The A's play moneyball the best.  It appears the Yanks are following suit.

I have said before that the Yanks are relying heavily on analytics now and the reason for their manager now is because he is on that same train.

If you rely on WAR though Machado is below superstar numbers.  All-star caliber numbers or better is a 4.0 and higher.  He has been below the last 2 years.

Take that for what it is worth but I'd like to have him on my team.

Same goes for Harper.  He was a 10 WAR his MVP year and has only maintained a 3 WAR since then.

If you take WAR as a good indicator then both guys are trending down.

Just an example if WAR isn't your thing, Trout is regarded as the best baseball player every year.  His WAR has never been below 6.7 and has had it at 10.5 3 times already.

Another example is Mookie Betts.  Dude was lights out last year.  His WAR was 10.9.  That's insane...

Manny had 1 bad year in the last 4.  Everything else was around 6, depending on which one you use.

just saw that.  his war adds up to a 5.7 for last year.  Again, I said I would take him in a heart beat.  I figured that was the rationale thinking from the Yanks but now I'm not sure what it is?!?

Harper though I still wonder about him.  Not sure if the shift is killing his average or he is just falling off?

Poncier said:

tempo_n_groove said:

Poncier said:

Moneyball at its finest.

The A's play moneyball the best.  It appears the Yanks are following suit.

So the Yanks are looking for a long sustained period of zero championships like the A's have had, I like it.

Moneyball and analytics are 100% part of the game.  That is never going away now.

Poncier said:

Oh analytics are a fine tool, until you allow them to persuade you to use an "opener" in a single elimination wild card game cause your Moneyball philosophy has left you without a capable starting pitcher entering the post season.
Can't go all in on these things, have to have a blend.

Agreed.

I have always had an idea though of using a different pitcher every inning like an all-star game.  My family thought I was nuts.  I watch the playoffs now and say "nuts huh?"

HesCalledDyer said:

I like analytics as a scouting tool, an element of contract signings/negotiations, and as a single element of in-game decision making.  They are a great part of the game for those purposes. I don't like when managers rely solely on analytics as the end all, be all of in-game moves.  At that point, why even have a manager? Just put a computer in the dugout and do whatever it says if you're just going to follow analytics for every single move.

I absolutely despise when people use analytics (namely WAR & all it's different subtypes r/f/d/oWAR etc) as the reason/defense of why a player should or shouldn't get an award, HOF vote, etc.

WAR should never determine an award, ever.

I do use it as a tool to show what a person means to a team though.

Look at Betts.  I knew he was a beast all year and never looked at his WAR because I knew he was killing it.  At the end of the year when he won the MVP though you knew why with his numbers alone and didn't need to look at his WAR to know it.

HesCalledDyer said:

I saw someone commented on the Aaron stat about how it was amazing because he was so consistent.  And it made me wonder why no one ever says the same thing about Barry Bonds.  People automatically just dismiss Bonds and roll with the "but juice" excuse.  Bonds wasn't jacking 50-60 HR a year.  Aside from the ONE season he hit 73, his career high was 49 and he only did that once.  In a 22 year career, Bonds only eclipsed 40 HR in a season 8 times.  But no one ever talks about his consistency like they do Aaron's.  It's always "but juice."  It's a damn shame he isn't a unanimous Hall of Famer.

Bonds might STILL be playing if he hadn’t been such an asshole. Pretty sure he would have gotten to 800 HR in one or two more years. OBP was .480 in his final year.

Wobbie said:

HesCalledDyer said:

I saw someone commented on the Aaron stat about how it was amazing because he was so consistent.  And it made me wonder why no one ever says the same thing about Barry Bonds.  People automatically just dismiss Bonds and roll with the "but juice" excuse.  Bonds wasn't jacking 50-60 HR a year.  Aside from the ONE season he hit 73, his career high was 49 and he only did that once.  In a 22 year career, Bonds only eclipsed 40 HR in a season 8 times.  But no one ever talks about his consistency like they do Aaron's.  It's always "but juice."  It's a damn shame he isn't a unanimous Hall of Famer.

Bonds might STILL be playing if he hadn’t been such an asshole. Pretty sure he would have gotten to 800 HR in one or two more years. OBP was .480 in his final year.

Walked 200 times with almost 200 hits, hell yeah!

igotid88 said:

Glad to see Clemens and Bonds getting some love.

Sad to see Rivera getting 100% when Griffey Jr, Cal Jr, Maddux not getting it...