Sports Analytics

[jerseyguy68]

One of my pet peeves is trying to use statistical data to predict success or failure in Sports is that we’re dealing with Human Beings. The foundation for all the data is, by nature, flawed and unpredictable. Athletes, while highly trained and skilled, are still just people, affected by all the outside events in their lives, just as all we fans are. I realize it’s become a Billion dollar business when you consider its use in the Gambling industry and beyond. Maybe I’m too old school to accept Sports Analytics, but my question is have the players and the games gotten any better?

 

[Bigboote]

Have the games gotten better? Not from where I’m watching. I used to love baseball and watched a lot of it. I can’t remember the last time I watched a game. Analytics (sabermetrics) ruined it. It seemed that fewer than half of at-bats ended with a ball batted in play. They want pitchers to throw strikeouts and hitters to draw walks and hit home runs. None of those involves balls in play. The emphasis on walks leads to hitters taking more pitches and thus more stoppages for pitching changes. (Also analytics lead to more pitchers being brought in to face one hitter.) The emphasis on strikeouts leads to more pitchers blowing out their arms.

And a lot of basketball has been rendered unwatchable because of the number of threes jacked up.

I still enjoy track & field and cycling.

 

[PacoSwede]

the baseball strike in the '90s (?) soured me

 

[huskeynut]

An analytics or whatever you want to call it is a tool.Nothing more. It is not the end all be all.

Unfortunately, for some, especially in baseball it seems, analytics has become the measuring stick on who to trade for. The human factor, what does the eye see and what does your gut tell you, have been or are being removed from the game.

Analytics is destroying baseball. Too much emphasis on bat speed and launch angle. The contact hitter who hit singles and doubles, can bunt (lost art) and consistantly hits over .300 are fewer than before. It is also affecting pitching with the emphasis on off speed pitches.

 

[Cornell Lt]

One of my pet peeves is trying to use statistical data to predict success or failure in Sports is that we’re dealing with Human Beings. The foundation for all the data is, by nature, flawed and unpredictable. Athletes, while highly trained and skilled, are still just people, affected by all the outside events in their lives, just as all we fans are. I realize it’s become a Billion dollar business when you consider its use in the Gambling industry and beyond. Maybe I’m too old school to accept Sports Analytics, but my question is have the players and the games gotten any better?

The analytics say yes.

 

[Fore!]

One of my pet peeves is trying to use statistical data to predict success or failure in Sports is that we’re dealing with Human Beings. The foundation for all the data is, by nature, flawed and unpredictable. Athletes, while highly trained and skilled, are still just people, affected by all the outside events in their lives, just as all we fans are. I realize it’s become a Billion dollar business when you consider its use in the Gambling industry and beyond. Maybe I’m too old school to accept Sports Analytics, but my question is have the players and the games gotten any better?

I would suggest that the NBA and MLB are sports that have fallen victim to the statistical nerds, resulting in a much less interesting product.

 

[msf22b]

Have the games gotten better? Not from where I’m watching. I used to love baseball and watched a lot of it. I can’t remember the last time I watched a game. Analytics (sabermetrics) ruined it. It seemed that fewer than half of at-bats ended with a ball batted in play. They want pitchers to throw strikeouts and hitters to draw walks and hit home runs. None of those involves balls in play. The emphasis on walks leads to hitters taking more pitches and thus more stoppages for pitching changes. (Also analytics lead to more pitchers being brought in to face one hitter.) The emphasis on strikeouts leads to more pitchers blowing out their arms.

And a lot of basketball has been rendered unwatchable because of the number of threes jacked up.

I still enjoy track & field and cycling.

BigB
I have my nits to pick about BaseB too but some of your concerns have been dealt with...there are no more 1 batter relief pitchers, the game is for sure speeded up.
But fundamentals is a thing of the past and pitchers are at the limit before their arms give out...I do wonder how the old-timers pitched so many complete games...Smokey Joe. Christy, Rube and their ilk...but I'm only 85; would have had to be 50 years older or so to have seen the game in the 20's or before.

 

[Bigboote]

Thanks for the update on baseball rules, Maestro. I stopped watching several years ago — knew about the pitch clock, but nothing else.

Re pitcher longevity, I chalk it up to three things. 1) The emphasis on speed and strikeouts — Cy Young got his nickname because he threw so hard, it was like a cyclone. He averaged a strikeout about every 3 innings, largely because he didn’t throw real gas more than a few times a game. (Walter Johnson was an exception as Ty Cobb attested.) 2) the slider, which puts a lot of strain on the ligaments of the elbow. and 3) kids specializing too early. We’ve lamented this on the Boneyard wrt girls’ basketball.