I love blogging because I learn something new every day. What’s sad is that I couldn’t even say that some days when I was in college.

All I know is that if I was in Hayes’ seat, I’d love the reader feedback and the new methods of enjoying the game.

As for McCaffery, I remember reading one of his articles a while ago, before the Abreu trade, that basically lambasted Abreu as a player. Overrated, lethargic, uncaring, etc. Sometimes I wonder if he only recently started watching baseball.

I don’t completely dismiss traditional statistics. I do think wins and losses for pitchers don’t show much, saves and holds are meaningless, and batting average is flawed because it doesn’t take power hitting into account. However, they are the stepping stones for Sabermetrics, so they aren’t completely worthless.

John Gibbons… not someone likely to be up for a Manger of the Year award anytime soon.

Thanks for the comments — enjoyed the Stockholm article and glad you’re on our side now.

I see the software doesn’t allow spacing between paragraphs.

Ah well–such is life.

Best Regards

John

I followed a link from Ball-Hype that led me here. First off: Awesome blog name, I love the play on Richie Ashburn. Second: Mr. Hayes appears to suffer from inverse-craniumanalitis (I think you can figure out what that is easily enough–anybody who can be that creative with a blog name can figure out my lame joke). I hate pomposity and as a professional scribe (MSN Canada) I can say that our occupation is hardly worthy of such an attitude (BTW I find blogs waaaay more informative than mainstream media–so stay proud and loud). Finally, as a newbie to your blog I do have a question: What all is entailed in being put “officially on notice?” I checked out that “About Us” page and it didn’t really explain it and I am admittedly curious.

A final thought: You should concern yourself a *bit* with the more traditional stats because they do factor into analysis. A quick example–pitching wins. A manager will often make decisions based on this stat which will affect a pitcher’s numbers. For example: Check out the pitches thrown by Blue Jays starters of late. Lately, the idiotic John Gibbons has allowed his starters to throw an ungodly amount of pitches when there is nothing on the line but the pitcher’s “win.” Just last night, he left the fragile A.J. Burnett toss 120 pitches over eight innings in an attempt to do so and failed (Jays won in the bottom of the ninth). In trying to get Roy Halladay his 15th win he has allowed him to throw 609 pitches over his last five starts. The Jays are playing for nothing and Gibbons is risking 2008 trying to get his starters the “win” stat.

The traditional stats affect usage with the “save” rule as well–something to bear in mind when looking at leveraged innings. You need batting average to calculate BABIP.

So they do have *some* utility when examining a player’s contributions–so while looking at and studying more efficient measures keep an eye on the old standards–there’s useful information there as well.

A final thought. I used to be an Expos fan (I’ve always had an AL and NL rooting interest) and after they moved to D.C. I needed to find another NL club to root for. For reasons not completely understood (I think my Maple Leafs fandom has moved me to the point where I like pain) I just recently discovered that I’ve been a Phillies fan without realizing it (you can thank/curse the Mike Gill Show for that). I recently consummated my relationship here:

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/stockholm-syndrome/

Oh yeah, if you’re looking for a candidate to be put on notice, you might want to consider Delco Times writer Jack McCaffery for this: http://tinyurl.com/ys7lot

It was the topic I based today’s column on:

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/is-this-for-real/

I’ve gabbed long enough (occupational hazard), however as an almost 43 year old newly-minted Phillies fan I’m putting *you* on notice that I’ve bookmarked your blog for future reference. If the writing is as creative as the blog’s name, I think I’m going to enjoy poking around here.

Best Regards

John