Stats or Scouts?

[Theoldmole]

Dave Leonhart, in today's [URL=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/28/weekinreview/28leon.html]NY Times[/URL] about the feud between the stat guys and the traditionalists.

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

[u:e8ab811061]"The 'Moneyball' kind of stuff has its place, but so does the human," La Russa said by telephone from Pittsburgh. "Really, the combination is the answer."

But reaching that happy medium is likely to prove more difficult, and more interesting, than talking about it. The Cardinals, after all, created a statistical analysis department in the last two years, but La Russa said it had "almost zero effect" on his strategy. He wishes the team had instead spent the money on new video equipment[/u:e8ab811061].


What crap. LaRussa's perfectly correct in saying that you need both, but LaGenius doesn't actually practice such a policy. I hope he gets his brains bashed in, ideally by the Red Sox again, who do practice such a policy.

[nymr83]

the team would be wise to spend his salary on new video equipment instead. go get abused by bobby v again mr genius.

[DocTee]

There was an interesting piece not long ago (I'll try to find the link) about Joe Morgan's disparity of [u:d4b1b1ea8e]Moneyball[/u:d4b1b1ea8e], tho' he admitted never actually reading the book. Interesting stuff, really.

[patchyfogg]

Buzz Bissinger (who just co-authored [u:da210574d8]Three Nights In August with LaRussa[/u:da210574d8]) discussed [u:da210574d8]Moneyball[/u:da210574d8] on my show 2 weeks ago.

Go here:

http://hosted.filefront.com/patchyfogg

(This can also serve as notice that I've just posted some new stuff, including Bob Nightengale, Pat Forde and Wayne Coffey. Ken Davidoff will be posted later today.)