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guy44 · 04-21-2005, 01:23 PM

Alec, why can't you understand that in baseball, very very very little beyond the box score does matter? Each player is very little more than the sum of their performance. ARod or Bonds or whomever are each 1 of 25 players. At most, they make 3-4 defensive plays a game and have about 5 at-bats a game. There just isn't an opportunity for one player to "take over a game" like in basketball or other sports.

Obviously, starting pitchers are a different story. But they, too, are the sum of their defense, ballpark, luck, and most importantly, performance. Undefined, unquantifiable "devotion to winning," and other such fake, imaginary bullshit concepts that look great in Major League 2: Back To The Minors, don't actually exist.

Barry Bonds was 6 outs from winning a World Series. He didn't blow the game. OK, you say he isn't in the same league as worse players because they did more to help their teams. Let's actually take a look at things, eh?

In the 2002 NLDS, he hit .294/.409/.824. Let me spell that out for you. A slugging percentage of Eight Hundred Twenty Four.

In the NLCS, he hit .273/.591/.727. True, he only slugged .727 this time, but he made up for that by getting on base 60% of the time he stepped up to the plate.

In the World Series, he hit a mere .471/.700/1.294. I suppose his World Series OPS of 1.994 is just another data point in his long career of not being a winner, huh?

Granted, that is a very small sample size. His career postseason perfomance, in 151 at-bats, is .245/.433/.503. A career .936 postseason OPS. Yup, a definite loser.

Just asserting that something is so - "Barry Bonds/A-Rod/Frank Thomas/whoever is a loser cause I say so and I've seen it with my own eyes and he's a surly guy" - doesn't make it so. Numbers speak louder than words.

04-21-2005, 01:23 PM	#41 (permalink)
guy44 Somnabulist Location: corner of No and Where	Alec, why can't you understand that in baseball, very very very little beyond the box score does matter? Each player is very little more than the sum of their performance. ARod or Bonds or whomever are each 1 of 25 players. At most, they make 3-4 defensive plays a game and have about 5 at-bats a game. There just isn't an opportunity for one player to "take over a game" like in basketball or other sports. Obviously, starting pitchers are a different story. But they, too, are the sum of their defense, ballpark, luck, and most importantly, performance. Undefined, unquantifiable "devotion to winning," and other such fake, imaginary bullshit concepts that look great in Major League 2: Back To The Minors, don't actually exist. Barry Bonds was 6 outs from winning a World Series. He didn't blow the game. OK, you say he isn't in the same league as worse players because they did more to help their teams. Let's actually take a look at things, eh? In the 2002 NLDS, he hit .294/.409/.824. Let me spell that out for you. A slugging percentage of Eight Hundred Twenty Four. In the NLCS, he hit .273/.591/.727. True, he only slugged .727 this time, but he made up for that by getting on base 60% of the time he stepped up to the plate. In the World Series, he hit a mere .471/.700/1.294. I suppose his World Series OPS of 1.994 is just another data point in his long career of not being a winner, huh? Granted, that is a very small sample size. His career postseason perfomance, in 151 at-bats, is .245/.433/.503. A career .936 postseason OPS. Yup, a definite loser. Just asserting that something is so - "Barry Bonds/A-Rod/Frank Thomas/whoever is a loser cause I say so and I've seen it with my own eyes and he's a surly guy" - doesn't make it so. Numbers speak louder than words. __________________ "You have reached Ritual Sacrifice. For goats press one, or say 'goats.'"