Stats and Scouts
« ZiPS for Cardinals Hitters | Main | Will Carroll Still hates the Cardinals »Interesting Article in Baseball America
A fascinating exchange:
GARY HUGHES: The swing, the approach at the plate, the show of fear.
EDDIE BANE: If you show fear, you're gone.
VOROS McCRACKEN: How would someone show fear?
GARY HUGHES: There would be a little give at the plate.
EDDIE BANE: You give on a pitcher with a decent slider . . .
VOROS McCRACKEN: That happens to everyone--everyone gets their knees buckled every once in a while. So if you rule a guy out that gets his knees buckled, that seems extreme. You'd need to see him show fear a bit more consistently. I'm not sure . . .
EDDIE BANE: I am sure. Because if I see fear in a hitter, I'm not ever coming back. I don't see fear in good big league hitters. I know that they get fooled and they'll bail on balls. But for me, that's a different term than fear.
GARY HUGHES: The best player who ever lived bailed--Willie Mays.
It's interesting to hear Bane talk about showing fear, because thats one of those non statistics things that drives hardcore stats types nuts. While I consider myself pretty solidly in the stats camp I agree with Bane. There are personality attributes of a hitter that are essential that you can't see in stats. Its cheap of McCracken to pick on something that Bane is trying to use as a representative example. Psychological makeup is important. Put it this way: If you went to a highschool game and saw a guy go nuts, 6-6 with 6 monstrous home runs, and his stat line is amazing playing in SoCal, but when you walk up to meet him you realize he's got fresh track marks up and down his arms would you draft him?
Stats are important but you can't ignore that these are people playing this game and human factors are important.
Posted by Josh at January 7, 2005 12:48 PMI'm still trying to figure out what the Mays comment meant.
Posted by: Rob at January 7, 2005 03:33 PMI thought it was a reference to the fact that bailing out on a pitch wasn't a good indicator of ability.
Posted by: josh at January 7, 2005 04:56 PM