- Brian Symons
- Nov 25, 2020
Author: Rushabh Lakhani
Editor: Fran Attié
“The nerds have taken over baseball.” This is a constant grumble amongst older, less analytically-inclined people, who believe sabermetrics have ruined the game they grew up watching, changing it so it will never be the same again. And to be honest, this belief is partially correct. The evolution of analytics has changed the game forever, but I wonder if that’s such a bad thing.
Babe Ruth changed baseball with the homerun, hitting better than entire teams. Steph Curry changed basketball with the three-pointer, crushing previously held records and expanding the three-point range, not only for himself but for generations of shooters to come. Neither of these individuals receives the same hate analytics does. In fact, they are revered as legends, some of the greatest to ever play their respective sports.
With the 2020 World Series recently finished, sabermetrics are currently at the forefront of conversations, with many people doubting them due to Kevin Cash’s decision to pull Blake Snell with one out in the 6th inning. Though this was a questionable move for sure, people seem to have found a scapegoat in analytics, believing the move to be completely backed by the numbers. However, while it is true that, in general terms, statistics dictate that when facing a batter for the third time, a pitcher’s numbers tend to drop, a deeper analysis shows that, over his career, Snell actually has very similar statistics for the second and third time through the order. Not only that, but Mookie Betts, the first hitter Snell’s replacement Nick Anderson faced, has consistently hit worse throughout his career when facing the pitcher for the third time.
Yikes, I may have gone off a tangent there… I guess it just gets me mad that people don’t understand the value of analytics, because, at the end of the day, there really is no argument: sabermetrics have already won. Homeruns are up, strikeouts are up, hits are down, stolen bases are down. The most successful front offices have fully embraced analytics and the results can be seen on the field. In 2020, the two most analytically-inclined teams faced off in the World Series (and one of them had a had 162-game payroll of less than $75 million).
Sabermetrics are equalizing the playing field and improving the quality of play. It is a natural progression in human evolution to get better at repeated activities over time. That is why, if you teleported a prime Babe Ruth to modern-day baseball, he very well may be a below replacement level player. Analytics are simply the next step in this evolution, allowing players to come even closer to reaching peak human performance on a baseball field.
SPORTS ARE OUR UNIVERSE
