DrKocchi

Too true. There is probably something out there but it can't be quantified. I'd like to see how someone can quantify how the sox can come back against the yanks? I guess a bloody sock doesn't show up in numbers but it shows up in a locker room. I think those who have played in team sports understand what it means to play as a team even though it measured on a stat sheet. If you look at the numbers, of course the sox had better numbers, they won but who would have thougth it looking at the numbers after game 3? I think that people who thinks numbers are the end of everything are a bit off and should open to things that aren't quantifiable.

Lurker for a while but I can't stand it anymore. The Brewers aren't a bad team because they don't have heart and they aren't a bad team because they don't have talent. I don't even know how you would quantify talent but it isn't the Brewers and anyone who has gone to any games or even looked at a lineup would see that. But anyone who thinks statistics are the end of all of baseball discussions are ridiculous, that is like saying you can figure out wall street by figuring out stats. It is bigger than that. Yes it is important but it doesn't tell the whole story. Has anyone hear of the Efficient Market Hypothesis? The EMH says that the market immediately takes all public information into account and all public companies are correctly valued. Many, many smart people have believed this and still do. If it were true, how could the stock market crash like it did in 1987? How could tech stocks crash like in 2002 and how could men like Warren Buffett consistently beat the market year after year? Because stats aren't all there is. The EMH works most of the time and so does OPS but it doesn't work all the time. Stats can never compensate for human emotion and error. Emotion might mean getting kicked out of a game or emotion in being clutch. When people just look at stats the entire human element is taken out and what fun is that? If that were the case than there would be no reason to have a season. Everyone could just look at the stats from the year before and fire out what is gonna happen. If you believe in the EMH, than momentum doesn't ever count. In general, stocks rise when people think they are rising. Why? Because people want to get on board, people aren't rational investors and similarly, baseball players don't play rationally. Sometimes they play better when teamates are playing better and I'd like to see a stat showing that. Why is it that there are so few people that beat the indices while investing? Why do you think there are so few GMs that make it to the playoffs? Because there are more elements than stats. Stats count and they are important but they will never tell the whole story.