Isn't this what a manager is supposed to do? Knowing when to go with a player, even though the math suggests it's not the best move. The correct answer is not always the one that the math suggests will be correct. Yes. Exactly. Statisticians will never accept the fact that there are factors that numbers cannot account for, however. And even if they do, they figure that since they themselves are unable to see these factors nobody else can see these factors either (i.e. even managers who have spent their entire lives analyzing and playing the game of baseball). Still, Kotsay should never start in CF :P That is just silly. Scientists and engineers make models all the time and none of them quantify every variable. What I'm not going to is assume a person of questionable intelligence can make more accurate predictions simply because he played and managed it. Half the time RR's explanations are nonsensical, which give me good reason to give him the doubt.