Fun With Statistics: MVP Edition

I really didn't want to weigh in on this whole Cabrera vs. Trout thing (my two cents, for the record: Trout should've won, but Cabrera had a fantastic year and I in no way take the MVP away from him. It's also silly this has devolved into new school/old school when you don't need sabermetrics to know that Trout positively impacted the game in far more ways than did Cabrera) - but reading some of the reactions from the pro-Cabrera writers forced my hand. Specifically, one Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated. This is to take nothing away from Verducci. He's a great baseball writer. Unfortunately, in the service of writing a good story, sometimes important facts/numbers/statistics get kicked to the curb. Case in point: the following passage from that article. Italics are my own contribution, had I been allowed to edit it.

Fun With Statistics

Numbers are a funny thing. They never lie, provided the ones you're using are accurate and calculated correctly. But they can definitely not tell the whole truth, when not put in the proper context. Here are two examples.

Incontrovertible Fact #1: Albert Pujols had by far the worst season of his career this year. In fact, the past two years have been undoubtedly the two statistically worst of his career.

Incontrovertible Fact #2: Albert Pujols had a season this year - and an average season over the past two years - that, by using fairly common stats, was matched by very few hitters.

The Ebb and Flow of Life

I really don't know what to write, other than this picture may be the saddest thing I've ever seen. 

 

An Apology for Irrational Rooting

Quick bit of housekeeping before I get on to the actual post. Here is the link to the last opinion I wrote for NESN a little more than a month ago - a glowing piece about the historic season of Mike Trout, in which I suggested he had a good shot to win the MVP. And while I agree with Joe Posnanski in thinking that if Miguel Cabrera wins the Triple Crown, he'll win the MVP, I also agree with him in thinking that Trout has been the better all-around player this year. Cabrera's season to-date (Triple Crown stats of .332/42/131) has been done or bettered 26 other times in MLB history. Trout's of .323/28/122 runs/46 stolen bases? Once. I'd tell you who it was, but I don't have a subscription to Baseball-Reference - so all I can tell you is the guy had 29 homers. And that's not even mentioning Trout's defense. I rest my case. Did I mention he turned 21 in August? Anyways, the real reason I'm writing...

Abstract Story Concept Album #1: Continuum

A quick note on how this is going to go down - although I've obviously heard the albums before, I'm going to present thoughts on each song as if I were hearing them in order for the first time. That way, I'm not retroactively applying what I know to be a theme on a later track to earlier tracks. Also, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's the link to the post wherein I explain what I'm attempting to do.

Without further ado, I give you the first of what will probably be several attempts at seeing if my thought holds up under some level of imagined critical scrutiny - one of my favorite albums of all time, John Mayer's Continuum.

The Abstract Story Concept Album, or How I Made Up a New Thing in Music Because I Was Curious

*Disclaimer: I don't pretend to be either a music critic or a great interpreter of lyrics. Go figure I'm about to try both.*

I've long been fascinated with music. It's always seemed to me to be the most expressive of the art forms, coming far closer to allowing you to experience emotions rather than merely observing them. Plus, a bit less snobbily, I simply really like listening to it. I've been described as having a very eclectic taste in music - although, as has been proven by at least one of my close friends, not eclectic at all compared to some people - or at least, a wide-ranging scope of interests. To prove it to you, here are the first 12 songs to come up on iTunes when I hit Shuffle:

Editor's Note

If you've been playing close attention, you'll notice that two posts just disappeared into thin air. If you were none the wiser about that, well then, now you are.

Anyway, the two posts in question were Parts 1 and 2 of my new attempt at figuring out why fantasy baseball head-to-head standings are the way they are. I was in the middle of finishing off Part 3 when I discovered a rather glaring error - I had been unwittingly been using the wrong standard deviation formula.

Happy Valley Doesn't Need the Death Penalty

Never in the NCAA's wildest dreams could they have imagined a scenario as horrifying the one that unfolded at Penn State. 

It's for precisely that reason that, despite Jerry Sandusky's 45 counts of child sex abuse convictions and a preponderance of evidence that Joe Paterno and high-ranking university officials withheld information on his crimes, the NCAA cannot and should not punish the Nittany Lions football program -- much less hand down the death penalty for which many are calling.

Bud Selig Wants to Do WHAT to the Home Run Derby?

The answer, if you've been paying attention the past few days to the furor sparked by Robbie Cano's being booed viciously by the Kansas City partisans during the Derby on Monday, is possibly institute a mandate that says the host team must have a representative in the event.

Okay, okay, so Selig isn't all of a sudden off on a wild crusade to change the rules of the Derby yet again - he merely said that Major League Baseball would "talk about this [potential rule change]."

The mere fact that there would be any kind of discussion on this, however, is simply ludicrous.

Roger and Me

I was at a Sox game two weeks ago or so with a buddy of mine when the subject of Roger Clemens' recent return to Fenway came up. For those of you who missed his appearance in the Monster Seats mere days after his acquittal on charges of perjury, check it out here. I'll wait until you get back.

...

Okay, so his reappearance at Fenway was the subject of a brief discussion, and we were talking about the reception the Rocket got - a mixture of cheers and boos, with the boos seemingly a little louder. I was about declare that I too would have booed Roger...but a funny thing happened on the way to my statement. I thought honestly about how I would react to seeing the guy in the same ballpark, displayed on the videoboard. And I realized something that I had never really given much thought to before.

Tim Lincecum and the Mystery of the Disappearing Velocity

Another Friday night/Saturday morning winding down from a late night at the office, and another day - well, week really - with nothing original. I apologize for the lack of posts this week, but I've been working my way through some data for an idea I've had for a while and it's taking some time. Hopefully the results are interesting enough to warrant the time I've spent on it.

That being said, here are the fruits of my labor from tonight.

While I'm at it, I should probably also link to my opinion on the Madden Curse and whether Megatron will fall victim to it. I did some research for that one ahead of time at home, which had the unfortunate byproduct of holding up my research for my current blog-specific project a bit.

Finally, I'll leave you with this wildly entertaining Seattle Mariners commercial, which I had linked to in my Lincecum article initially (I was comparing him to King Felix, who has also experienced a drop in velocity but not a massive decrease in performance), but eventually cut when I tossed out the Hernandez section.



By the way, that tan building visible between Eric Wedge and Larry, er, Felix beyond the right field fence? That's the Padres spring training offices/clubhouse/etc, aka where I spent my spring training class. The ad was shot at the stadium in the Peoria Sports Complex, which San Diego and Seattle share. Makes me a little nostalgic.

In the Name of Self-Promotion

It's a little late as I sit here unwinding after a late shift, so I've got nothing original for the day. What I think I'll do instead is link to my labor of love from today - an argument against the continued existence of the Home Run Derby.

That said, below are two quick things that I wanted to address in the article, but cut either because of length or flow considerations.

The Great Hambino

No, not this guy.



This guy.

Journalism Lesson #11 - Writing and Reporting

I've been sitting on two posts the last couple days, but they keep getting pushed back because I keep coming up with more timely ideas. They say waiting makes it better, right? Well, you'll find out eventually, hopefully tomorrow and then Friday.

While I'm at it and before I forget, I should probably just issue the blanket statement that the content on this blog are my own personal thoughts/opinions/viewpoints/etc., and in no way represent the thoughts/opinions/viewpoints/etc. of NESN. Since I'm an intern for them this summer, I should probably do my due diligence and make it clear that Stretch's Take is unaffiliated in every way from my work there. Save, of course, for when I link to any of my articles I think are particularly good or worth a read.

19 Years, 7 Months, and 20 Days

When I was 19 years, 7 months, and 20 days old, it was two years before I graduated from Boston College. I probably spent that day like most days the summer after my sophomore year - either at home or our trailer in York Beach hanging out with my brothers and reading Atlas Shrugged for an essay contest. Unfortunately, my "prize-winning essay" - as I was given to calling it - didn't win. But I considered reading a nearly-1200 page book in the span of about two and a half months a noteworthy accomplishment nonetheless.

Summertime and the Living's Easy

Or, it's at least easier than during the school year. Despite holding down a 24-hour/week internship with NESN.com - check out my stuff here - and working whenever I can get the hours at BC Dining again, I now find myself with a lot more free time. Consequently, I have more time to *hopefully* devote to posting stuff on here. I have a few ideas for longer posts that have been kicking around my head for a while, and while not exactly timely, they should be a good read anyways. And of course, I plan on writing about whatever pops into my head. As always, it'll mostly be about sports - and likely mostly about baseball - but I see no reason to restrict myself. So here's to a summer filled with writing. Get ready for a lot more of Stretch's Take.

And you should probably check out my friend Adam's blog while you're at it. It's worth it, I promise.

Journalism Lessons

It's an understatement to say I've learned a lot during my short time at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Not to mention that getting to cover spring training is kind of swell (even more of an understatement). But some of the most important things I've learned are things I've picked up myself outside of the classroom and actually shooting, writing, interviewing, editing - all that practical stuff. I realized early on that these were things that needed to be written down somewhere and preserved for the future. Some are universal, while some are tailored more to myself. As I come up with more in the future, they'll each get their own post and be put into the master list in this post. So without further ado, I give you Sean's Journalism Lessons:

Hot off the Cuff

You might've noticed I've been a little lax about updating this blog lately. And I regrettably have been. Call it a function of not having enough time to write down the lengthy posts for ideas that I've had. Maybe I'll just pop on more often with shorter things and see how that works. Either way, the reason I'm writing today is shameless self-promotion. A couple of friends and I have started a radio show on ASU's campus radio station (cleverly titled The Blaze, in keeping somewhat with the Sun Devils motif) called Hot off the Cuff, which airs live every Friday from 11 AM to noon. There's no archived section on the station's website for our show, so I've taken to simply archiving them myself. Because I'm recording them with a handheld recorder in the studio, the soundbites unfortunately don't come through. But all the important stuff is there, and if you're so inclined, check out our first two shows from last week and today. And while you're at it, follow us on Twitter @hotoffthecuff.