Comments on: The expansion, retraction, clarification of Dave’s post

By: Dave Clapper

Dave Clapper — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 22:01:53 +0000

34: Not for long, hopefully.

By: tangotiger

tangotiger — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 07:56:17 +0000

As it turns out, we excerpted the “protection” part of The Book on THT:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/pitching-around-batters

It was written by Andy (nevermind what the byline says). For those intimidated by the numbers, the summary is at the bottom of the article.

And I’m glad to be a speck in the USSM crowd, easily the most passionate of any baseball crowd I’ve been around.

By: o2bnited

o2bnited — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:52:23 +0000

I’d like to point out to poster of comment #28 that there are some people within BP that do show their work and are willing to be open about how they arrive at their numbers. Some take the care and time to write entire essays filled with the gory details of the calculus and advanced mathematical concepts behind their theories and numbers. Some do not, so the criticism is partially true, and when true, a valid one, but please don’t make blanket accusations like that.

By: JI

JI — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 02:52:53 +0000

Who is Antonella Barba?

A contestant on American Idol.

By: frenchonion

frenchonion — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 02:45:42 +0000

My mom taught me never to put into writing anything you might regret later.

As usual, my mom’s right.

By: DMZ

DMZ — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 02:19:27 +0000

You can be reasonably sure that if someone semi-famous posts here, I’ve at least looked at the email address they registered with to ensure it’s them and not someone with a toss-off AOL account.

By: MKT

MKT — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 02:08:02 +0000

28. TangoTiger posts here!!??? That is beyond cool

Yeah — I guess there’s the question of how do we know it’s the real TangoTiger, but the intelligence and grace of his postings gives him away.

This mention of him prompts me to mention something that I neglected to mention in the thread several days ago about protection, and the issue of “weak protection”: intentionally or semi-intentionally walking a batter in order to get to a weaker batter. TangoTiger’s book, “The Book” (written with MGL and Andrew Dolphin) has a whole chapter about when it makes sense to walk a batter. I don’t recall if The Book goes into protection per se, but their discussion of intentional walks would certainly have applicability to deciding whether weak protection has an important effect or not.

By: MKT

MKT — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 01:58:29 +0000

18. Saying that since you are defending a friend the normal rules donâ€™t apply is not an adequate rationalization, in my mind; it reads more like license to act any way you want and wrapping yourself in a flag.

Very well said, not just the quote but all of Post #18.

What I find rather troubling is not so much the original post — I think that post was a mistake, but we all make mistakes. Rather what I find rather troubling is the massive reaction, initially at least, IN FAVOR of that post. We have now seen more posts similar to #18 above, but I think that out of the first 50 or so comments, only 2 (lonestarball’s and mine) said, whoa wait a minute you’re overreacting to what’s just a bad joke.

To make a mistake is one thing, we all do that. But for so many people in this group to applaud Dave for that post, on the basis of “he’s sticking up for his friend” or “BP are jerks, so let ‘em have it” — man, that’s troubling. That’s not good thinking. The post, if not an actual mistake, had very serious issues, so serious that Derek and Dave themselves agreed that it should be removed. But IMO all too many people were in favor of that post, and too few were seeing it as “way over the top”, to use drw’s phrasing.

By: JMB

JMB — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 01:22:57 +0000

Who is Antonella Barba?

By: Johnny Slick

Johnny Slick — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 01:11:47 +0000

Okay, this is totally unrelated to the original post, but… TangoTiger posts here!!??? That is beyond cool. As a beta-tester for Out of the Park Baseball this offseason, this man has become less a real person and more of a deity to worship and to gain accumulated knowledge from. Is there a “regular guy” more like Bill James out there today? Unlike the BP people, he shows his work. Unlike much of the statheady stuff, he shows it in a way that is both informative and fun.

Wow, TangoTiger. The only way this could get better is if Voros McCracken then posted and told me to shut up. Well, DMZ already posts here, which is darn close.

Hero worship over now.