Chris Berman shouting “RUMBLIN’, BUMBLIN’, STUMBLIN’!”

ESPN is about selling the excitement of sport. They are very good at that, and have built one of the most successful cable networks ever that way.

They are not very good at anything else.

Pretty much. They do employ Joe Morgan.

Seriously, Nye pretty much echoed my thinking. They want something that belongs to them, and the ownership is more important than the quality. Afterall, their bread-and-butter (or, apparently, beer-and-viagra) demo isn’t going to pay any attention to how the number is calculated; it’s just something that provides a nice ordering to that day’s Table of Names during BBTN. If Fantasy owners start using it, so much the better; if it provides some controversy, better still.

Dave is right: the best thing you can do is ignore this and hope it dies a quiet, unlamented death.

In case anyone hasn’t yet found Nate Silver’s BP article, here’s the link for “Bristolian Goulash”.

I think ESPN just wanted their own in-house pseudo-sabermetric stat that they could use instead of the already established ones owned by others.

If they use VORP, Win Shares, etc, they have to use the intellectual property of another company or person, and at the very least credit them, if not compensate them.

Everything that ESPN does is about their brand identity, and using tools created by others interferes with their brand message.