Tell em Peter Gammons!
April 7th, 2010 by 
Melvin
“Journalists” who write their eyes know more [than] defensive [metrics] are simply telling you they don’t care
-Peter Gammons via Twitter
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Padres bloggin' since 2007
April 7th, 2010 by Melvin
7 Responses to “Tell em Peter Gammons!”
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I disagree with this statement. The defensive metrics are a nice complement, but I’d still rely more on actually watching the games. And, yes, I’m being serious,
Although, I may have missed the true point entirely.
Honestly, if I had access to a handful of scouts, knew their opinion wouldn’t be biased, and had a way to easily aggregate everything they tell me, I’d find their info more reliable than just UZR.
That said, when columnists and fans tell me they rely on their eyes, here are two things I don’t trust:
1. Their ability to judge defense, especially when watched on TV. I don’t know who these people are, how do they know what a good jump, or good footwork, should look like? And since TV rarely shows the context necessary to make an accurate judgement, it makes it that much harder.
2. I don’t trust most people’s ability to aggregate information from thousands of plays, without bias. It’s human nature to have biases. Unless you have a system to write everything down in an organized way, I don’t trust it.
This is why I like UZR. It’s not perfect, but it doesn’t have any of these negatives.
If nothing else, there’s less room in sabermetrics for cognitive bias.
It’s been discussed to death. But, a good scout who actually pays attention to the stats works for me.