My pick comes from baseball: wins.

7/28/2006 7:15:19 PM

My pick comes from football: Falcons wins.

7/28/2006 7:16:06 PM

anything that's so team dependent (wins, saves, etc) is obviously a good choice

my pick is batting average

7/28/2006 7:16:37 PM

^^^ without a doubt it's a pitchers # of wins.

Just look at Clemens last year.

^ For a closer save % is the biggest thing followed by WHIP.. and BA being overrated is a by product of the Moneyball philosophy (at least in terms of the value talked about in the book). I agree but 3 years ago NO ONE would overrate BA..

V and what % of fans/baseball experts had read that before Neyer brought it mainstream? Not many I'd bet...

[Edited on July 28, 2006 at 7:19 PM. Reason : x]

7/28/2006 7:16:50 PM

no one expect for anyone who had ever read a baseball abstract

7/28/2006 7:19:16 PM

Conventional stats only please none of this baseball prospectus bullshit.

Edit: Everyone above me has posted conventional stats.


[Edited on July 28, 2006 at 7:20 PM. Reason : .]

7/28/2006 7:19:33 PM

^^^ i don't understand your point

regardless, BA is overrated

7/28/2006 7:21:31 PM

the problem with BA is that it has no situational context at all. what happened b/c of the AB, what happened after?

7/28/2006 7:23:15 PM

the problem with BA is that its virtually useless in comparison to OBP

7/28/2006 7:24:58 PM

Why? OBP is just AVG + BB.

7/28/2006 7:26:27 PM

exactly

the object of any batter should be to get on base by any means neccesary

hence the uselessness of BA

7/28/2006 7:28:48 PM

Except you can get an RBI and hurt your OBP at the same time. The objective of a batter is not to get on base--the objective of a batter is to contribute to the R column in whatever way necessary.

7/28/2006 7:31:25 PM

slugging %

7/28/2006 7:37:01 PM

hitting for the fucking cycle

I never got the point of making a big deal out of this

7/28/2006 7:37:23 PM

that's not a stat

that's an accomplishment

and one hell of an accomplishment at that

a four-hit game is a rare thing

four singles is something to be proud of, anything extra is just icing on the cake

7/28/2006 7:38:41 PM

I never understood the significance of the cycle besides a triviality.

7/28/2006 7:38:50 PM

fairways hit

7/28/2006 7:41:41 PM

THh most overrated stat isn't even an actual stat at all:


QB win-loss record.

I really SHOULDN'T have to explain this one.

7/28/2006 7:43:39 PM

Being a big baseball fan I am typically a great stathead. Some stats just do not make any sense at all to me.

7/28/2006 7:44:12 PM

such as?

7/28/2006 7:48:35 PM

Runs. If you account for SB runs mean nothing. K/9IP--who cares how you get the out?

7/28/2006 7:49:44 PM

i have no idea what you're trying to say about runs

K/9 is a great way to evaluate a pitcher's style and relative effectiveness

if a guy is averaging 10 K/9 for his career and starts putting up 5 or 6 per 9, you know something's up, his control could be off, etc.

[Edited on July 28, 2006 at 7:52 PM. Reason : ]

7/28/2006 7:52:02 PM

Runs--what does this indicate about the player? Nothing. They had to be driven in 99% of the time. Good baserunners will steal bases--this is what I meant when I said after accounting for SB a player's R mean nothing.

K/9 -- you are right about it indicating style, but style just means how the pitchers get their outs. Some force shitty flyouts/groundouts, some bring the heat.

7/28/2006 7:56:40 PM

runs don't mean that much, and no one really uses them to evaluate a player's ability

a lot of runs scored just means a player gets on base a lot in a good lineup

you could say that a lot of runs scored is indicative of a good baserunner

7/28/2006 7:58:57 PM

So why is R even a stat?

[Edited on July 28, 2006 at 8:00 PM. Reason : is why--no]

7/28/2006 8:00:20 PM

career home runs

7/28/2006 8:01:06 PM

Career HRs indicate longevity. Useful for the HOF but useless for anything current. See: Fred McGriff.

[Edited on July 28, 2006 at 8:02 PM. Reason : my gf is going to be pissed tomorrow]

7/28/2006 8:02:18 PM

Quote :

"So why is R even a stat?"

what?

because its a countable event?

wtf are you asking?

--

i understand that you think its useless, i agree

but that doesn't make it overrated

no one 'rates' it very highly to begin with

[Edited on July 28, 2006 at 8:05 PM. Reason : ]

7/28/2006 8:05:12 PM

OPS, over-values Slugging %.

7/28/2006 10:29:20 PM

ERA as long as it's below 5

7/28/2006 10:30:38 PM

interceptions in football are rather overrated (Larry Brown)

7/29/2006 12:07:37 AM

+/- in hockey

7/29/2006 1:45:30 AM

Quote :

"College QB win-loss record. I really SHOULDN'T have to explain this one. "

see
P. Riv.

[Edited on July 29, 2006 at 2:30 AM. Reason : .]

7/29/2006 2:30:10 AM

pitcher's wins obviously

7/29/2006 2:49:15 AM

for some reason out of all the major baseball statistics(batting avg., era, rbi, hits, walks, etc) i always disliked runs the most

7/29/2006 3:15:36 AM

Quote :

"that's not a stat that's an accomplishment and one hell of an accomplishment at that a four-hit game is a rare thing four singles is something to be proud of, anything extra is just icing on the cake"

I agree, but everybody makes a huge fuss over the fact that the four hits just happen to be each of the 4 possible hits. Nobody tries to hit for the cycle, it's just something that happens, and there shouldn't be so much emphasis on it. Like in a game when a guy has a HR and double, they almost always start talking about the possibility of hitting for the cycle. Then if he hits a 2nd double, it almost seems like a disappointment. It shouldn't be that way. So yeah, in summary:

Quote :

"I never understood the significance of the cycle besides a triviality."

[Edited on July 29, 2006 at 3:38 AM. Reason : words]

7/29/2006 3:30:17 AM

the most played out statistic is the double play.

7/29/2006 3:33:00 AM

So baseball has more useless stats than any other sport

7/29/2006 4:23:11 AM

40 yard dash time at the NFL combine. There is some statistic they share every year about how some finitely small percentage of plays is over 40 yards, and there's no need to make a big deal about it, but every year they do it anyway

7/29/2006 5:21:38 AM

^

It is comical. Especially when they start including all the cone/shuttle times.

7/29/2006 5:57:18 AM

ncsu bball wins

7/29/2006 7:02:21 AM

Quote :

"So baseball has more useless stats than any other sport"

that's because baseball has more stats than any other sport

7/29/2006 12:31:16 PM

number of illegitimate children by NBA players

7/29/2006 1:05:17 PM

shawn kemp agrees

7/29/2006 1:12:47 PM

time of possession

7/29/2006 1:14:24 PM

runs is actually underrated.

There is a big difference between when Jose Reyes draws a walk and when Barry Bonds draws a walk.

If Reyes draws a leadoff walk it doesn't even require another hit for him to score. He can easily steal 2nd, advance to third on a ground ball, and score on a sac fly.

When Bonds gets to first base it takes a home run, three consecutive hits, or an apocalypse for him to score.

The ability to go from 2nd to home on a single, 1st to home on a double, tag on shallow fly balls, break up double plays, etc is VERY underrated by the typical baseball follower.

7/29/2006 1:21:58 PM

Quote :

"Runs--what does this indicate about the player? Nothing. They had to be driven in 99% of the time. Good baserunners will steal bases--this is what I meant when I said after accounting for SB a player's R mean nothing."

7/29/2006 1:31:34 PM

Quote :

"runs is actually underrated. There is a big difference between when Jose Reyes draws a walk and when Barry Bonds draws a walk. If Reyes draws a leadoff walk it doesn't even require another hit for him to score. He can easily steal 2nd, advance to third on a ground ball, and score on a sac fly. When Bonds gets to first base it takes a home run, three consecutive hits, or an apocalypse for him to score. The ability to go from 2nd to home on a single, 1st to home on a double, tag on shallow fly balls, break up double plays, etc is VERY underrated by the typical baseball follower."

7/29/2006 1:36:06 PM

BA for the month. the guy on fox keeps saying that and its pissing me off.

7/29/2006 3:44:39 PM

Quote :

"K/9 -- you are right about it indicating style, but style just means how the pitchers get their outs. Some force shitty flyouts/groundouts, some bring the heat."

Its more than just style... K's eliminate the chance of errors allowing the runner to get on base or for the baserunners to advance from general ball in play. ts is most definitely a plus for a pitcher to be able to prevent a batter from puttin ghte ball in play, even if he is getting out.

Wins would be my first choice. Clemens was a good example last year but the year before, when Clemens won the CY Young, Randy Johnson was screwed from the same thing. RJ was better than Clemens in every single statistic (and I really mean everything) except wins.

Basketball FG% is one that I think is losing meaning more and more.

7/29/2006 11:06:27 PM