Checking in from Ft. Lauderdale. I just want to point out here- I would have to think the good people at Fangraphs, just like any other site (NYBD included) probably write for a variety of reasons. To make money, sure- but we know the amount of money to be made doing this relative to the amount of time that goes into it makes the kids who make Nikes look like billionaires. We also write to reach an audience, share our ideas, enjoy peer review, and hopefully cast a new or at least entertaining insight into what we cover- be it baseball, or any other topic. That’s my myriad of motivations- also, I like it when my wife laughs at something I write. Don’t know if that motivates others.

What I continually run into among those at the top of the stat innovating field is just that- a push to see this game we love in a newer, more complete way. Just as Bill James, working nights as a silo security guard, wasn’t writing his abstracts to simply make money- what were the chances such an approach would lead to Bill James becoming who he is?- there’s a hunger to see what is an endlessly complicated game in new ways.

This is the reason I write- whatever other professions are out there, the number of moving parts, new wrinkles and fantastic outcomes that baseball has is what keeps me interested in it, year after year. It wouldn’t be possible to continually see something new in games after viewing thousands of them if this were a simple game.

And this is a matter of opinion- but any advance in statistics that allows me a more accurate view of a hitter’s worth, a pitcher’s worth, or best yet (due to the relative lack of advancement in this area) a defensive player’s worth is a hell of a lot more valuable than ranch Doritos or new Coke. I think we are lucky to have writers pushing the edges of understanding in such a complicated field. Ironically enough, it is the writers from Fangraphs, The Hardball Times and other such outlets- which I understand are far less profitable than Baseball Prospectus- who are making the biggest leaps in thinking. Dan Szymborski also deserves to be singled out here- and it is criminal how little he makes from, for instance, ZIPS.

If they can eventually make enough to allow them to make a living writing about such things, all the better. It can’t- and shouldn’t- cast any doubt on the work they are doing.

Tags: Sabermetrics