is the biggest coup for BP. Along with some others, these are the first sabermetricians hired by BP (I might be forgetting someone) since Dan Fox. Seriously good thing all around.

Not sure if it’s connected in any way, and I don’t mean this disrespectfully, but this coinciding with the departure of Sheehan (and Kahrl’s confusing “reassignment”) seems to indicate a real return to cutting-edge sabermetrics. Colin’s also adding a PBP defensive metric.

In other words, BP finally figured out that rather than ignoring their critics, they should just hire them…

Tommy Bennett is also awesome… big loss for BtBS… but by adding him, why would they possibly need more Christina Kahrl? Why, it seems like just yesterday Colin was showing how she was full of sh-t with her ignorant statements about wOBA/EqA.

Oh well, at least they won’t put themselves int he situation of having to have a guy like Steve Goldman trying to defend a crazy projection. Now that actually have people who know about this stuff.

I suggested to Sky Kalkman many months ago that they should simply hire all the StatsSpeak guys… I guess they intercepted the email.

Like Writing above replacement.

I wish I could get a cc on the Wyers and Kahrl discussions. Colin hates, I mean hates stuff done wrong statically and Kahrl could care less. It was a move BPro had to make.

It’s the second person I knew before they got picked up BPro (Tim K is the other).

Right now blog writers are following what little money is out there.

BP once had what KG referred to as “and leading-edge statistical work” but they haven’t really had that for a few years. PECOTA, FRAA, EqA, VORP and other signature BP metrics/projections have been surpassed by superior free-to-all alternatives. They have a lot of catching up to do.

What metric/projections do you prefer to PECOTA for example? This is the fox guarding the henhouse, but I thought I read a story last year on BP that showed PECOTA faring better in predicting how they’ll fare than other competitors in 2008 (Chone comes to mind…..) As someone who admittedly has less of a grasp on the current state of sabermetrics than Brian Bannister, but likely more than Dayton Moore, I’d be grateful for suggestions as to where I can go to bolster my depression and despair at 95% of GMDMs moves over the coming season. Less Karhl is a good thing. Her writing tended to grate….. a little to plummy, a little too snarky. On a purely writing level, I enjoyed reading Sheehan. I think its hard to overestimate the impact BP has had on the game over the past decade, both for front offices and fans in general. They’ve lead most sentient beings out of the cave by the hand. Hopefully these personnel moves will reassert a better way of analyzing the game.

I don’t delve much beyond BP, the Star, Royals Review, Rany, and Baseball Think Factory, (maybe MLB trade rumors as the trade deadline approaches) and during the season, I try to catch Soren Petro’s show on 810. Sadly, sickly, like a dog eating its own vomit, I watch/listen to virtually every damn game with Denny/Ryan/Splitt’s gullet/Bob/Frank/Hammering Joel Goldberg/and other radio guy, etc…during the season. I can’t help it. BP is a daily visit for me. I’ve dabbled with Fangraphs and am familiar with Zips via Baseball Think Factory.

A very cursory review of Fangraphs makes me realize that I’m the equivalent of a right wing tea bagger who thinks they know the angles because they watch Glen Beck. One article analyzing Max Scherzer on Fangraphs lays bare the comparative paucity of analysis in the typical BP stuff…..thanks for the patience and the suggestions again. To continue the inane political comparisons, I feel like a school girl who just got turned on to Noam Chomsky. I need to get thru that phase, and get to Bob Somersby, Dean Baker, and Lewis Lapham. If I can return the favor by suggesting websites on stomping porn sites, information related to Nick Cave, the poetry of Richard Hell, the English Premiere League, Wendell Berry, the films of Marta Meszaros, or the art of carpet installation, please let me know.