I’m so pleased that Picasner has dismissed “silly fielding stats” from consideration of future discussions of any particular individual’s ability to “be a winner”. With luck, perhaps we can also dismiss pitching and batting statistics as equally silly. It would certainly cut down on the annoying discussions we have to endure while watching a televised game or listening to a radio broadcast. Gosh, ESPN’s Baseball Tonight could be cut to a 6 minute broadcast; two minutes of scores and four minutes of commercials. And think of it, by this time next season we can forget those silly run stats that numbers guys try to use to tell us who won and lost. It will be so much easier to rely on Picasner Stats! No calculator, abacus, or slide rule required. Simply log on to for the Picasner-Stat-Of-The-Day to know who the real winners are.
Today we know that 90% of the major league shortstops (I hope I’m not being a numbers guy) do not cover second base when a ball is hit up the middle and a man on first . Thank Picasner for this insight. With more like them we’ll never have to worry about attracting excessive traffic to this site. Just a few short hours ago I would do a search to compare the number of put outs and assists His Grace Derek Jeter, the Duke of Bronx Living in New Jersey has compared to loser shortstops, but thanks to Picasner-Stats, I’m free!
But maybe I’ll ask around and see what the 90% of flat-footed, wide-eyed, dirt-kicking, daydreaming so called major league shortstops think about this.
Sorry to go on so long but its been a while since Picasner has written something, so easy to ridicule, and so deserving of more. And I was seriously bored.
We know Picasner has an obsessive compulsion with all things Yankee, in general, and Jeter, in particular. So I suggest we cut the Exalted Pooba some slack on elevating a very nice but hardly spectacular play to a reason for dismissing “silly fielding stats” that the “numbers guys” (statisticians, fans, managers, club owners, baseball card manufacturers, and sportswriters who cast ballots for Hall of Fame admission, among others who use stats for apparently devious if not actually dangerous purposes) and 90% (oops, a stat) of major league shortstops.
But, dude, lighten up. We all know, and no one more than a statistician, that statistics will never provide a complete picture of a baseball player – but neither will a single anecdotal record. In today’s game, Cano made a nice play, knocking down a ball, staying with it, and finishing a not particularly close play at 2nd. Jeter did what we expect little league shortstops to do – with a man on 1st and a ball is hit to the right side of the infield, cover 2nd. A nice assist and put out.
The statistics Piasner decries are no more than the compilation of millions of anecdotal records that we call “plays”. A small percentage are spectacular, most are not, but they all inform the open mind no less than the few plays any of us have the opportunity to see during a lifetime. Enjoy them P. Please, burn books elsewhere.
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