Royals general manager Dayton Moore, on the advanced defensive statistics that show recent acquisition Yuniesky Betancourt as a poor shortstop:
The defensive statistics, I still really don't understand how some of those statistics are evaluated, I really don't. When you watch baseball games every single day, it's very apparent who can play defensively and who can't.
Apparently not.
I'm not going to suggest that every front office needs to be incredibly reliant on statistical analysis to be successful, but for a general manager to reveal that "I still really don't understand how some of those statistics are evaluated" seems like it probably isn't great news for Royals fans. You know, as if there is such a thing as great news for Royals fans.
As for Betancourt, the advanced stats universally show that his defense has become horrible and most Mariners fans who've actually watched him play "every single day" for the past five seasons agree that his glove has declined significantly. Moore admittedly doesn't understand the defensive stats and presumably hasn't seen Betancourt play every day, which is perhaps why he just acquired one of baseball's worst players.
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I thought baseball was a game of statistics. In fact I thought that is what it is about more than anything else. I guess I could be wrong, but some how doubt it.....
This would be really funny if there weren't so many extremely likeable Royals fans and writers out there.
Okay, it's still kind of funny, but sad too.
Isn't this a good reason to fire a general manager? Doesn't he understand that these advanced defensive statistics help sort out the players who routinely make great plays from the players that make routine plays look like great ones?
This reminds me of when I was younger and my dad, who had worked for 35 years as an engineer had to learn how to use AutoCAD. He was born in 1930 and couldn't even program a VCR. He was initially reluctant to learn, but after the "We understand your concerns, Mel, but if you want to keep your job, you have to learn" speech, he bit the bullet and (at about 60 years old) learned how to use the program.
Shouldn't this same sort of reasoning apply to a general manager that doesn't understand what is essentially new "technology." But I guess people like Dayton Moore ingore new methods of evaluating baseball skill at their own peril. Oh, and the peril of their organization's fans.
Dayton Moore went on to explain his offseason moves as follows: "Offensive stats I don't really understand so much either."
"Radar Guns confuse me"
"What all this about sword metrics? That's what a saber is, right?"