The New England Patriots didn't miss Tom Brady last year at all-he didn't record a single sack.
Tim Duncan isn't helping the San Antonio Spurs at all-he isn't in the top 50 in steals of three-point percentage.
These are ridiculous statements, because in basketball and football, we use different stats depending on the position of the player.
Baseball hasn't figured that out yet. There are stats for pitchers and for position players, but for all the advanced statistical analyses going on in baseball, they still judge all hitters by the same criteria.
These criteria have been evolving over time-batting average, home runs and RBIs have evolved into OBP, VORP and OPS+. But in the end, all hitters are still judged on the same things.
As America's pastime, baseball intrigues us. Baseball, unlike any other sport, relies on numbers. When a baseball player is caught with steroids, we want the record books purged to ensure the integrity of records. When a football player is caught with steroids, he makes the Pro-Bowl (not to point any fingers … Shawne Merriman).
We rely on numbers so we can compare players across generations. Would Babe Ruth be able to swat 60 home runs in 2009, or would A-Ro(i)d have more than 500 career home runs playing in the 1920s?
The problem lies in the true complexity of baseball. It looks like such a simple sport-a wooden stick, a round ball and a few bases. However, baseball is incredibly complex. There are nine players working as one. In football, if a team has one great cornerback, you can throw away from him. In basketball, you can double and triple the team's best player. In baseball, if a team has a great hitter, you will have to face him once every time through the line-up.
There is no stalling in baseball. If you score 10 runs in the first inning, you still have to get the other team out 27 times. There is no quarterback kneel down.
Every player gets equal chances to succeed, but not every player has the same role. There is a lot of talk in baseball about "role players," but really every player is a role player. Some just have bigger roles.
Middle of the order hitters are supposed to drive in runs. If a clean-up hitter comes up with a runner on third and two outs, I want him to drive the run in. If he takes two perfect pitches, fouls a couple back, and works a walk, he didn't do his job. It helps his on-base percentage, but it doesn't help the team.
In baseball, there are no absolutes. In football, a touchdown is always good and a turnover is always bad. In basketball, it's the same thing. But in baseball, everything is relative. A ground out is always bad except when it moves the runner from second to third. A fly out is always bad except when it drives in a run.
The debate, as I have heard it, has always been stats people vs. scout people. You're either obsessed with the stats or obsessed with how much a baseball player "gets it," whatever "it" is. I think that's a little too simplistic. The
debate should be over which stats to use for which players. Baseball is too complicated to judge all players by the same standards when each player has a different task.
Until then, someone will have to tell Larry Fitzgerald he needs to get a few more interceptions if he wants to be a pro-bowler next year.
