Sabermetrics

Theo Epstein is the general manager of the Boston Red Sox.  He is also a practitioner of sabermetrics. 

At least that’s what we’re lead to believe.

After all, Bill James has been a senior advisor for the Red Sox since 2002.

You see, in the Church of Sabermetrics, Bill James is the deity. Many of his followers believe that he was begotten, not made, and that he will reign eternal in the halls of Strat-O-Matic Valhalla.

Co-author Alan Hirsch was kind enough to answer and respond to questions and criticisms of his new book, The Beauty of Short Hops: How Chance and Circumstance Confound the Moneyball Approach to Baseball.

Q: Billy Beane didn't/doesn't watch A's games because, in your words, "He can’t bear seeing the damn players muck up what should be a perfectly predictable contest." 

Moneyball is a baseball film starring Brad Pitt and Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, and it's set to open sometime in 2011.

Hoffman will perform as former big league manager Art Howe, and Pitt -- one of the most famous people in the universe -- will be playing Billy Beane, the "mastermind" general manager of the Oakland A's.

I know this article is a little different and contradicts bloggers in this internet age, but bear with me!

This past weekend I was reading the latest Sports Illustrated Issue—the one with Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and their newest pick-up LeBron James.

I will admit it that I have always been a sucker for a good sports read. Whether it be, SI, ESPN The Magazine, or since I discovered this whole new world we call the business of baseball, books focused of the economics of the game.

The biggest signing of the 2009 Winter Meetings was of course a deal that involved the New York Yankees.

A three-way trade between the New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, and the Arizona Diamondbacks was the most intriguing, a deal that included the following players;

Newer stats are moving to the mainstream—there is no question about it. The general fans are starting to understand more and more as the years pass. OPS (which is still VERY basic) is starting to become a generally recognized statistic, and we are starting to see better metrics pushed to the masses.

The more that the common sports sites push these statistics, the more the mainstream will begin to understand and accept them.

I really, really like John Bowker . I admit that.

The Giants are six games into the regular season and look good at 5-1 (compounded by Tim Lincecum being 2-0, with another brilliant, seven-inning, 10-strikeout performance in a 6-3 win tonight ).

However, while the Giants' pitching has been solid so far, it has been a very different story offensively after the first two series of the year against the Astros and Braves.

Baseball is a funny game.

One minute you are considered the most lethal,  dominant closer this game has ever seen, next you are being booed by your home crowd, on your way to independent baseball.

That is what makes this game so irresistible and endearing to its players and fans.

Despite all the heartbreak one endures during a career, one’s competitiveness brings them back, wanting to prove naysayers wrong.

Eric Surkamp and Aaron King .

Not exactly pitching prospects that jump at you like Madison Bumgarner or Zach Wheeler.