First off sorry if this is a waste of a fan post but I have no idea where to ask this here.

Anyway, as I understand it HBP are not calculated into WHIP, but why arnt they?

Shouldnt that be added into it?

I know its Walks and Hits per Innings Pitched, but wouldnt HBP also show how well or poorly a pitcher is performing?

Tonight on my FBB team Izzy hit a batter (yeah, I know.  Why is he still on your team and why in hell is he activated) but still has a 0.00 WHIP on the night.

I saw this story posted by picklefork on the stltoday forums.

Im not sure if this is worth posting, as im somewhat sure its disjointed, mispelled and contains grammar mistakes.  Sorry if this pushes better posts off the page.

This is my post from another forum, so you will have to forgive references to this site

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link to story

so appearently Buzz Bissinger went into an insane rage, screaming profanity at the blogger from Deadspin.com on Costas now.

personally I read a Cardinals blog daily, infact they are far more thorough than any other media when it comes to Cardinals coverage. www.vivaelbirdos.com


It seems to me that some of these writers/media types are getting confused b/t bloggers and commenters. They rail against profanity and vulgarity but they fail to realize most of this is either satire or trolls/ignorant posters.

Another arguement is about grammar. Look, i dont know much about grammar or about which words are the best and most flowery to use...but if Buzz think Blogs are dumbing us down he has another thing coming.
Much of the stuff I read is so complicated I have to read it many times. I know it might have mispelled words and improper grammar but I do know the people who wrote it took the time to look up the stats, think about them, organize them and draw logical conclusions. you dont get any of this from ESPN, radio or TV. If they use stats its Wins or Batting average or some other misleading stat lazy people tend to use because they dont want to think.

I would rather have a well thought out post that had some actual insight or some statistical fact/trend I didnt know than some flowery fluff piece that told all the same dumb cliches and information I knew a year ago.

If you dont like Blogs you dont have to read them, I dont see why these people are chosing to make a big deal about them and rail on them.
Seriously, when do people on TV ever get to talk about dumbing down media?

When do commentators on tv ever give any real insight?  When do they break things down or use statistics?  They dont because they worry about boring the audiance.  it seems to me many, if not most that read these blogs are doing it to learn something, doing it to think, not see the latest tirade by sweet lou, or hear a soundbite, without any real meaning or signifigance.

the best part of this is it reminds me of the "fossils" who still cant except sabermetrics. I shouldnt say cant except, I should say violently reject. Its just a tool, or a set of tools for evaluation. If you want to be lazy and use misleading stats, go ahead. If you dont think a walk is valuable. Use Average not OBP.
If you think pitching a complete game but losing 1-0 is the same as pitching 5 innings and giving up 22 runs (or that it means you pitched worse than a guy who won  10-9) continue to use W-L record as a measure of a pitcher.
If its wrong to try to use Babip, to figure out if a player who is hitting .499 a month into the season should keep it up, thats your belief.  I dont understand the hostility because someone wants to look at things in a different way.

but dont expect me to not to.

I know sabermetric stats arnt the end all be all of baseball, and I know there are somethings they just arnt good for but dont tell me batting average, win loss record, or rate stats are superior becasue they dont tell the whole story. And thats one of the problems of the main stream sports media, they cant or wont give you this (on tv or in print) they are too lazy or too arogant to give us more than just the basics.  Those of us who frequent blogs dont want to just scratch the surface or hear how scrappy or gritty a player is, and thats why we turn to those who are willing to look.  If you are content with just half the story, good for you, but we arnt.  Its not like half of this stuff isnt at least 20 years old anyway.

I understand if you cant or wont accept these new ideas and media but dont attack us that do or those who spend the time reading, making or working with them.

I know last year or two years ago some bloggers or posters discovered a flaw in Felix Hernandez's delivery or that he was tipping pitches or something and the team actually corrected it on that. The Cardinals recently sent out a notice for anyone on the internet (or where ever) if they knew any unheralded or unscouted prospects to send them in and they might check them out. This actually happened.

I also know many if not all teams in baseball (it would stun me if any one team didnt...well maybe not the Pirates) use what are usually refered to as sabermetrics, including the Boston Redsox.

So someone out there seems to think these ideas and media are important, or at least worth looking into.  Why are the people in the media so hesitant?

If you were doing such a great job people wouldnt be turning to these other methods of getting information.  Maybe the grammar is imperfect and the words are all wrong, maybe its not art...but the information is there, and when it comes down to it thats just more important too me.