Tweet
And while I'm rambling, I guess I'll bring up another reason why I think the MVP race should not be about pure math. It ignores intangibles, like leadership, and being a postiive influence on other players. I think about the recent epic collapses some teams have had recently, and it makes me wonder, who is the leader in the club house? Who is the guy who steps up and says, this aint going to go down like this!" I mean, that sort of thing may be overblown in a lot of cases, but I think it should be a factor. What happens in the locker room and the dug out should count too. Otherwise you can have someone claiming Terrell Owens was a more valuable player than maybe any WR ever except Jerry Rice, but any rational person would know that is not true. He was an exceptional talent who put up exceptional stats, but he was also a team cancer. He was not a leader and not a unifier. I suppose we could argue about how considering "intangibles" moves us away from the objective and the quantifiable, but if we don't have a little of that, than why not have computers vote on the MVP and the HOF?
Anyway, if some saber folks will chime in and concede that it shouldn't just be pure math, that there is more to consider, I can happily flip back over to that side of things. I feel dirty making these old school, anti-math arguments. I like math! I like numbers! I don't want to sound like the guy trying to defend Jack Morris as a HOFer and dismiss Blyleven! I feel like someone who wants to join a political party, but can't because of how extreme some folks are being. This math is everything stance to me is just a bit too extreme, but I don't want it to seem like I'm anti-math, or anti-WAR, or anti-defense, or anti-new-ways-of-looking-at-value.
Anyway, if some saber folks will chime in and concede that it shouldn't just be pure math, that there is more to consider, I can happily flip back over to that side of things. I feel dirty making these old school, anti-math arguments. I like math! I like numbers! I don't want to sound like the guy trying to defend Jack Morris as a HOFer and dismiss Blyleven! I feel like someone who wants to join a political party, but can't because of how extreme some folks are being. This math is everything stance to me is just a bit too extreme, but I don't want it to seem like I'm anti-math, or anti-WAR, or anti-defense, or anti-new-ways-of-looking-at-value.
Comment