“WAR Is Actually Stupid” - Charlie Blackmon Destroys Your Grandpa’s Favorite Statistic

There’s something special about hearing a couple big leaguers absolutely eviscerate an advanced stat. This is what it’s all about. You can listen to Pencil Dick Johnny at a local nerd blog near you. Or you can take Charlie Blackmon’s word for it. The guy who first hand is getting fucked by the computers because they won’t adjust for the defensive climate in Coors. And yet MLB wants to rely on WAR to dictate future arbitration and contract bargaining. In just about 3 minutes, our guy Chuck absolutely buries the concept.

Personally this just means we need more player focused advanced stats. That’s the next big market to corner in MLB. Whoever can invent the kinda numbers that makes the players get all hot and heavy. Right now that’s still your traditional ones. Pretty cool to hear the level of respect OPS affords. But otherwise we need some more big ones to get into the conversation in the clubhouse. WAR simply ain’t doing the job.

I have some ideas. Players should be rewarded for not getting thrown out on the bases. Errors should be worth a lot more negatively. They should have a scorekeepers school like umpires and send them out into the world on assignments like the Peace Corps. Give me more uniform data and I’ll give you a better set of metrics. Also again if you’re a mathematician and want to invent a stat, now is a good time to email me.

But first please subscribe to Starting 9 so I can pay for this weeks groceries

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