*Audio of DME royally destroying WSCR The Score 670 weekend host Chris Rongey* (call starts 56 seconds into the audio)
Chris Rongey does not believe in numbers. See baseball players are judged and payed based on what people see with their eyes. Because everyone knows that numbers are "drastically misleading". They are so misleading that life would be better off without them. Who needs medicine, engineering, electricity, motors, electromagnetic telecommunication, science in general for that matter. The day people started keeping data and formulating statistics in sports, is the day athletic competition died. I dont need to see numbers to know David Eckstein is the MVP, in all our hearts!
Steve Phillips got fired from ESPN for making the exact same blind comments that his "eyes" don't always agree with the "numbers". In fact, I wrote an entire post about Phillips theory of judging players based on his eyes, oh and Phillips loves rhythm too. I know everyone thinks he got fired for tapping Miss Piggy, but I chose to believe it was for being a complete and utter moron.
Nothing would make me happier if this Chris Rongey character got fired and had to go work in Wyoming or somewhere that doesn't actually have sports. I know he probably has a family, but refuting the reliability of numbers in favor of your own cognitive perception is moronic. If he could find numbers to back up his own cognitive perception then we can talk, but just throwing out random outdated beliefs does not make you right in the least.
Some memorable quotes from the conversation in the mp3 file.
Before putting us all to bed...tell us what your point isDME's first comment was that batting average is a bad way to evaluate the White Sox offense. I thought this point was fairly clear, so why does Rongey have to twice ask for the point when it was given in the first 10 seconds of the conversation. Oh, and demeaning the caller by calling him boring, stupid, and wrong is probably not the best way to make yourself seem smart. Try some facts besides what your "eyes" see
I dont care what your looking at. You saw him play and you're suggesting that Jayson Nix is as good a baseball player as Alex Rios.Why so against numbers Chris Rongey? Twice he berated DME for trying to present numbers. It would have been a waste of time anyway. Considering Matthew Berry thinks FIP is fly balls in play, what are the odds Rongey knows what iso, babip, wOBA, or UZR are. I would say about zero cause those things involve numbers. If Rongey ever goes blind, the universe will cease to exist I suppose.
Rios was an all-star a couple of times. I'm pretty sure he's made his case as to how good he is...he has a track record. He has proven over his career he can do it. Jayson Nix has yet to do it.You know, Ted Williams was an all-star once or twice in his career. Now his head is being frozen in a basement somewhere in case they start cloning people some day. Once being an all-star doesnt make you currently good, nor does it even mean you were once good at baseball(see lance carter, tom gorzalleny, et al.) Do you know guys who didnt have a track record just a few years ago? Ryan Braun, Evan Longoria, Tim Lincecum, and Matt Kemp. 2 years ago all of them were definitely worse than Alex Rios. Alex Rios is an all-star!
I really think numbers can dramatically lie to you. I really think that...I dont care what your looking at. You can dissect all the numbers you want, but Jayson Nix is not a better ball player than Alex RiosWow! Really? Really? Like you're being serious. Numbers lie. You are able to sorts through million of individual plays that occur in every baseball game throughout the entire history of baseball with your brain? If you can do that, then you picked the wrong profession my friend. That type of skill can make you some serious money out there. But maybe numbers do lie sometimes. Like you are soooooo entertaining that i think you make $300,000 dollars a year for being so awesomely entertaining, based on what my ear "hear", but in reality you only make $30,000 a year. Wow, way off on that one. Oops
You're really into sabermetrics aren't you? We don't care about your stupid blog.Dude! You forgot to mention that we live in our mother's basements. No, actually we're fairly accomplished law and med students who discuss sports as a hobby not as our lives purpose. Oh, and dude went to Illinois State University. My old druggy roommate who got expelled for selling dope still got into Indiana. How dumb do you have to be. It was probably a tuition thing.
1) Jason Varitek was an "allstar" last year. Bad argument w/ regards to Rios
2) Carlos Quentin's 2007 on the D-backs: .214/.298/.349 in 263 PA
Jayson Nix 2009: .224/.308/.408 in 290 PA
3) "You're into sabermetrics, aren't you" isn't an argument as to why DME is wrong
I am so pissed I didn't think of the Varitek argument until after he hung up on me :(
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, this might be better than the time I got berated by Chirs Rongey on air for saying the Marlins would have a good team in 2009...oh and by the way...Marlins won 87 you jerk
the bets line "im so sick of people discounting batting average"
ReplyDeleteAt least people in the world of listening got my back :D
Besides the Ranger being a dumbass, I'm also glad to learn that Steve Phillips got fired
ReplyDeleteHe got fired for the same reason bill clinton got impeached. She wasn't attractive.
ReplyDeleteAlso, there was that whole Harold Reynolds unpleasantness...
Chirs Rongey was so over his head. He just couldn't understand it. A caller a few minutes later agreed with you and said he was wrong for not agreeing with you and hanging up on you and I thought he was going to explode!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I thought I liked Chris Rongey and know what he was talking about- until I found out he believes 1) that Alex Rios is good 2) that he doesn't like jayson nix and 3) he thinks that Rios is better than Nix and it's not even close
ReplyDeleteNow that's not to say Rios won't be good next year. He's on a 3 year offensive decline, but its very possible he rebounds to his 2008 level (.350 wOBA), but you've got a player with questionable periphs getting paid $12+ mil a year. Not a good contract to have. JP Riccardi was laughing somewhere until he got fired.
ReplyDeleteum how's nix now? and Rios was a stud this year...
ReplyDeleteI hope you still read this cause "DME rapes rongey" was a terrible argument. I'm not the biggest Rongey fan but you went on the air with a plan and sounded like an idiot. Alex Rios had a bad year, he had a bad year, now he's worse than a journey man before the age of 30? And the fact is that you think Nix is a better baseball player than Alex Rios. Wow - you made no point, no point at all. and Jeffrey from Dekalb? that means you go to NIU?? I really hope this isn't how you think baseball is played... also if someone went .250 and only hit doubles than they'd have about 150 doubles in one season.. ridiculous
ReplyDelete@Anonymous person afraid to reveal their identity:
ReplyDelete1) Yes, I went to NIU last year and now I goto the University of Wisconsin law school and write for The Hardball Times. So yeah, try and knock on my credentials a bit more.
2) The argument is that Rios is overpaid based on his value. I will concede Rios' 2010 is reflective of his true talent and that I was slightly wrong about Rios' value in light of rebound in swinging strikes, swing% and better contact%. People are sometimes wrong. Note that I did not create this title
3) I still stand by my statements of Jayson Nix. Even in a down year by my estimation of his true talent, he still hit for plenty of power. He's not amazing, but he's cheap and he'll be valuable. He's a 20-25 HR capable, average-or-better OF/2B defender. He's no stud, but he's likely a strong role player capable of 2-3.5 WAR over a full season if given the chance.
Also, you missed the point of the all doubles analogy. It was just an illustration of the point that power and ability to get on base are the primary driving forces behind runs creation. Clearly no one hits all doubles.
ReplyDelete"1) Yes, I went to NIU last year and now I goto the University of Wisconsin law school and write for The Hardball Times. So yeah, try and knock on my credentials a bit more. "
ReplyDeleteI don't think your credentials could be knocked any harder than what you just posted.