Reasons or Excuses

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DOUGHBOYS
Posts: 13088
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:00 pm

Reasons or Excuses

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Mon Apr 30, 2018 8:58 am

It's only the end of April and I am tired of the blah blah blah.
There is ALWAYS reasons or excuses for players now
Everywhere we turn.
Blah blah blah
Like these....

Carlos Santana is hitting .160 BUT he is hitting the ball really hard.
It is so because StatCasts says it's so.

Carlos Santana is hitting .160 BUT he has walked 20 times

Matt Carpenter is hitting .155 BUT he has walked 19 times

Jordy Mercer has zero homers and a .244 Avg BUT he has nine doubles
(No Owners, doubles do not turn to homers)

Billy Hamilton is hitting .169 BUT he has five stolen bases

BUT's SUCK.

We don't care that StatCast says Carlos Santana is hitting the ball hard.
How does hitting the ball hard help the five roto categories.
Here is what I'd rather see....

Matt Davidson has nine homers. BUT he is lucky to have a batting average over .200
At least in Davidson's 'luck', he is helping me in three categories.
Those statistics are already in the fantasy bank.
Give me the luck of Davidson over the hard luck of Santana anytime!

When are fantasy folks going to realize that walks do NOT help most players?
It's a sabr thing, not a fantasy thing.
Chris Davis has 15 hits, 10 walks, and two homers.
He has scored three times.
Yep, I cherry picked that one..... On purpose.
Because what is the help in a fantasy team in Davis walking?
He won't steal. He's not scoring. It takes the bat out of his hands.
We drafted him for the power. Walks make him powerless.
If somebody says, 'Chris Davis is only hitting .167 BUT he has 10 walks....slap him.
Those 10 walks are helping the mecca of sabr categories....the OBP.
It does not help fantasy owners.

We can go the other way and say that Ozzie Albies needs no 'reasons' or 'excuses' for his start.
He has been electric and one of the most engaging players to watch in all of baseball.
Seven walks.
That's it.
Seven.
And Albies leads baseball in runs scored.
At the end of year, sabrs will criticize his aggressive approach at the plate.
His owners do not care.
Stupid sabrs.

Back to Santana, what does it matter that he has hit the ball hard?
That is now in the past.
If slumping now, does that mean he could get worse?
After all, the experts tell us that if doing anything above a player's ability, regression is around the corner.
It may not be a bad thing for Santana and his owners.
Maybe he starts hitting balls more softly and they start falling in.

Excuses are made for every player.
My favorite is a hometown player fouling a ball off and having the announcer say 'He just missed it'.
As if he knew the outcome if hitting it more squarely.
Or a player taking a called third strike, only to have the broadcaster blame the umpire.
In fantasy, we only care about the numbers in categories.
If our player was robbed of a hit on a diving catch, it is an out like a strike out.
If our pitcher gives up a walk because of a bad umpiring call, we know that it counts against our WHIP and possibly our ERA.
We rat's ass excuses.
We deal with what is, not what could have been.
Santana is hitting .160
The conception of that .160 really doesn't matter to a fantasy owner.
We know that we have to make decisions on Santana and other players who are faltering.
If Santana has a two game set Mon-Thu, we may sit him for four games of Joe Mauer to prop up our average a bit.

During draft season, we listen to 'excuses' and weigh them.
It is relevant in that we decide who to choose on the basis of prognosing their outcomes.
For instance, before the 2019 drafts, it may be said that Carlos Santana hit .221 in 2018, BUT hit in a lot of hard luck.
It is THEN that we listen to reasons or excuses.
Fantasy players don't have that luxury during the season.
The numbers are what they are.
Just like injuries.
And no matter how those numbers are rationalized, they are in each one of our columns.
How they got there, whether by luck or hard luck, is of little import now.
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!

DOUGHBOYS
Posts: 13088
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:00 pm

Re: Reasons or Excuses

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Tue May 01, 2018 1:03 pm

More 'reasons'....in a capsule...

'Ryan Madson plans to be more cautious about his workload moving forward.

Madson threw 75 pitches over four appearances during a recent stretch before being blasted for six runs over two-thirds of an inning on April 18. He woke up in severe pain the next day and wasn't even able to play catch again until last Monday. "They’ve given me the autonomy … and that’s why it’s my fault," said Madson. "I didn’t even know I had thrown that many pitches. Had I known, I’d be more cynical. I had rough innings all week — pretty much all year. I knew I had long innings the whole week but I wasn’t counting pitches." Ideally the Nationals will keep better track of a pitcher with Madson's history and age and even push back even if he says he's good to go, so it's a lesson learned for everyone.'
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!

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