I agree with the other comments. The beauty is being taken out of the game. Does any fan really care about these things.?
1
This is MLB playing to the video-gaming demographic. What's next ? Interactivity, where the video-gamers can control the action on the field ? Baseball does not need nor benefit from this distracting nonsense.
1
The older I get, the more important I find it is to change with the times. But baseball makes that difficult -- daily interleague play is bad enough, but the worst plague visited upon baseball fans is over-analysis. I don't recall Phil Rizzuto ever talking about two-seamers vs. four-seamers, and the only pitch speed he ever mentioned was Nolan Ryan's. Maybe.
You want to see how great baseball is without incessant droning? Watch the oldest preserved full telecast -- Game Seven of the 1952 World Series --https://youtu.be/hqZnPQnxO9U
Thank me later.
You want to see how great baseball is without incessant droning? Watch the oldest preserved full telecast -- Game Seven of the 1952 World Series --https://youtu.be/hqZnPQnxO9U
Thank me later.
2
Great. More junk. I just want to watch the game.
3
Good grief. How much more fun are they going to take out of the game?
When I watch a skilled athlete pursuing what he/she does best, I want to relish the art and the excitement; I don't need to hear the mathematics involved. It's of interest to me once in a while, maybe. But constantly? Yuck.
The screen is cluttered enough during a televised baseball game. The little rectangle on the side of the screen showing the position of a pitch becomes increasingly distracting. Those fatuous broadcasters do enough time-filling, time-wasting, empty jabbering. I have no desire to hear them reeling off any more numbers with fractions and decimal places attached.
Why doesn't MLB just get it over with and put robots on the field?
When I watch a skilled athlete pursuing what he/she does best, I want to relish the art and the excitement; I don't need to hear the mathematics involved. It's of interest to me once in a while, maybe. But constantly? Yuck.
The screen is cluttered enough during a televised baseball game. The little rectangle on the side of the screen showing the position of a pitch becomes increasingly distracting. Those fatuous broadcasters do enough time-filling, time-wasting, empty jabbering. I have no desire to hear them reeling off any more numbers with fractions and decimal places attached.
Why doesn't MLB just get it over with and put robots on the field?
1
Two words for Statcast -- INCREDIBLY BORING. Who cares other than the .000001% of the audience who are statheads.
1
While we're at it let's analyze the Mona Lisa for brush strokes per square inch, sunsets for their exact luminosity value, and count the number of spots on a leopard. That's great there are people who enjoy baseball more with a bombardment of stats and data, but let them seek this out on the internet during a game, don't force us to watch it. I'm only 23, it's too early for me to become a cranky old fan.
4
The Bill James revolution was based on an insight, not a statistic. The insight was that the batter's task is to produce runs, not get a hit. That insight led to a reevaluation of statistics. On-base-average and slugging percentage became more important, batting average less so. Statistics that help understands a batter's contribution to producing runs and a fielder's contribution to blocking them are valuable. Others like route efficiency might have training value, but tell us nothing about the game or the player's contribution.
1
But, but, what about their right to privacy? ; >}
Is anyone watching the game anymore?
1
Give me something I can use. like measuring the additional volume level, particularly at frequencies annoying to human ears, of the gazillion commercials we are bombarded with during the course of the game? Then automatically generate and send a full report to the FCC, which is supposedly concerned about such things.
2
“We’ve seen 98-99 percent route efficiencies, which is incredible.”
Given they are one of the thirty or so best in the world at doing that, and that they are being paid very well to be efficient at their position, I'd expect scores to be up there. I guess it will take some time to determine, in the eye of the public, what is average and what is exceptional. We'll see.
Given they are one of the thirty or so best in the world at doing that, and that they are being paid very well to be efficient at their position, I'd expect scores to be up there. I guess it will take some time to determine, in the eye of the public, what is average and what is exceptional. We'll see.
Stats and graphics are fun so why not? My biggest beef is the failure of television broadcasts, local and national, to show for a few seconds how the defense is positioned for each pitch. This is crucial for following, understanding and enjoying the game. Instead we get lingering closeups of a player or manager on the bench or the pitcher's or hitter's head as the next pitch is readied. We're not televising a rock concert or reality show here, we're televising a game where the defense holds the ball. Fans may like to know how the players are going to get to that ball when it's hit.
2
As we move deeper into the 21st century, the methods for quantifying baseball performance is changing, it will make it more difficult to compare the different eras of baseball.....,but will it be able to measure that "X" factor.....that mystery that creates greatness......??....because that's what inherently intrigues us....what makes one player GREAT and the other just ok??....all of the new "bells and whistles" of modernity will not be able to quantify that X factor....and that's why we still watch sports with baited breath......
I just wanna watch a darn baseball game, for crying out loud.
Stop cluttering my screen with garbage.
Stop cluttering my screen with garbage.
1
We ruin everything in our efforts to be increasingly precise. As I watched this year, something seemed off, making my favorite sport a chore to either watch or listen to. We might as well have robots play baseball.
This endless nonsense of quantification is like gas: it fills all the available space, thereby giving "analysts" something to talk about endlessly. In baseball, as in other areas of life, this is pathetic and boring. Will we have to pay to avoid having to listen to this drivel and just watch the game? I saw one example of this last night and found it far more annoying than anything else. Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.
1
If you've watched any games broadcast on ESPN this year, you can't help but notice that their pitch-tracking / strike-zone box is now superimposed directly over the catcher instead of tucked down in the corner. And it's there all game long, live with every pitch, instead of just for the occasional replay.
It's annoying, distracting and, for me anyway, takes away from the game instead of enhancing it.
It's annoying, distracting and, for me anyway, takes away from the game instead of enhancing it.
3
Pathetic !
Wait, let me expand on that a little: seriously pathetic!!
Excuse me while I go back to actually watching the baseball game.
Wait, let me expand on that a little: seriously pathetic!!
Excuse me while I go back to actually watching the baseball game.
1
This sort of statistical tracking seems useful for a scout or a GM, but I can't fathom caring about the rotation of a curveball, or the reaction time of the left fielder on a liner to the gap. I just want to watch the darn game! And sure, on occasion, on a really exceptional play, I may want some extra details. But how about MLB makes a website where I can go and review that data at my leisure, rather than throwing it in my face?
1
This tendency to measure everything in life is ruinous. From Fitbit to the workplace (those poor UPS drivers and schoolteachers) and now Statcast. Will Statcast measure whether a player is a team leader or a bad influence in the locker room? Can you measure the worth of a pristine forest other than to value the wood if all the trees are cut? I think it was Einstein who said that not everything that can be measured is worth measuring. Honestly, I think those doing the measuring would prefer to have robots than humans.
24
Major League Baseball meets Analysis Paralysis... film at eleven.
9
Statcast could be great for soccer, also.
Statcast could never and will never quantify Babe Ruth.
13
(Disclaimer: Get off my lawn.)
I watched some of the Cards-Nats game tonight. Most of this seems not only pointless, but cluttering. For one single to left, they ran a replay with a green line superimposed over the ball's path into the outfield. Then a box popped up telling us the velocity and launch angle and, I think, something else as well. Who cares? It was a liner between the shortstop and the third baseman. How does it add anything to tell us the launch angle?!?
These sorts of things add about as much to the viewing pleasure, for me, as telling me the chemical composition of the third most-common paint color in my favorite Van Gogh. Or making up some elaborate attractiveness matrix to tell me whether the swimsuit model I'm looking at is attractive. If I ever need such a thing then I'm already dead.
I watched some of the Cards-Nats game tonight. Most of this seems not only pointless, but cluttering. For one single to left, they ran a replay with a green line superimposed over the ball's path into the outfield. Then a box popped up telling us the velocity and launch angle and, I think, something else as well. Who cares? It was a liner between the shortstop and the third baseman. How does it add anything to tell us the launch angle?!?
These sorts of things add about as much to the viewing pleasure, for me, as telling me the chemical composition of the third most-common paint color in my favorite Van Gogh. Or making up some elaborate attractiveness matrix to tell me whether the swimsuit model I'm looking at is attractive. If I ever need such a thing then I'm already dead.
31
Statcast looks awesome, but we didn't need it to tell us that the *only* time one should ever slide into first base is when the 1B is off the bag due to an inaccurate throw and has to tag you for any chance of recording the out. Doing so on every other occasion causes you to reach first less quickly and increases the possibility of injury. It may look more exciting, but the outcome is very predictable.
8