I am pretty much to the point where anyone who starts talking up “chemistry” as the primary determiner of team success is filed in my mind in the same region as people who claim that the dinosaurs and other ancient creatures were wiped out in the Flood. They are taking a belief I am willing to respect and listen about and taking it to the worst possible extreme to only make themselves look like fools.

Considering the Orioles already are forcing themselves to keep Endy Chavez on the roster over younger outfielders like Xavier Avery and LJ Hoes, I was set to be extremely unhappy if Pierre ended up in Baltimore. Now? If the O’s trade anything more than the rotting corpse of Stringer Bell for him, I am going to break something.

Probably my laptop. I want a new one anyway, so at least that will alleviate some of the pain I will suffer over the next several months. I’ve got Carbonite, I’ll be fine.

etc are all extremely useful attributes that help teams win games

I’d feel a lot more comfortable about all of those if I wasn’t being force fed some ex post facto BS about how a team always plays the right way, doesn’t make mistakes, etc and see them boot routine grounders, drop pop ups, and throw the ball around the infield (aka last few years the Twins and Angels were in the playoffs).

*This is a damning indictment of his hitting, which compares even worse now that he’s a LF and not a CF.

IF having good fundamentals results in better fielding, hitting, or base running, then it is incorporated in the metrics that measure such things.

IF hustling results in making a couple of extra defensive plays and beating out a few GBs and taking an extra base, such things are incorporated into the associated measures of performance.

No one is saying that you don’t need to have those things, but those thing that do result in better (or worse) performances are already manifest in the performance itself.

No reason to be disappointed.

The 2011 Cardinals won because of tangibles, they hit the snot out of the ball, got great bullpen work for the last few months, and got tangible contributions from everyone on the roster (even Jake Westbrook).

Unwittingly, Juan Pierre makes a good point.

Folks, sports aren’t chemistry problems, no matter how many advanced stats are eventually developed. I would bet a million dollars the smartest stats guy around with no real baseball experience wouldn’t last two spring training games trying to be a manager.