As a couple guys here have noted already, a significant portion of Team FanGraphs descended (literally, via iron bird) this past weekend upon the waterless dreamland that is Phoenix, Arizona.
The result was a super-good time, as we got to watch a whole bunch of baseball (including the Royals, twice!) and make a bunch of incredibly nerdy jokes that made on-lookers very jealous. If I have one complaint, it’s that my deluxe hotel room looked absolutely nothing like my mother’s basement, a fact I found incredibly disconcerting.
One thing that this past weekend allowed me to do is to get a better sense of the writers here — what greases their respective wheels, what gets their respective goats. It occurs to me that this sort of information might be of interest to our Wide Readership. Thus, I present here the scouting report for Team FanGraphs (or, for that portion of Team FanGraphs that made the trip).
How to evaluate a sabermetric blogger, though? That’s the question I asked myself — and which I think I’ve answered adequately, if not excellently. With deference to our scouting friends, I’ve decided to embrace the Five Tools framework. Here are the tools I believe are essential to the sabermetric blogger:
Number Stuff (NS) – Encompasses a few skills, including: database skills, math skills, player valuation skills, and (duh) nunchuck skills. I call it “stuff,” on account of my own rating in this tool is pretty bad — about a 30 or 35, probably.
Nerd Cred (NC) – Pale skin and glasses are important factors here, as is the possession of an advanced degree or some other nerdy non-baseball specialization.
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Baseballing Cred (BC) – A measure of actual baseballing knowledge. A high-ish rating requires not only an encyclopedic knowledge of major leaguers, but also actual knowledge from the various horses’ mouths. For example, if you think Eric Byrnes will get starts against lefties, that’ll net you a 50 rating. If Tony Frigging Blengino tells you that Eric Byrnes will get starts against lefties, that’s closer to a 70 or 75.
Range (RA) – Maybe or maybe not overlapping with Nerd Cred, this measures the blogicator’s comfort in dealing with topics non-baseball. In particular, pop culture references are important here.
Want To (WT) – An assessment of the writer’s industry. Making multiple daily posts — that, or contributing to multiple sources — will help the blogicator’s rating in this category. The WT rating are generally high around here.
For each tool, I use the standard 20-80 scouting scale, a brief explanation of which you can read here via Erik Manning’s Prosect Primer at Future Redbirds:
The 20-80 Scale is a tool that is used to measure various aspects of a given player’s tools. The tools they measure would obviously vary by group. 50 would be considered to be MLB average, while a “plus” tool would be any tool that is graded at 60, and “plus-plus” would be rated 70 or higher.
It’s important to remember that (a) 50 is a good score, as it suggests that the writer in question has league-average skills for the tool in question and that (b) many FG-ers score in the above-average range because, well, they write for FanGraphs.
And with that, I present the much-ballyhooed Team FanGraphs Scouting Report. Mind you, these numbers aren’t set in stone (and Moore’s especially could take a dip if he keeps belittling my math skills), but intended more as a first pass.
Dave Allen, Heat Mapper
NS NC BC RA WT
75 70 55 70 70
Comments: Allen scores well across the board. His knowledge of film and music (he understood offhand references to both Paul Thomas Anderson and Pavement) gets him good Range numbers, and his
frigging PhD in Ecology (with a mathematics focus) helps his Nerd Cred, too.
_____
David Appelman, Dark Overlord
NS NC BC RA WT
80 80 80 80 80
Comments: Appelman looks more like a Dark Overlord in person than he does on the internet. Also, he paid for a whole bunch of crap. He can have whatever scores he wants.
_____
Dave Cameron, Sworn Enemy
NS NC BC RA WT
70 65 75 40 80
Comments: Cameron has some pretty lofty numbers — as befits one of the giants of the sabermetric blogosphere — but gets killed in Range for admitting publicly that he doesn’t think Will Ferrell is funny. I mean, what the what is that about? His Nerd Cred is tough to figure. Yeah, he’s got that voice and that face, but the presence of the lovely and talented Mrs. Cameron problematizes things a bunch.
_____
Matthew Carruth, Ace of Database
NS NC BC RA WT
80 65 55 60 70
Comments: Doesn’t wear his glasses all the time, which really hurts his Nerd Cred. Literally eats SQL for breakfast, though, which drives his Number Stuff rating up. Also, I don’t know how to mark him down for it, but deserves some sort of penalty for making derisive comments about East Coast. I’ll get you, Carruth!
_____
Matt Klaassen, Philosophizer
NS NC BC RA WT
65 70 55 70 70
Comments: Joins Allen in the PhD crowd, with an even bigger RA factor, owing to the fact that said PhD involves a discipline in the humanities. Numbers Stuff rating is an already strong 65, with the likelihood of improving. Is kinda like the Brian Giles of sabermetric blogging, I’m thinking: got a late start, but has a high ceiling despite that fact.
_____
Brian Joura, Strong and Silent Type
NS NC BC RA WT
NA NA NA NA 80
Comments: Joura had the huge task of representing for FanGraphs’ Polish triumvirate, as
Joe Pawl and
David Goleblahblah were unable to make the trip. That’s a big responsibility. Overall, Joura is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside a fantasy writer, which makes me reluctant to offer ratings on most of his tools. The one thing I
was able to assess is his Want To: Joura led Team FanGraphs in spring training posts with three.
_____
Jack Moore, Math Snob
NS NC BC RA WT
75 60 55 65 70
Comments: I actually don’t know what Moore’s databasing skills are, but, apparently, he got a 5 on the AP Calc exam in his age-15 season. Also, while discussing optimal batted ball trajectory, he actually said, “It’s just trig, Carson.” Made a number of other math-related and smack-worthy comments, but made up for it by quoting Louis CK at random. Finally, Nerd Cred is hurt by fact that he plays actual baseball (even if he can’t handle my wiffle slider).
_____
Patrick Newman, NPB Expert
NS NC BC RA WT
55 60 70 70 70
Comments: Newman is encyclopedic about anything even remotely concerning Japanese baseball (including my dogg, Colby Lewis), which gets him a high BC rating. Plus, his ability to speak Japanese helps the RA rating However, like Cameron, the presence of the Mrs. really hurt his NC.
_____
Bryan Smith, Prospect Maven
NS NC BC RA WT
50 40 70 NA 70
Comments: Smith’s Nerd Cred is hard to figure. He has so much knowledge in his brain, but doesn’t wear glasses, has something like a tan, and wears his ballcap at an angle far too jaunty for the average nerd. Despite a dearth of math or database skills, gets an average Number Stuff rating for his recent prospect valuation posts.
Is it bad to laugh out loud in class?
“I actually don’t know what Moore’s databasing skills are, but, apparently, he got a 5 on the AP Calc exam in his age-15 season.”
Yeah, that one got me.