Are we sure Trout is an above average defender? By DWAR, he was above average last season, but is below average this season. So we need next season as well to find out what kind of fielder he is, according to bad luck's analysis.

And it's interesting to see this stat goons trot out the amount of steals someone has, as the SABR community has stressed how steals have little value.

Posted by stinenavy on 8/10/2013 10:35:00 PM (view original):
Are we sure Trout is an above average defender? By DWAR, he was above average last season, but is below average this season. So we need next season as well to find out what kind of fielder he is, according to bad luck's analysis.

And it's interesting to see this stat goons trot out the amount of steals someone has, as the SABR community has stressed how steals have little value.

I'm pretty sure no one has said steals have no value.

Steals have value.  The average 'steal attempt' across the league and for many players may not have much because of the rate of CS and the fact that a CS costs more runs, on average, than a successful steal creates.  The value for an individual player depends on his success rate, obviously.

Posted by trsnoke on 8/11/2013 10:02:00 AM (view original):
Steals have value.  The average 'steal attempt' across the league and for many players may not have much because of the rate of CS and the fact that a CS costs more runs, on average, than a successful steal creates.  The value for an individual player depends on his success rate, obviously.

That. Also the argument has been made that steals are overvalued. Guys who can steal a lot of bases get paid more than they actually produce.

Posted by cobra on 8/10/2013 9:18:00 PM (view original):

Posted by burnsy483 on 8/10/2013 3:20:00 PM (view original):
Player A: .330 AVG, 35 homers, 120 RBI, below average defender, 0 steals

Player B: .328 AVG, 33 homers, 117 RBI, above average defender, 40 steals

It's a hypothetical, yes, but who had a better year? Does it matter if Player A led the league on those first 3 categories?

That's great, but that's not what happened. It was much wider than that in hrs and rbis

Correct, it's a hypothetical. I'm trying to get some of you off the DERRRR TRIPLE CROWN mentality. If you want to argue Cabrera had a better offensive year, you probably are right. But don't say "he won the triple crown, obviously he has to win MVP" because that's short-sighted.