Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Updated update

Wanted to add to this post a little bit. Not much going on in baseball land, one week away from pitchers and catchers reporting.

First of all, if you haven't read Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, go read it, seriously it's $15 for the paperback... Second of all, here's a great article using a concept from the book. Analyzing the best lineups constructed by stats, intuition and ahem blind intuition. I love this kind of analysis, I know it doesn't add anything to the analysis of the game itself but it does research a theory utilized in a non-sport context to see if it applies in sport. I can't wait to see the result of this at the end of the season. Somehow I don't think Aria will do well. This is what research is all about, testing research by building upong it in different situations.

And here's an interview with super-agent Boras. I find it interesting that he has 30, 40 people and a million dollar computer system just to track statistics and information, this guy doesn't just negotiate well, he knows the facts that maybe some teams don't even know. The information he has since 1871 is absolutely incredible...He comes off as a bit egotistical but you can't argue with results. Of course this could have easily been the beginning of a good book about Scott Boras...There isn't as much money for him but you have to wonder how useful he would be as consultant/GM for a Major League with all that information his company has at it's fingertips. Being a general manager is knowing the value of a commodity in a market, and no one has done that better than Boras in the past few years.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So I read that Boras article. Good read, he comes across like I though he would be. I think that Chan Ho Park shit in particular is a cop-out. He definitely seems to care about his clients well being.
I hadn't ever though that before in regards to your point about him being a consultant/gm. Surely he wouldn't fair any worse then some of the others.
You're about the fifth person who I've had recommend that book. Perhaps I'll sludge down to Chapters after work and pick it up. At least it's a paperback. I love reading but I hate how expensive hardcover books are. There are thousands of books I want to get everytime I go in there, but can't get down with spending $40 for a hardcover. It's not like you can continually read a book over and over like buying a record. Anyway, sorry to hijack, off the soapbox I go.
Who like's old stretch and bobbito?