Comments on: Outtakes: Bill James on his work with the Red Sox, steroids, and what makes a successful baseball player http://www.sethmnookin.com/blog/2006/07/17/outtakes-bill-james-on-his-work-with-the-red-sox-steroids-and-what-makes-a-successful-baseball-player/ Media, Baseball, Boston, the Red Sox, Music, Literature, and Mnookins Fri, 16 May 2008 03:01:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 by: The Feeding the Monster Blog — In which the author discusses Boston, the Red Sox, the media, and very occasionally popular music. » What - you want more on the Mitchell Report? http://www.sethmnookin.com/blog/2006/07/17/outtakes-bill-james-on-his-work-with-the-red-sox-steroids-and-what-makes-a-successful-baseball-player/#comment-321121 Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:48:41 +0000 http://www.sethmnookin.com/blog/2006/07/17/outtakes-bill-james-on-his-work-with-the-red-sox-steroids-and-what-makes-a-successful-baseball-player/#comment-321121 [...] That’s all for now. I’ve written plenty about steroids in the past, including last August, when I wondered why no one was wondering about Roger, and way back in October ‘06, when I mocked the press’s surprise that Clemens had been fingered in he Grimsley affidavit. I also tagged Jason Giambi a gutless punk, ripped into the Players Union for defending the players’ right to destroy their livers, lamented the fact that Jose Canseco seemed to be the only honest guy around, and talked about how Bill James compared steroids to going through a divorce. (Sort of, anyway.) [...] […] That’s all for now. I’ve written plenty about steroids in the past, including last August, when I wondered why no one was wondering about Roger, and way back in October ‘06, when I mocked the press’s surprise that Clemens had been fingered in he Grimsley affidavit. I also tagged Jason Giambi a gutless punk, ripped into the Players Union for defending the players’ right to destroy their livers, lamented the fact that Jose Canseco seemed to be the only honest guy around, and talked about how Bill James compared steroids to going through a divorce. (Sort of, anyway.) […]

]]> by: Jason O. http://www.sethmnookin.com/blog/2006/07/17/outtakes-bill-james-on-his-work-with-the-red-sox-steroids-and-what-makes-a-successful-baseball-player/#comment-132 Mon, 17 Jul 2006 16:53:23 +0000 http://www.sethmnookin.com/blog/2006/07/17/outtakes-bill-james-on-his-work-with-the-red-sox-steroids-and-what-makes-a-successful-baseball-player/#comment-132 James's analogy between Musial's personal issues in 1959 and steroid use is laughable. Minimizing steroids as just another of the 500 issues that can affect a player's performance is similarly specious. We've all read the charades of noteworthy SABR sources analyzing Bonds et al in a ceteris paribus fantasyland that does not include discussion of steoroid/HGH use. This from people who claim to be the vanguards of the rational.... I feel sympathy for the sabermetrician's dilemma. The drug inflated offensive statistics of the past 20 years make fair comparisons to past eras impossible, which is James pioneered. Why is this hard-nosed group taking the easy way out? James’s analogy between Musial’s personal issues in 1959 and steroid use is laughable. Minimizing steroids as just another of the 500 issues that can affect a player’s performance is similarly specious.

We’ve all read the charades of noteworthy SABR sources analyzing Bonds et al in a ceteris paribus fantasyland that does not include discussion of steoroid/HGH use. This from people who claim to be the vanguards of the rational….

I feel sympathy for the sabermetrician’s dilemma. The drug inflated offensive statistics of the past 20 years make fair comparisons to past eras impossible, which is James pioneered. Why is this hard-nosed group taking the easy way out?

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