Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Repack Haiku #17 (Scott Bailes)

Nineteen-ninety Fleer's
Vital Signs attempt to try
advanced statistics


1990 Fleer #484 Scott Bailes

I belong to the generation where the most complex baseball stat was ERA. I knew how to figure out a player's batting average, but that was about it. When different stats started showing up, it took a little thought to figure out.

Like when Fleer introduced a trio of new ways to evaluate players:

1990 Fleer #484 Scott Bailes (back)

Walk and Strikeout Ratios were new concepts to me. 15 year old me understood what these ratios represented, but didn't have enough context to know what was considered average, what was considered All-Star level, and what was downright historic. Was a .269 OBA good? (No, not really) Today, stats have gotten so complex that you need a mathematics degree to figure out how to calculate them. On one hand, it's fun, and great if you want to debate the merits of player X over player Y, but a part of me will still wish for simpler stats like we found on the back of our cards.

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