Jim Thome hits 600th homer

[Beninator]

Well the thing is, in the end, the veterans' committee is going to let these guys in, so why not just do it at the beginning and not go through all these politics on the way?

I think the Veterans Committee solution does a couple of things. First, it gives some time for the problem to solve itself. See Pete Rose finally admitting to gambling while managing the Reds. Secondly, I think that it is a form of punishment to the players for using PED's at some point during their career in this era. Thirdly, would you elect a player like Rafael Palmeiro to the HOF? I don't think that I would.

I wouldn't use the Veterans Committee approach with all potential HOF'ers, but I think it is an interesting approach for players such as Clemmens, Mcguire etc.

It is an interesting debate with no right or wrong answer really...

 

[Beninator]

I love how we're actually having a conversation about Moneyball, though. Having a real, statistical debate on two players Haven't found many people who actually know something about sabermetrics.

And this goes out to thefish7. If you think that Moneyball or James doen't speak badly about strikeouts, you haven't even paid attention to what they said. There's paragraph upon paragraph in Moneyball detailing how a strikeout is by far the worst thing a player can do to kill the chances of scoring. The whole book is about being efficient with who you sign and how they play.

There's a reason Adam Dunn was signed by the White Sox, they have no sabermetricans working under them

Love Bill James's analysis... I have never read Moneyball... That is one of those books that I have been meaning to get to one of these days!:idea:

 

[sousaman2089]

Love Bill James's analysis... I have never read Moneyball... That is one of those books that I have been meaning to get to one of these days!:idea:

Moneyball is a great book, and it's pretty cheap today It is the only book I've read that really showcases how amazingly hard it is just to get to the playoffs themselves in baseball. The story itself, how a 102 win team loses Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon can come back to win 103 next year, is quite astounding.

Now with the Veterans committee, I think it's great for overlooked players of the past, especially those in the Negro leagues, because the whatever we perceive to an East coast bias today was 50 times stronger back in the early days of baseball, so a lot of players got overlooked.

But to let steroid users to slid through regular voting and get elected by the Veterans would be a cop out in my mind. The again, baseball doesn't like to handle things the need to be dealt with anyways, so maybe that will happen.

Thome will definitely get the "There's no suspicion of steroids here" bump, but it's stupid other players with no real evidence whatsoever will be accused of doing steroids.

Then there's the "steroids weren't illegal when they were rampant, so why should people be punished? It's like drinking before Prohibition!" argument, but that's a whole different thread.

 

[Beninator]

Moneyball is a great book, and it's pretty cheap today It is the only book I've read that really showcases how amazingly hard it is just to get to the playoffs themselves in baseball. The story itself, how a 102 win team loses Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon can come back to win 103 next year, is quite astounding.

Now with the Veterans committee, I think it's great for overlooked players of the past, especially those in the Negro leagues, because the whatever we perceive to an East coast bias today was 50 times stronger back in the early days of baseball, so a lot of players got overlooked.

But to let steroid users to slid through regular voting and get elected by the Veterans would be a cop out in my mind. The again, baseball doesn't like to handle things the need to be dealt with anyways, so maybe that will happen.

Thome will definitely get the "There's no suspicion of steroids here" bump, but it's stupid other players with no real evidence whatsoever will be accused of doing steroids.

Then there's the "steroids weren't illegal when they were rampant, so why should people be punished? It's like drinking before Prohibition!" argument, but that's a whole different thread.

Just downloaded Moneyball to my Ipad. I was looking for a good read! One other aspect that I ignored is the competition on the HOF ballot when Thome is up for election.

 

[Beninator]

Moneyball is a great book, and it's pretty cheap today It is the only book I've read that really showcases how amazingly hard it is just to get to the playoffs themselves in baseball. The story itself, how a 102 win team loses Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon can come back to win 103 next year, is quite astounding.

A friend of mine just recommended The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First by Jonah Keri. It looks to be along the same type of sabermetric type of book as Moneyball. Have you or anyone read this book?