Or WHIP? Or some other 21st century stat?
Recently picked up the first baseball magazine of the year — Lindy’s Sports Baseball 2021 Preview — and feel it’s already useless.
Predictions are a main feature of most of these publications. Problem is, because they are prepared and released weeks before the season starts, they cannot take into considerations things like Trevor Bauer’s free agency signing by the LA Dodgers today and the effect that might well have not only on the team that picked up him, but the one that lost him as well (in this case the Cincinnati Reds).
To a lesser extent, the same could be said for the New York Mets, who traded once-promising pitcher Steven Matz to the Toronto Blue Jays. Does this improve or hinder the third-place finish slated for therm by this particular magazine?
Point is, many of these preseason prognostications aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. They are made for a “perfect world” scenario. That is, no spring training trades or last-minute signings and certainly no injuries. The Dodgers would probably be okay without Bauer, but what if he had picked the Mets instead?
I mention WAR as symbolic of how the ever-changing presentation of the game has changed even the way we read about it. Serious fantasy players (of which I am not one) demand up-to-the minute data, rendering magazines such as Lindy’s even more archaic.
But they’re still kind of fun and a habit, so I guess I’ll keep on wasting my money.
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