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May 27, 2014
BP Daily Podcast
Effectively Wild Episode 457: Do the Astros Have a Perception Problem?
by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller
Ben and Sam discuss whether the Astros' analytical approach has become (or could become) a PR problem.
Link to Houston Chronicle article
Download Here (33 MB; 35:52)
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Ben Lindbergh is an author of Baseball Prospectus.
Click here to see Ben's other articles.
You can contact Ben by clicking here
Sam Miller is an author of Baseball Prospectus.
Click here to see Sam's other articles.
You can contact Sam by clicking here
<< Previous Article
Overthinking It: The 1... (05/23)
|
<< Previous Column
BP Daily Podcast: Effe... (05/23)
|
Next Column >>
BP Daily Podcast: Effe... (05/28)
|
Next Article >>
Interleague Report: We... (05/27)
|
4 comments have been left for this article. 
Playoff Prospectus: PECOTA Odds and ALCS Gam...
Re: “It’s hard to play for a GM who just sees you as a number instead of a person.”
At the risk of dredging up the tired nerd-basement-spreadsheet cliché, saber-friendly analysts and fans do frequently lapse into the language of things to characterize (human) players. As in, they are “assets” from which value is “extracted”. In general this is a problem of descriptive deficiency, not soullessness, but it’s not so hard to imagine how that deficiency, in the context of management-employee power relations, might be alienating.
This is how virtually all companies few their employees. Why should baseball be any different?
But if they "get fired" because they are not "being productive", they are still set for life.
I don’t expect baseball to be different. And I doubt the Astros are any more or less callous than most other teams. Bearing matters, though, don’t you think? In my experience, even cynics prefer employers who have manners enough to keep the fundamental just-a-number-ness of it all tucked away under a layer or three of niceties.