Jonah Keri, ESPN Columnist

by ravenfly on Sep 10, 2007 3:27 PM EDT Comment 10 comments

This guy is easily my new favorite sportswriter. He writes for Page 2 over at ESPN, yet pens more insightful and reality-based commentary than anything I've seen in quite a while.

And he doesn't even spend half his columns tooting his own horn! Amazing.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. I've enjoyed his columns quite a bit, and I figured some around here would as well if they're not already reading him.

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I Read

I read that article. This guy is GREAT. In the same article, he repeatedly ridiculed award voters, said Nick Punto playing every day was 10 times worse than his performance, used and explained advanced metrics gracefully, AND counted defense in his dealings.

I'm bookmarking this fellow. Thanks.

Baseball is great because you cant take a knee or kill the clock. You gotta put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn shot E Weaver abridged

by AdamOnFirst on Sep 10, 2007 4:05 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Actually

It looks like his picks for awards are actually pretty close to those awarded by those neanderthal sportswriters. And his shot at Morneau's MVP may show that some traditional subjectivity from the standpoint of having a "feel" for what makes teams win may have some relevance after all. For the power-starved Twins, Morneau was just what they needed, hence, "MVP."

by wcooley on Sep 10, 2007 4:34 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Or

Or it was just like he said, Morneau was only the third most valuable player on his own team...

Baseball is great because you cant take a knee or kill the clock. You gotta put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn shot E Weaver abridged

by AdamOnFirst on Sep 10, 2007 4:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Maybe

But I wouldn't use WARP as the sole tool for evaluating this. For one thing, it compares Morneau to a hypothetical "replacement player" that does not exist. In reality, Morneau was replacing guys like Kevin Maas, Scott Stahoviak, and Dougie M. And if Morneau went down, he would not be replaced by a league average player, but rather the one-and-only Garret Jones. Suddenly, Morneau's huge numbers look a lot more valuable.

by wcooley on Sep 10, 2007 5:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Morneau

The general manager's failure to provide a good backup option or a good first baseman in the recent past is no reflection on Justin Morneau's performance, just as GM building good offense SHOULD have to relevance to the skill of a starting pitcher.

Baseball is great because you cant take a knee or kill the clock. You gotta put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn shot E Weaver abridged

by AdamOnFirst on Sep 10, 2007 6:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Could be a factor for awards, though

While I agree that the quality of backups doesn't affect the raw value of a player as compared to the rest of the league, it certainly affects his value to his team. The criteria for the MVP are so vague that it's a matter of personal preference whether you take that into account - while I don't actually agree with that approach, I don't find it completely ludicrous, either.

The Cy Young is different because it doesn't attempt to reward the nebulous concept of "value", so it should simply be measuring the candidates' performance against all other pitchers in the league. Of course, it doesn't always work out that way (see: Bartolo Colon), but it's at least a more well-defined award.

by BeefMaster on Sep 11, 2007 9:42 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Jonah Keri...

...used to be employed by Baseball Prospectus, but I imagine he makes better money working for the Worldwide Leader. Incidentally, I met him once, and he seemed like a pretty nice guy.

by ubelmann on Sep 10, 2007 8:10 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

That

That makes sense.

Baseball is great because you cant take a knee or kill the clock. You gotta put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn shot E Weaver abridged

by AdamOnFirst on Sep 10, 2007 8:35 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

i read this this morning and was going to post...

and was glad to see you already did. Keri's columns are a mainstay for me. I was suprised you didn't explicitly post this excerpt:

Nick Punto: No one in the big leagues has had a season as bad as Punto's. He's only the third-biggest bust, though, given his already modest expectations. Still, the Twins infielder is hitting a scary .199/.286/.255. Punto has a chance to become the first major leaguer to hit below .200 with enough at-bats to qualify for the batting title since the immortal Rob Deer did it 16 years ago. The fact that the Twins have kept trotting this guy out there is 10 times more galling than Punto's performance by itself.

by montanatwinsfan on Sep 11, 2007 1:03 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs