As the
Boston Herald's Steve Buckley has surmised, the cadres of statistical geeks in the Fenway basement may be
"spitting up their Mountain Dew" after hearing their big boss
John Henry is abandoning analytics. However, they may feel a little more secure after their under-boss,
Dave Dombrowski, walked back those comments a little yesterday. This whole issue has been incorrectly reduced to
MoneyBall vs.
No MoneyBall. Things in life—let alone baseball—are rarely that stark and simple. The
truth is that the Red Sox organization has been (and will continue to be) a
blend of approaches—part analytic and part "gut". As it should be.
An excellent article by Lee Igel on
Forbes.com goes into detail on this point. It suggests that a newly evolving approach will
combine Sabermetrics with a an understanding of human decision-making (flowing from the field of 'behavioral economics'). That's where stats guru
Bill James (
still a Sox employee) is headed. So, chances are, that's where the
Good Ship Carmine Hose is headed as well.
