Stephen Kelly

At some point, baseball has to get back to valuing ballplayers and not just numbers on a screen. Give me the Freddie Freemans, the Buster Poseys, Hunter Pences, Pablo Sandovals, Michael Youngs, Ian Kinslers of the world. Guys who just flat out know how to play the game. Everyone wants to talk launch angle and exit velo, but what happened to valuing a quality at bat?” The 9-pitch battle that might end in an out, but forces a pitcher to show everything he’s got. The guy who hits behind the runner, takes what’s given, or just refuses to give a pitcher an easy inning. Those at-bats might not look sexy in the box score, but they show up in the 7th, 8th, and 9th. Some of these dudes could absolutely leave the yard too. That’s the point. They weren’t one-dimensional. Somewhere along the way, we confused measurable tools with knowing how to win baseball games. I’m not against analytics or hitting the ball hard, but there is an art to winning that you can’t fully measure. We need more guys who know how to play baseball, not just hitters, not just athletes, ballplayers. And I promise you, those dudes never go out of style