Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
I would just like some acknowledgement that the stats are not consistent nor have been proven to show causality in any way what so ever. Those who ascribe to advanced stats are hardcore believers, even when the stats don't prove to be accurate in any shape or form.
Yes, let's toss out data that is not precisely accurate and effective. That's what you're supposed to do with bad data sets. That's my problem with advanced stats. Many of these stats don't make sense as the relations are not causal of anything. The attempt to model a very complex game with a greater degree of chaos in the mix, which cannot be done with very simplistic measures being used. This isn't baseball where any event is binary in nature. Many of the stats don't prove anything, and if anything have been proven to be bogus in what they do prove. That is why I would rather rely on the eyeballs than erroneous information.
I hope this is accurate, because I'm not certain there is much difference between the two other than one being a swell guy and the other be crusty. |
No stat is infallible, but no stat should be ignored because it can't be proven 100% linked to results either.
+/- has always been flawed because of circumstances that could build pluses or minuses despite not being the cause of good or bad.
Shots on goal used to mean you out played someone when really it only indicated that most of the time with no actual look to quality of shots
An independent source counting the number of times each team shoots the puck from within a predescribed area on the ice is an accurate and helpful tool. Not all shots from within that home plate are created equal but that doesn't change the fairly tight relationship that teams with more shot attempts in those dangerous areas generally win.
I've done nothing but challenge fancy stats. I just wrote an article that dug deeply into the types of passes each team makes to try and add some clarity as to whether or not the Flames were getting goalies moving enough to actually create a dangerous chance.
I challenge everything.
I don't throw out any information out of some archaic view that the scoreboard is the only thing that matters.