Timothy Claro

You're damn right I'm romanticizing the individual, that's the entire reason true baseball fans fell in love with the sport! We all had favorite players, we loved seeing heroic people do heroic things. • Bob Gibson pitching on a broken leg • Babe Ruth out-homering entire teams • Hank Aaron breaking legendary records • Tom Seaver striking out a billion in a row • Jack Morris hurling a 10-inning G7 shutout • Ray Caldwell CG despite the lightning strike You are literally *THIS* close to telling us "I'd rather just watch a baseball simulator than the real thing." Real baseball fans don't go to the stadium to watch xBA, FIP, xwOBA, and whatever else you're about to tell me are the hallmarks of great players. That's simply not how it works. That's not how it's EVER worked. I'm not anti-analytics; I cite WAR and other modern stats in my NEPTA posts on a near-daily basis. But I'm definitely anti-fake-expert –– the folks who walk among us and think that those things are the reason why baseball is worthwhile. You HAVE to be romantic about baseball. The game requires it. The game DESERVES it.