Royals’ Danny Duffy goes on mini-rant about ‘extreme side of the analytics community’
Fans in Kansas City are well aware of analytic sites that don’t usually think much of the Royals’ chances.
This includes dire preseason predictions for the 2014 and 2015 seasons that ended with appearances in the World Series and one memorable parade.
On Wednesday morning, left-hander Danny Duffy offered his thoughts on the analytic sites in a mini-rant on Twitter.
In particular, Duffy said it’s difficult to account for the impact of clubhouse chemistry and off-the-field personal events.
Duffy tweeted: “The extreme side of the analytics community has some mindblowing views on the game. Comradery is huge in baseball, & its impossible to quantify playing while being in a good mindset. If a guy is going thru stuff away from the yard, cant focus in as well, the results wont add up.
“If dude’s life is in a bad spot, trouble at the crib, bad boiler, financial struggles, fighting substance abuse, anxiety, sick pet, sick kids, fear of shower curtains, forgot to lock the door, laundry room flood, break in at the house, HE WONT COMPUTE TO YOUR PROJECTIONS.”
The impetus for Duffy sharing his outlook on the subject: he heard former All-Star outfielder Jayson Werth say baseball was too reliant on “super nerds in the front office that know nothing about baseball but they like to project numbers and project players.”
“I agree with a lot of what he said,” Duffy said before Wednesday’s game. “Maybe not in the way he said, but I feel like you can’t quantify how somebody’s day is going, what their mental state is going into a game, if they got enough sleep, if they threw a strike that was called a ball. There are so many variables that you can’t put a definite number or stat or trait that a guy has with his skills.
“Just some people who have never played the game ... don’t understand what it’s like to have to grind out every day. They feel like they can define what it takes to be great/”
As for that fear of shower curtains, Duffy laughed about adding that to the list of things that can bother a player.
“I’ve got to figure out the name for that phobia,” he said with a smile.
And if you think Duffy was upset while typing these thoughts, well, he added a third tweet: “Also, good morning.”
A fan checked in on Duffy to see if everything was OK and he tweeted: “Yeah bro i just feel like some people would rather just watch robots play baseball. Just needed to let em know.”
To be fair, I don’t think most people want to see robot baseball.
There are a lot of acronyms in the analytics world, including things like FIP, UZR, WAR, WPA, wRC+. That apparently is what Duffy referenced when he finished by tweeting: “Idk what my LawAndOrderSvuWarUzrCsiMiami is, but i also do not care.”
This story was originally published August 8, 2018 at 1:00 PM.