Ruben Amaro and his Sabermetric side

Written by Mike Mariano | 13 January 2010

The shift towards statistics and sabermetrics in baseball took the baseball world by storm in the past decade or two.  Moneyball put it on the map and everyone who wasn't already running with it, picked it up quickly. Except Ruben Amaro?

Rob Neyer blogged today, linking an article about modern defensive metrics; the article also quoted Ruben Amaro who doesn't have an in-house stat guy and probably never will.

Come again?

In this day and age, how can anyone outside of Omar Minaya ignore the modern push towards sabermetrics?  Neyer helps shed light on the conundrum:

One, the Phillies do value defense, walks, and baserunning but don't bother with any advanced metrics. It would not be so difficult to build a team with a good Ultimate Zone Rating while not actually paying any attention to Ultimate Zone Rating. Meanwhile, walks are walks and it's not so difficult to know a good baserunner when you see one. Granted, all these things are easier with good numbers. But defense and baserunning are highly scoutable, too. 

And two, notice what Kerfeld said. He said the Phillies don't have an in-house stats guy. That leaves a great deal of room for consultants. Some GMs prefer to use consultants because they're cheaper (and more easily disposable) than full-time employees, and also because their lack of presence around the office results in fewer ruffled feathers among the ex-ballplayers (like Charlie Kerfeld) running around the place. I would be willing to bet money (though not a lot) that the Phillies do have an out-of-house stats guy, and perhaps a few of them.

I can't find the link, but we've talked in the past about how Ruben claims to ignore defensive statistics because they're so volatile and unpredictable.  Neyer is most likely right (big surprise) that the Phillies do use statistics, just in an unconventional way to keep all of their old school baseball scouts happy.