calbear93 said:

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JeffBear07 said:

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Quote:

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The number one thing the A's could have done to win was spend like the Yankees. The number 2 thing they could have done was to THEN marry analytics with spending like the Yankees.

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Every time Billy Beane sees the name Theo Epstein, he dies a little bit inside.

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Wasn't the Red Sox job offered to Beane first? He could have been the one to break the curse.

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Indeed he was, though as an A's fan I'll forever have a fondness for his desire to try to finish what he started in Oakland. Epstein will always be the answer to what Beane could have been if only he had a major league payroll to work with. Hard as it is for me to say, Beane will also always be the Cal to Epstein's UCLA.

calbear93 said:

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concordtom said:

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HERE ARE MY RANKINGS:

The impeachment managers, selected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

EXCELLENT:
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland will serve as the lead impeachment manager. He is a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform where he also serves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. He previously served in the Maryland State Senate and taught constitutional law at American University's Washington College of Law for more than a quarter century. Raskin also co-wrote the single article of impeachment against Trump.

Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island serves on the Foreign Relations and Judiciary committees, and is chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law. Now in his sixth term, Cicilline was previously a two-term mayor of Providence, his state's capital, and a public defender in the District of Columbia.

VERY GOOD:
Rep. Ted Lieu of California is also a member of the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees and is a former active-duty officer in the U.S. Air Force, where he served as a prosecutor in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. He is currently a colonel in the Reserves. The fourth-term congressman also is whip of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and a vice-chair of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus. Lieu is reported to have raised the issue of impeaching Trump as the insurrection was still taking place.

Del. Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands sits on the House Ways and Means, Budget and Agriculture committees. The Brooklyn-born Plaskett was a prosecutor in the Bronx District Attorney's office and served as senior counsel at the U.S. Justice Department. As a non-voting delegate to the House, Plaskett could not vote to impeach Trump, but told The Associated Press that her role as an impeachment manager will resonate for residents of American territories. She is also was a former student of lead impeachment manager Raskin.

ACCEPTABLE:
Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado has served in the House since 1997. She is a member of the Natural Resources Committee as well as the Energy and Commerce Committee. On the latter, she serves as the chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Previously DeGette served in the Colorado State House and was a civil rights attorney.

Rep. Eric Swalwell of California is a member of the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees and is chair of the Subcommittee on Intelligence Modernization and Readiness. He is also an outspoken critic of Trump. Swalwell ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination last cycle. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Maryland and formerly served as a prosecutor in California's Alameda County District Attorney's office. (I noticed on Facebook that a high school friend and former co-youth soccer coach friend of mine, who is also a member of this unit, has a public photo with him. I'll have to ask next time I see him.)

Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado is in his second term and serves on the Natural Resources, Climate Crisis and Judiciary committees. He is also the first African American to be elected to Congress from Colorado. Prior to serving in Congress, Neguse was appointed by former Gov. John Hickenlooper to his Cabinet as executive director of Colorado's consumer protection agency. At 36, he is the youngest member of the House impeachment manager team.

NOT SO GOOD
Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas is in his fifth term in Congress and serves on the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Education and Labor committees. Prior to serving in Congress Castro served five terms in the Texas legislature. The San Antonio Democrat is a second- generation Mexican American who studied at Stanford University and earned his law degree from Harvard Law School. His identical twin brother, Julin Castro, is a former Democratic presidential candidate and previously served as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Obama administration.

NO GRADE:
Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania is in her second term in Congress and serves on the Judiciary Committee. Prior to that she served in the Pennsylvania legislature and before that was an attorney in private practice. She also is from the same Pennsylvania county as Bruce Castor, a member of Trump's defense team. Prior to her career in public service, Dean spent a decade teaching in the English Department at LaSalle University in Philadelphia, according to her congressional biography.



.... For me, Swalwell has eliminated himself for consideration for future Presidential runs. Listening to Raskin vs Swalwell is too big a gulf. We can do better than Swalwell, just based on these hearings this trial.

---

Listening to Raskin just reinforces how important being authentic is for everyone. People can tell so easily who is authentic and who is not. Just being who you are without trying to be clever or fit into some idea of what you think will impress people. Raskin is so powerful as a speaker and an advocate because you can tell he means what he says. No bull**** and no empty bag, just being himself expressing his true beliefs concisely without ego but with vulnerability and empathy. My esteem has skyrocketed for Raskin.

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I felt like Adam Schiff was also very good 1 year ago.

calbear93 said:

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concordtom said:

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calbear93 said:

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Well, the power of data analytics as opposed to assumptions or human analysis first became famous to regular folks due to baseball and Billy Bean. Things that people assumed were most valuable were not, and the Oakland A's were able to pay for valuable players for much less based on things that data actually showed were relevant to scoring runs, such as on base percentage and slugging percentage. And that insight did not come from some genius baseball person but from a nerdy mathematician from Harvard who barely knew what baseball was.

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Right. That's my point. Just apply Billy Ball to Politics. That's what YOU were saying, no?

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Exactly, but on steroids since our ability to do predictive analysis, data analytics, creating strong AI through complex algorithms are so much more advanced. What it took Amazon 20 years to get in annual revenue, they multiplied that by 4 times in five years with greater profit margin using more advanced AI and data analytics. There is nothing that AI and data analytics cannot enhance and accelerate, including targeted messaging to each demographics.

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My brother in law works for a medical devices manufacturer. He is saying that Big Data is a cash printing press. They sell the device, but THEN get to charge for all the biometric data it emits from the patient's body. Collecting all this data is a pay as you go fee, and then processing it and providing new medical treatment recommendations as a result....

OaktownBear said:

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dajo9 said:

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concordtom said:

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calbear93 said:

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Well, the power of data analytics as opposed to assumptions or human analysis first became famous to regular folks due to baseball and Billy Bean. Things that people assumed were most valuable were not, and the Oakland A's were able to pay for valuable players for much less based on things that data actually showed were relevant to scoring runs, such as on base percentage and slugging percentage. And that insight did not come from some genius baseball person but from a nerdy mathematician from Harvard who barely knew what baseball was.

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Right. That's my point. Just apply Billy Ball to Politics. That's what YOU were saying, no?

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I don't know about AI but Billy Ball has its limitations. It clearly seems to work in June but I don't think it works in the postseason. I think the reason for that is in the postseason you are no longer playing against the average. You are playing against above average. That means your home runs per strikeout rate goes down and we end up with boring postseason games where teams strike out over and over again (using one basic metric as an example).

I believe Billy Ball may help you get into the postseason but the oldtimers have it right for winning championships. Contact. Stolen bases. Manufacturing runs. It's no surprise to me that the marquee player on 2 of the last 3 championships is a classic old school ballplayer who is known for contact, manufacturing runs, and smart baseball - Mookie Betts. The other championship team, the Washington Nationals, lost its Billy Ball hero, Bryce Harper, the previous year. In October, they were better without him. In my opinion, if your star slugger is famous for walks, you have a problem.

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By the way. To you and concord, Billy Ball refers to the era when Billy Martin was manager of the A's, not to the Moneyball era.

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Billy Martin would not have pulled Blake Snell from a World Series game in the 5th inning with a 1-0 lead after 9 strikeouts and 1 hit.

OaktownBear said:

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dajo9 said:

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concordtom said:

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calbear93 said:

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Well, the power of data analytics as opposed to assumptions or human analysis first became famous to regular folks due to baseball and Billy Bean. Things that people assumed were most valuable were not, and the Oakland A's were able to pay for valuable players for much less based on things that data actually showed were relevant to scoring runs, such as on base percentage and slugging percentage. And that insight did not come from some genius baseball person but from a nerdy mathematician from Harvard who barely knew what baseball was.

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Right. That's my point. Just apply Billy Ball to Politics. That's what YOU were saying, no?

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I don't know about AI but Billy Ball has its limitations. It clearly seems to work in June but I don't think it works in the postseason. I think the reason for that is in the postseason you are no longer playing against the average. You are playing against above average. That means your home runs per strikeout rate goes down and we end up with boring postseason games where teams strike out over and over again (using one basic metric as an example).

I believe Billy Ball may help you get into the postseason but the oldtimers have it right for winning championships. Contact. Stolen bases. Manufacturing runs. It's no surprise to me that the marquee player on 2 of the last 3 championships is a classic old school ballplayer who is known for contact, manufacturing runs, and smart baseball - Mookie Betts. The other championship team, the Washington Nationals, lost its Billy Ball hero, Bryce Harper, the previous year. In October, they were better without him. In my opinion, if your star slugger is famous for walks, you have a problem.

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By the way. To you and concord, Billy Ball refers to the era when Billy Martin was manager of the A's, not to the Moneyball era.

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Thanks for exposing my age, either by the fact that I was around back then and therefore have Billy Ball as part of my lexicon or by the fact that I made the clumsy mental mistake.

calbear93 said:

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JeffBear07 said:

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Quote:

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The number one thing the A's could have done to win was spend like the Yankees. The number 2 thing they could have done was to THEN marry analytics with spending like the Yankees.

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Every time Billy Beane sees the name Theo Epstein, he dies a little bit inside.

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Wasn't the Red Sox job offered to Beane first? He could have been the one to break the curse.

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The movie, Moneyball begins by disparaging Johnny Damon's value. Damon was a key component of breaking the curse - he was a championship type ballplayer, not a sabremetrics type ballplayer. Theo Epstein doesn't break the curse without a player like Johnny Damon.

This is an impeachment/political thread, and I'd like to bring it back around to that as the hearing ramp up today. But I see you guys are venturing off course a bit so I'm going to offer you this tangential look.

I mentioned my review of the House Managers, and this morning I saw this image of Stacey Plaskett on TV, zoomed in.
My goodness, that's a sexy look. Has there ever been a better looking House Manager in an Impeachment Trial before, complete with nips showing the tight fitting dress?



She represents the Virgin Islands, but as the mother of 5, I can assure you, the 54 woman is most definitely NOT a virgin.
Good morning, now WAKE UP!

OaktownBear said:

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Further, the House and Senate should have been evacuated earlier. As soon as it was clear there was a risk the Capitol would be breached, they should have been evacuated. And that was clear for quite some time before it happened.

We should never be faced with this situation again. That being said, with the failings in security allowing them to get to the doors, and the failure to evacuate the lawmakers to safety sooner, the first person that went through those doors should have been shot. If it were just protecting a building, no. With our government leaders in there and a mob there to attack them, at that point their safety is paramount. You use whatever force necessary to save them until they have reached safety. The doors where the woman was shot were going to be breached by the whole crowd in about 5 to 10 seconds had he not fired. I think he made the right decision. If a law maker was killed that day the overwhelming question would have been why the Capitol was taken with no shots fired to defend it.

The way you avoid the shooting is with the proper security measures in the first place. Or not having a President incite a riot.

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1. Probably nobody wanted to be the guy who went in and interrupted. That's never happened before (well, not in roughly 45 years).
2. We never will be in this situation again. There is going to be major changes, I should think, to the Mall Security. This time it was the Capitol, but how are we going to feel if next time it's the National Archives or the African American History Museum.

OaktownBear said:

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dajo9 said:

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concordtom said:

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calbear93 said:

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Well, the power of data analytics as opposed to assumptions or human analysis first became famous to regular folks due to baseball and Billy Bean. Things that people assumed were most valuable were not, and the Oakland A's were able to pay for valuable players for much less based on things that data actually showed were relevant to scoring runs, such as on base percentage and slugging percentage. And that insight did not come from some genius baseball person but from a nerdy mathematician from Harvard who barely knew what baseball was.

---

Right. That's my point. Just apply Billy Ball to Politics. That's what YOU were saying, no?

---

I don't know about AI but Billy Ball has its limitations. It clearly seems to work in June but I don't think it works in the postseason. I think the reason for that is in the postseason you are no longer playing against the average. You are playing against above average. That means your home runs per strikeout rate goes down and we end up with boring postseason games where teams strike out over and over again (using one basic metric as an example).

I believe Billy Ball may help you get into the postseason but the oldtimers have it right for winning championships. Contact. Stolen bases. Manufacturing runs. It's no surprise to me that the marquee player on 2 of the last 3 championships is a classic old school ballplayer who is known for contact, manufacturing runs, and smart baseball - Mookie Betts. The other championship team, the Washington Nationals, lost its Billy Ball hero, Bryce Harper, the previous year. In October, they were better without him. In my opinion, if your star slugger is famous for walks, you have a problem.

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You mistake the principles of Moneyball.

You start with analytics. So that is finding what player traits maximize wins. That is actually not that hard to figure out. Moneyball was not about that. Moneyball's first success came because NO ONE was using analytics. Old time scouting was based on gut feeling borne out of experience. That is not to say at all that scouts were wrong about everything. But they were wrong about a lot. But guess what? Analytics would say Mike Trout and Barry Bonds, and Willie Mays are awesome players. So would scouts.

Conclusions from analytics absolutely work in the playoffs. For instance, OPS is a lot more important stat than batting average. Absolutely true in the regular season or the post season.

Moneyball isn't the championship strategy and it never was intended to be. The point is, the A's didn't have any money. (still don't). So they were looking for the traits that those that had money were not valuing. If you went back to the Moneyball era and looked at the analytics the A's were using, and asked what were the top 100 things they could do to win based on the analytics, all 100 of those line items would have screamed "SIGN BARRY BONDS!!!!!" And the next 100 would have been to sign a whole lot of guys the A's couldn't afford. The point of Moneyball wasn't to build the best team. It was to build the best team they could afford. The number one thing the A's could have done to win was spend like the Yankees. The number 2 thing they could have done was to THEN marry analytics with spending like the Yankees. But, at the end of the day, they were shopping from a list of players that no one wanted. Analytics can only take you so far. Every year the A's have made the playoffs, if given the chance they would have traded rosters with almost anyone else in the post season (assuming dollars are equal). they don't lose because the analytics are wrong. They lose because the other teams are better. The A's are buying Hondas. That is a good car. Best car they can afford. But there will always be a guy with unlimited money to spend with a better car.

The A's were never wedded to what some people have mistakenly dubbed "Moneyball". Moneyball just means whatever is undervalued at the moment. Even this year one of the color commentators was surprised that the A's weren't doing what they haven't done in 10 years. Because other teams used the same analytics and now overvalued the traits the A's were buying in the 2000's. So, the A's steal bases now (What?). The A's have the best defensive player in baseball. The A's have arguably the best defensive first baseman and center fielder (What? The A's play defense?) The A's were early on in valuing the bullpen because starting pitching was so expensive. They also go beyond the old analytics and look at how they can improve player performance. For instance, they have picked up cheap, journeyman pitchers and said, "You know that 3rd or 4th pitch that you throw 2% of the time because you think it sucks? Well, it ain't great, but when you throw it 10% of the time, your other pitches all become a lot more effective" They also worked specifically on what launch angles were most successful in Oakland on offense and got their batters to work to those. And then did the same for the road so the A's launch angle as team 2 years ago was significantly different at home than on the road.

The frequency that the A's go to the playoffs is amazing given the money they spend. Yes, they lose. But that is all about what they spend. The strategy that people said can't win in the playoffs basically immediately won when the Red Sox adopted the same strategy with a huge payroll. Saying Moneyball doesn't work in the playoffs doesn't really mean anything because the A's are constantly changing their strategy based on what they can afford. What is true is that being cheap doesn't win in the playoffs.

College sports fans should understand this. It's the old saying "It's not about the X's and O's. It's about the Jimmy's and Joe's". You can't win at the highest level without the recruits.

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Fair enough that we were throwing around the phrase Billy Ball when we meant sabremetrics. Billy Ball is just so much more fun to say, but sabremetrics is more appropriate because, like the game it produces, it is deadening. So, just insert sabremetrics where I said Billy Ball.

Quote:

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Conclusions from analytics absolutely work in the playoffs. For instance, OPS is a lot more important stat than batting average. Absolutely true in the regular season or the post season.

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I strongly disagree with the contention that analytics work in the postseason as well as they do the regular season. Batting average and OPS both have deficiencies as a statistic. Batting average because it ignores walks and slugging. OPS because it treats walks and singles equally and overvalues slugging. Neither of them are really at the core of sabremetrics.

The key batting statistic for sabremetrics is wOBA, which applies a run producing coefficient to each method of getting on base. The run producing coefficient is based on averages of thousands of games. Regular season games. It has led to the current version of baseball we see, in which batters swing for the fences and which produces a high number of home runs, strikeouts, and walks with record low amounts of balls hit into play (boring). And it works in June against average players. Your team may strike out a lot but you can hit 3 home runs and win the game. This approach will help your team get more wins in the regular season and reach the playoffs.

But in the postseason, I believe you can throw the coefficients out the window because you are no longer playing against the average. You are playing against above average and the result is likely to be even more strikeouts and fewer home runs. Postseason sabremetric coefficients (and you can't really calculate that because every year is different and there aren't enough games to get a meaningful value in time for it to be useful) would probably bring back stolen bases, strategies for advancing runners, and opposite field hits.

Here are number of players on each recent World Series team to be in the top 100 strikeout rate (fewest strikeouts). Each year there is a wide discrepancy, the better contact team won. In 2019 it is closer, and the lesser contact team won in 7. How did the Dodgers finally win the World Series? They signed Mookie Betts and learned to make contact. I don't present this to be conclusive as it is just one stat, but I think it is evidence in support of my position.
2020
Dodgers - 6 (won in 6)
Tampa Bay - 2

2019
Nationals - 4 (won in 7)
Astros - 6

2018
Boston - 5 (won in 5)
Dodgers - 1

2017
Houston - 8 (won in 7)
Dodgers - 2

Also importantly, sabremetrics has just produced a boring game with balls not hit into play. My favorite statistic is still batting average. It tells me which player is the most exciting to watch.

A tangent - I think the walk is the most overrated stat in sabremetrics. I can't prove it (maybe this is how I will spend my retirement years) but here are my thoughts. I think the walk coefficient is likely overvalued because it is correlated with hits (a pitcher giving up walks is also likely to give up more hits). A walk to your leadoff batter is far more valuable than a walk to your cleanup hitter. This is not captured in sabremetrics. I want my leadoff batter getting on base (OBP). I want my cleanup batter swinging hard to drive in runs (batting average). If my clean up batter is up there looking to walk, we are not playing championship baseball. Don't get me started on having Aaron Judge bat 2nd in the lineup.

concordtom said:

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calbear93 said:

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concordtom said:

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HERE ARE MY RANKINGS:

The impeachment managers, selected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

EXCELLENT:
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland will serve as the lead impeachment manager. He is a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform where he also serves as chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. He previously served in the Maryland State Senate and taught constitutional law at American University's Washington College of Law for more than a quarter century. Raskin also co-wrote the single article of impeachment against Trump.

Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island serves on the Foreign Relations and Judiciary committees, and is chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law. Now in his sixth term, Cicilline was previously a two-term mayor of Providence, his state's capital, and a public defender in the District of Columbia.

VERY GOOD:
Rep. Ted Lieu of California is also a member of the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees and is a former active-duty officer in the U.S. Air Force, where he served as a prosecutor in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. He is currently a colonel in the Reserves. The fourth-term congressman also is whip of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and a vice-chair of the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus. Lieu is reported to have raised the issue of impeaching Trump as the insurrection was still taking place.

Del. Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands sits on the House Ways and Means, Budget and Agriculture committees. The Brooklyn-born Plaskett was a prosecutor in the Bronx District Attorney's office and served as senior counsel at the U.S. Justice Department. As a non-voting delegate to the House, Plaskett could not vote to impeach Trump, but told The Associated Press that her role as an impeachment manager will resonate for residents of American territories. She is also was a former student of lead impeachment manager Raskin.

ACCEPTABLE:
Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado has served in the House since 1997. She is a member of the Natural Resources Committee as well as the Energy and Commerce Committee. On the latter, she serves as the chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Previously DeGette served in the Colorado State House and was a civil rights attorney.

Rep. Eric Swalwell of California is a member of the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees and is chair of the Subcommittee on Intelligence Modernization and Readiness. He is also an outspoken critic of Trump. Swalwell ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination last cycle. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Maryland and formerly served as a prosecutor in California's Alameda County District Attorney's office. (I noticed on Facebook that a high school friend and former co-youth soccer coach friend of mine, who is also a member of this unit, has a public photo with him. I'll have to ask next time I see him.)

Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado is in his second term and serves on the Natural Resources, Climate Crisis and Judiciary committees. He is also the first African American to be elected to Congress from Colorado. Prior to serving in Congress, Neguse was appointed by former Gov. John Hickenlooper to his Cabinet as executive director of Colorado's consumer protection agency. At 36, he is the youngest member of the House impeachment manager team.

NOT SO GOOD
Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas is in his fifth term in Congress and serves on the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Education and Labor committees. Prior to serving in Congress Castro served five terms in the Texas legislature. The San Antonio Democrat is a second- generation Mexican American who studied at Stanford University and earned his law degree from Harvard Law School. His identical twin brother, Julin Castro, is a former Democratic presidential candidate and previously served as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Obama administration.

NO GRADE:
Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania is in her second term in Congress and serves on the Judiciary Committee. Prior to that she served in the Pennsylvania legislature and before that was an attorney in private practice. She also is from the same Pennsylvania county as Bruce Castor, a member of Trump's defense team. Prior to her career in public service, Dean spent a decade teaching in the English Department at LaSalle University in Philadelphia, according to her congressional biography.



.... For me, Swalwell has eliminated himself for consideration for future Presidential runs. Listening to Raskin vs Swalwell is too big a gulf. We can do better than Swalwell, just based on these hearings this trial.

---

Listening to Raskin just reinforces how important being authentic is for everyone. People can tell so easily who is authentic and who is not. Just being who you are without trying to be clever or fit into some idea of what you think will impress people. Raskin is so powerful as a speaker and an advocate because you can tell he means what he says. No bull**** and no empty bag, just being himself expressing his true beliefs concisely without ego but with vulnerability and empathy. My esteem has skyrocketed for Raskin.

---

I felt like Adam Schiff was also very good 1 year ago.

---

No doubt he is a good lawyer. However, never got the sense that I can trust him. One leadership trait I learned was the importance of trust. Whether it was the person on the other side, my boss, my board, my colleagues, or my direct reports when I asked them to trust me in setting stretch goals, being trustworthy, calling bull**** bull****, not tolerating slimy people, and allowing myself to be vulnerable and hear what someone genuine is saying when I want to be defensive create trust. Harder to do virtually in a COVID environment. But Raskin has that quality that I just don't get from Schiff.

As I have said in the past, the one thing you have to kinda respect about Republican leadership is that they don't even try to hide the fact that they are unethical and immoral. They own it, are proud of it and think it is quaint that Democrats feel they are scoring points when they point out Republican hypocrisy.

concordtom said:

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calbear93 said:

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concordtom said:

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calbear93 said:

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Well, the power of data analytics as opposed to assumptions or human analysis first became famous to regular folks due to baseball and Billy Bean. Things that people assumed were most valuable were not, and the Oakland A's were able to pay for valuable players for much less based on things that data actually showed were relevant to scoring runs, such as on base percentage and slugging percentage. And that insight did not come from some genius baseball person but from a nerdy mathematician from Harvard who barely knew what baseball was.

---

Right. That's my point. Just apply Billy Ball to Politics. That's what YOU were saying, no?

---

Exactly, but on steroids since our ability to do predictive analysis, data analytics, creating strong AI through complex algorithms are so much more advanced. What it took Amazon 20 years to get in annual revenue, they multiplied that by 4 times in five years with greater profit margin using more advanced AI and data analytics. There is nothing that AI and data analytics cannot enhance and accelerate, including targeted messaging to each demographics.

---

My brother in law works for a medical devices manufacturer. He is saying that Big Data is a cash printing press. They sell the device, but THEN get to charge for all the biometric data it emits from the patient's body. Collecting all this data is a pay as you go fee, and then processing it and providing new medical treatment recommendations as a result....

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You are right. There is data privacy navigation required, especially HIPAA when dealing with patient health information, and companies are negotiating ownership of data, but whoever has the most mass network data and the best analytics will be the big winners. Just a matter of doing the research to find of who is making the right moves in each industry.

bearister said:

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As I have said in the past, the one thing you have to kinda respect about Republican leadership is that they don't even try to hide the fact that they are unethical and immoral. They own it, are proud of it and think it is quaint that Democrats feel they are scoring points when they point out Republican hypocrisy.

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It is easier for Republicans. They can maintain power with 45% support in the country. They don't have any need to be reasonable and flexible. They also have news networks dedicated to their support, regardless. CNN and MSNBC are just not the same. Those networks will report on bad things done by Democrats (historically, even the fake stuff Republicans are always bringing up, but they are getting smarter about that). The media is not equivalent.

dajo9 said:

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calbear93 said:

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JeffBear07 said:

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Quote:

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The number one thing the A's could have done to win was spend like the Yankees. The number 2 thing they could have done was to THEN marry analytics with spending like the Yankees.

---

Every time Billy Beane sees the name Theo Epstein, he dies a little bit inside.

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Wasn't the Red Sox job offered to Beane first? He could have been the one to break the curse.

---

The movie, Moneyball begins by disparaging Johnny Damon's value. Damon was a key component of breaking the curse - he was a championship type ballplayer, not a sabremetrics type ballplayer. Theo Epstein doesn't break the curse without a player like Johnny Damon.

---

I don't remember exactly what happens in the movie, but in the book it's not that the A's don't want to keep Johnny Damon, it's that they can't afford to keep him. His value was too obvious to the other teams too.

bearister said:

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As I have said in the past, the one thing you have to kinda respect about Republican leadership is that they don't even try to hide the fact that they are unethical and immoral. They own it, are proud of it and think it is quaint that Democrats feel they are scoring points when they point out Republican hypocrisy.

---

If there is one biography of a Trump sycophant that I would love to read, it would be one about Graham. Would be interesting to see how you go from being a friend of McCain and Biden to this. I can understand it he does what he does only in public for politics, but the calls he made to the states to overturn results made me realize this is who he is. For someone like Rubio, I heard a good assessment that Trump just broke him. Cruz and Hawley are smart opportunist ****s who want to keep their presidential option open by being favorites of the Trump base. But what the hell is going on with Graham? I am not interested in any rumors but would love to read a well researched biography when this is over.

" I hated Donald Trump when hating Donald Trump wasn't cool.

My credentials date back to Dec. 15, 1983, when CNN sent me to cover a public forum featuring the moguls of four New York sports teams. One of them, the newly minted proprietor of the long-forgotten New Jersey Generals, got up and spoke interminable nonsense for what felt like 20 minutes.

He promised the signing of superstar players he would never sign. He announced the hiring of immortal coaches he would never hire. He scheduled a news conference the next day to confirm all of it, and the next day never came."
Keith Olbermann

Here we go again!

calbear93 said:

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If there is one biography of a Trump sycophant that I would love to read, it would be one about Graham. Would be interesting to see how you go from being a friend of McCain and Biden to this. ...
...what the hell is going on with Graham? I am not interested in any rumors but would love to read a well researched biography when this is over.

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Come on, man.
It's not that hard.
No rumors here - just speculation:
He's gay, and he's been living in the closet his entire life like a chameleon.
Flipping this way or that way in order to present himself as acceptable to his judgers is second nature to him.

I am not sure Trump's lawyers are helping him at all...

After today's opening defense, someone needs to come up with a better Shaggy "It wasn't me" parody of Trump's Capitol Riot.

Very uncool, Tom. This post demonstrates a level of tone deafness on your part.

If you are going to be a part of the resistance against white male privilege, then you might want to consider keeping posts like this to yourself.

Or is it a case of "You can take the boy out of the GOP fraternity, but you can't take the GOP fraternity out of the boy"?

sycasey said:

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dajo9 said:

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calbear93 said:

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JeffBear07 said:

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Quote:

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The number one thing the A's could have done to win was spend like the Yankees. The number 2 thing they could have done was to THEN marry analytics with spending like the Yankees.

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Every time Billy Beane sees the name Theo Epstein, he dies a little bit inside.

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Wasn't the Red Sox job offered to Beane first? He could have been the one to break the curse.

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The movie, Moneyball begins by disparaging Johnny Damon's value. Damon was a key component of breaking the curse - he was a championship type ballplayer, not a sabremetrics type ballplayer. Theo Epstein doesn't break the curse without a player like Johnny Damon.

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I don't remember exactly what happens in the movie, but in the book it's not that the A's don't want to keep Johnny Damon, it's that they can't afford to keep him. His value was too obvious to the other teams too.

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I didn't read the book. In the movie, it was argued Damon was not worth the money he was going to be paid. That is essentially an argument that sabermetric value per dollar is too low. My argument is that sabermetrics undervalues a player like Johnny Damon because of the value their style of play adds in the postseason. Think about Derek Jeter. How can sabremetrics possibly calculate the championship value of a player like Derek Jeter?

My argument is NOT that the A's are doing anything wrong. As has been said, the A's only option is to find value cheaply. Every time they make the playoffs they are overachieving as an organization. Flukes can happen, but in general to win a World Series these days you need a mix of sabremetrics but you also need players like Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon or Mookie Betts who can make things happen against above average teams.

These last 4 years have developed a new definition for the word "republican"

Definition of:

republican (noun)
1: one that favors or supports a republican form of government
2a: a member of a political party advocating republicanism
2b: a member of the Democratic-Republican party or of the Republican party of the U.S.

republican (adjective)
1a: of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a republic
1b: favoring, supporting, or advocating a republic
1c: belonging or appropriate to one living in or supporting a republic

Republican (capitalized)
a: DEMOCRATIC-REPUBLICAN
b: of, relating to, or constituting the one of the two major political parties evolving in the U.S. in the mid-19th century that is usually primarily associated with business, financial, and some agricultural interests and is held to favor a restricted governmental role in economic life

NEW DEFINITION:
REPUBLICAN = LIAR
REPUBLICAN = PROPAGANDIST
REPUBLICAN = DECEIVER
REPUBLICAN = ONE WHO SEEKS POLITICAL POWER AT ALL COSTS

Listening to Democrats video/audio loop talking about fighting back,
I'm ready to fight!

Me and my keyboard will FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!!

I think we are going to have 500 clips of the word Fight.
I look forward to hearing what the word count on this video presentation is.

America is in-fighting.
It will be funny when the next politician gets up on stage and uses the word.

I have discovered that FDR was known as "The Fighting President"




And that Andrew Jackson was previously called "The Fighting President".


Then there's even this:


But Trump is taking this moniker to a new level:



https://imgflip.com/i/4xsuwa

dajo9 said:

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pinch runner?

dajo9 said:

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My argument is NOT that the A's are doing anything wrong. As has been said, the A's only option is to find value cheaply. Every time they make the playoffs they are overachieving as an organization. Flukes can happen, but in general to win a World Series these days you need a mix of sabremetrics but you also need players like Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon or Mookie Betts who can make things happen against above average teams.

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You need look no further than what happened across the bay. Sabean had Bruce Bochy, great young pitchers, a strong bullpen, Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval and a bunch of retread overpaid position players that Billy Beane wouldn't have paid with someone else's money. Oh plus Barry Zito. In some ways you could say the Giants succeeded by doing exactly the opposite - but they didn't do it with low payroll.

What's interesting is that even though they had a bunch of head scratchers like Cody Ross, Pat the Bat and Aubrey Huff, there was a method to their madness and they used a lot of the same techniques that Beane did. Here's an interesting article from Baseball Prospectus arguing not to buy the reductionist approach that the Giants were doing it the old fashioned way.

Unit2Sucks said:

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dajo9 said:

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My argument is NOT that the A's are doing anything wrong. As has been said, the A's only option is to find value cheaply. Every time they make the playoffs they are overachieving as an organization. Flukes can happen, but in general to win a World Series these days you need a mix of sabremetrics but you also need players like Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon or Mookie Betts who can make things happen against above average teams.

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You need look no further than what happened across the bay. Sabean had Bruce Bochy, great young pitchers, a strong bullpen, Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval and a bunch of retread overpaid position players that Billy Beane wouldn't have paid with someone else's money. Oh plus Barry Zito. In some ways you could say the Giants succeeded by doing exactly the opposite - but they didn't do it with low payroll.

What's interesting is that even though they had a bunch of head scratchers like Cody Ross, Pat the Bat and Aubrey Huff, there was a method to their madness and they used a lot of the same techniques that Beane did. Here's an interesting article from Baseball Prospectus arguing not to buy the reductionist approach that the Giants were doing it the old fashioned way.

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Picking up guys like Huff and Burrell was definitely a sabermetric approach, finding cheap players who might still have something to contribute (essentially what Beane did with Scott Hatteberg). They were lucky those guys did THAT well, but when you're not paying much there's nothing to be lost by trying.

LOL. They are showing the exact same video over again.

As I mentioned on Tuesday, when I was in high school, I would simply add as many sentences as possible just to make my answers longer, to show that I was really trying.

These clowns are really trying!

Unit2Sucks said:

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dajo9 said:

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My argument is NOT that the A's are doing anything wrong. As has been said, the A's only option is to find value cheaply. Every time they make the playoffs they are overachieving as an organization. Flukes can happen, but in general to win a World Series these days you need a mix of sabremetrics but you also need players like Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon or Mookie Betts who can make things happen against above average teams.

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You need look no further than what happened across the bay. Sabean had Bruce Bochy, great young pitchers, a strong bullpen, Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval and a bunch of retread overpaid position players that Billy Beane wouldn't have paid with someone else's money. Oh plus Barry Zito. In some ways you could say the Giants succeeded by doing exactly the opposite - but they didn't do it with low payroll.

What's interesting is that even though they had a bunch of head scratchers like Cody Ross, Pat the Bat and Aubrey Huff, there was a method to their madness and they used a lot of the same techniques that Beane did. Here's an interesting article from Baseball Prospectus arguing not to buy the reductionist approach that the Giants were doing it the old fashioned way.

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I think the story of the Giants World Series wins is the age old adage that good pitching beats good hitting. Disclaimer - I hate the Giants and didn't watch any of it.

Dude keeps stopping his presentation to encourage audience to "please, everyone, read along with me".

Again, as in high school.


zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
he must know the senators are falling asleep again.

They are gonna have to just replay that FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT video again, because this guy is as terrible today as he was on Tuesday.