F.A.Q.

Q: What is Fan Interference?

A: For the full and eloquent answer you really deserve, I refer you to our “About” page. In short, however, this blog is dedicated to the criticism of lazy and/or unhelpful sports analysis. When possible, we seek to enlighten after we criticize, but this does not always happen.

Q: How did Fan Interference get started?

A: Fan Interference began its now-storied history in the Towers I – 1303 suite at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. In February 2007, during our junior year, co-founder Keesup and I were inspired by blogs such as Fire Joe Morgan and thought “Hey! We could do that too!”

Initially, our tone was snarky, mean, and insolent. The writing was pretty bad too. But it was college, and we were having fun balancing the blog with all sorts of other college-y things. In recent months, however, I decided that I wanted to make this space truly helpful, enlightening, and progressive. Hence the recent absence of profanity. I don’t miss it much anyway.

Q: Why do you complain so much? What’s your deal?

A: A valid question. The “About” page might also help shed some light on this, but I’ll give it a go here too.

I watch a ton of sports, and have ever since I was very young. As a result, I find a lot of material just through the sheer volume of sports that I have taken in over my 22 years. This is not meant as a “my fanhood is bigger than your fanhood” kind of thing. I just have a lot in the mental rolodex, that’s all.

This prolonged and habitual sports binge has given me a sixth sense of sorts. Because of my longtime familiarity with players, teams, statistics, outcomes, and their contexts, I have developed the “that doesn’t sound right” or “I bet he didn’t look that up” sense. When I hear something iffy – a characterization of a player’s skill, a regurgitated sports myth, a context-free statistic – I look it up and see if the assessment is true. If it isn’t, I post about it. If it is, I grudgingly mutter “well played” to my opponent and go on with my life. What you might call complaining, I call fact-checking.

I am also a generally cranky person from a generally cranky family. I’ve learned to accept it.

Q: What are all these random letters you keep using ? Are you trying to alienate your readers?

A: This blog began as a baseball blog, but has broadened its scope somewhat. For the baseball statistics we use, I refer you to the sole component of our old FAQ:

We know that a majority of enthusiastic baseball fans still prefer to judge players based on the traditional statistics; for hitters those are batting average (BA), runs batted in (RBI), and home runs (HR), while pitchers get earned run average (ERA), wins (W), and saves (S). The thing is, these have problems. They have no real predictive capability, and sometimes they don’t give you a full and accurate picture of past performance. Here’s a quick overview of their respective problems:

• BA: measures solely whether or not the at-bat resulted in a hit; does not show value of the hit/weighs all hits equally; neglects walks
• RBI: product of circumstance; runner just happens to be in scoring position when the hit takes place; dependent (not independent) measure of skill
• HR: these are fine
• ERA: somewhat dependent on pitcher’s defense and luck; can fluctuate wildly from year to year because of this; not a good predictor of future performance (again, because of luck and defense)
• W(in): a bad statistic; dependent largely on run (offensive) support by the pitcher’s own team; pitcher can give up 7 runs in 5 innings, and still get a win if his team scores 8; bullpen’s ability to hold a lead also affects Wins
• S(ave): the worst statistic in baseball because it often adversely affects how managers manage the game; example: 8th inning, bases are loaded with one out, “set-up man” is in the game, his team has a 3-1 lead. Most managers will leave their “closer” (best reliever) in the bullpen, because is only supposed to pitch the 9th inning and get a Save, but the game’s outcome probably rests on this situation; this statistic measures a pitcher’s success at doing something that really isn’t that hard to do (get 3 outs before opponent scores enough runs to tie); not all saves are created equal – Pitcher A has a 5-2 lead and gives up 2 runs, but holds on for a 5-4 lead (gets a save), Pitcher B has a 1-0 lead and strikes out the side in order (gets a save)

Instead of these traditional (and largely flawed) statistics, we prefer:

• OBP: on-base percentage; measurement of how often the player’s at-bat results in getting on base; an average OBP is about .340, anything approaching .400 is excellent
• SLG: slugging percentage; measurement of total bases reached per at-bat; SLG’s value is relative to a player’s position; a 2B that slugs .450 is much more valuable than a 1B that slugs .450
• OPS: the sum of OBP + SLG; good (but not perfect, undervalues OBP) measurement of player’s total offensive performance; value is also relative to a player’s position
• OPS+: measurement of a player’s OPS against league average; league average is defined as 100 – anything below is below-average, and above is above-average; 120 OPS+ means the player hits 20% better than league average
• EqA: equivalent average; created by Baseball Prospectus’s Clay Davenport, it’s a measure of a player’s total offensive value per out, adjusted for league offensive level, ballpark, team pitching and baserunning. And it’s purposefully scaled to resemble batting average for easy use; an average EqA is always .260. The supercomplicated formula is here.
• VORP: value over replacement player; the number of runs a player contributes beyond what a replacement-level player at that position would contribute; does not take defense into account
• WARP: wins above replacement player; same general idea as VORP, except includes fielding as well
• WHIP: for pitchers; walks and hits allowed per inning pitched
• K/BB: for pitchers; the ratio of strikeouts to walks allowed; valuable statistic because it isolates things that the pitcher himself can control (his ability/inability to throw strikes)
• ERA+: for pitchers; same general idea as OPS+; measurement of ERA against league average; league average is defined as 100
• BABIP: batting average on balls in play; the statistic’s main function is to show the effects of defense and luck on a pitcher’s performance; a high BABIP means the pitcher has been abnormally unlucky (many of the batted balls have resulted in hits); a low BABIP means the pitcher has be abnormally lucky (few of the batted balls have resulted in hits); an average BABIP is about .290

We know that’s a lot to look through, and we promise to try not to go too crazy with these statistics. But at least you now have some context for what exactly we’re talking about. Some of these stats will appear more often than others, especially due to the authors’ respective preferences and tastes. If you’re a little bit patient, I think these stats are relatively easy to pick up after some practice.

Q: What are your teams?

A: As a native New Yorker, the only acceptable answer to this question is the Yankees, Knicks and Giants. I firmly believe that if you root for a team that ends in “-ets,” you are misguided. If you root for all three, you are beyond salvation.

Q: How do I contact Fan Interference?

A: The obvious way would be to leave a comment after the relevant post. If you’d like to contact me directly – and I would absolutely welcome that – you can e-mail me at kevindseal@gmail.com. I will only ignore your e-mail if you demonstrate an inability to distinguish between it’s/its, here/hear, there/their/they’re, or your/you’re. Other than that, I welcome your thoughts.