Thread: Superagent suggests new baseball stat

SAN FRANCISCO — In a sport packed with statistics, is there room for another? With a nod to the best defenders in baseball, the most powerful agent in baseball says yes.

"We need to give the fans something to identify brilliance defensively," Scott Boras said.

Boras proposes the "EP," for exceptional play. The official scorer would be asked to distinguish between an exceptional play and a routine one in the same way he is asked to distinguish between a hit and error.

In that way, Boras said, fans can debate whether a play should merit an "EP" and compare a player with 20 EPs to another with 10 EPs, whether an EP saved a game just as a big hit might have won it. The only common defensive statistic is an error, he says, and zone ratings and other such new defensive metrics are neither instantly identifiable or widely understood.

Fans can look to blocked shots in basketball, he said, or interceptions or sacks in football.

"One thing we do not do well in this game: We do not recognize defense," Boras said. "We need to bring defense to the fans. Give them a statistic, and they'll recognize the player for it. The fans get something else to enjoy the game with."

J.T. Snow, who won six Gold Glove awards as a first baseman for the Angels and San Francisco Giants but never appeared in an All-Star game, says he supports the EP concept.

"The All-Star game and Hall of Fame are all about offensive numbers," Snow said.

Boras says he plans to meet with Commissioner Bud Selig soon to discuss several ideas, including his pitch to expand the World Series to nine games and play the first two at a neutral site, preceded by a televised gala at which the MVP, Cy Young, rookie of the year and manager of the year awards would be presented.

The EP, Boras said, should be an easy sell.

"ESPN has told us we need to do this," he said. "They have web gems."

Ridiculous idea. How the hell is criteria going to be set for that stat? Using a WOW factor? What? Are we going to start tallying the "sick plays" players make on defense?

Just another way for this guy to get Derek Jeter money for JD Drew players.

Good god. Some would argue that there's already too much subjectivity involved in maintaining some baseball stats. This is absurd.

Baseball is boring. Thats all I got.

Don't even get me started with the stats.

Boras <<<<<<<<<<<< The Devil

Say what you want to say about Boras. If you were a real decent MLB player, you probably want him as your agent. Yes, I think he is an ass too!!! He does his clients very good.

Boras says he plans to meet with Commissioner Bud Selig soon to discuss several ideas, including his pitch to expand the World Series to nine games and play the first two at a neutral site, preceded by a televised gala at which the MVP, Cy Young, rookie of the year and manager of the year awards would be presented.

9 games?

I like baseball and all, but hell no, that's too long...

This is a good idea. They can collect all the "exceptional plays" at the end of each day and run them together on a baseball highlight show. They should call it "Baseball Tonight" because it will be about baseball and run every night. The exceptional plays can be called "Web Gems" because gloves have webs and gems are pretty.

Stats of any kind still don't distinguish meaningless plays in the 9th inning of a 10-1 game from big plays in a 2-2 game. You have different pitches being thrown in different situations, etc, too many variables to even list.