Sabermetrics from the Perspective of a Professional

On February 21st, I interviewed LA Angels outfielder Daniel Robertson about the role of sabermetrics in baseball, at multiple different levels. He gave me a perspective I hadn't seen in the numerous articles and books that I read about sabermetrics and how it's used in lower baseball levels. To him, sabermetrics were primarily useful for seeing how good a player is at a certain time, which is true in the sense that there aren't really any reliable statistics that are capable of projecting accurately how a player will improve primarily due to the unpredictability of prospects in baseball. Daniel Robertson had this to say about statistics in college:

"I think using them for maybe college seniors or college juniors, as opposed to freshman or sophomores, you can get some kind of a player or get a rough idea about a player. Going into pro ball, I think it’s already used in the minor leagues, not for every player, but for the top prospects, so you can see how their success in the minors correlates to the big leagues, but I think for early college students and high school students it’s too soon. It would be very unpredictable because you’re going to get kids that grow, kids that put on weight or lose weight. Also think it’s too much for a 19-year-old kid to worry about... But later, as a junior or a senior, you can get a rough estimate and a good base point."

This has a lot of merit in that in the first few years of most players in college, they're still growing and putting their own stamp on their game, which can change a lot about a player and makes sabermetrics very ineffective when used with certain prospects at that young an age. Sabermetrics, however, are very effective at determining how good a player is at that given time, which can be very useful as a tool for players to see how their game is improving (or declining), even if they aren't judged by the numbers themselves. It will be interesting in the coming weeks to see how sabermetrics can be used in practice with college players. 

My full interview can be seen on the pages tab of my blog.

Thank you to everyone who reads this and feel free to comment!