Something I have learned while writing history papers is that if you have already decided what the evidence will show and what your conclusion will be before you even begin researching your world will not completely collapse. It will, in fact, be remarkably easy for you to write a quote-filled, argumentative paper that seems to prove exactly what you expected. This monumental success can be had by any researcher and writer so long as they are willing to sacrifice but too inconsequential things: quality and accuracy.
In baseball writing, as in historical analysis, this easy tradeoff is made all too often. This is not entirely a bad thing, after all, baseball reporting does not attempt to define patterns of human existence, and the choice of topics and opinions are necessarily subjective. The evidence used in support of these positions should not be subjective, however, and it is the lack of subjectivity in the presentation of “evidence” that dooms the reactionary forces of Old School Baseball.
The statistics used to describe the game are so varied, expressive and complex that presenting evidence in an attempt to back one’s own argument is remarkably easy. Thus, it is somewhat of an indictment of the entire human race and the American educational system that Jerry Thornton, a reporter for WEEI (Boston), compiled an article attacking Sabermetrics two years ago in which he presented evidence that directly disproved his argument.