Assorted New Year’s Musings

I’ve been away, thanks to a combination of work and family duties that I can’t believe I even bring up in light of Dave’s recent post. People often used to malign sabermetrically-oriented writers like Dave as automatons; robots more interested in numbers than the grand arc of a baseball season, or more interested in nitpicking a hit-and-run than in the compelling story of a single game. I’d like to think that Dave’s had a major hand in discrediting that old saw. I’d rather read Dave’s writing here or at Fangraphs than just about anything, and it’s not because his posts are laden with math and statistics. On the other hand, Dave has maintained a blogging pace that puts most professional bloggers to shame, and he’s done it while whipping cancer. I needed a break because “work is hard.” In sum, I think it’s time to bring back the “Dave is a robot” meme. 1: The big story this off-season has been...