Journalists Don't Need Statistics, They Need Statisticians

So Forbes put together a content package about "baseball's most overpaid players," and the guy who did it thinks this: Is Derek Jeter an All Star? Absolutely. Is he overpaid? You better believe it. With a batting average above .300 and an on-base percentage pushing .400, Jeter definitely earned his slot at Tuesday's game, but with a salary of $21.6 million, he's also pro baseball's most overpaid player by a wide margin. Ugh. Derek Jeter has a 125 OPS+—which basically means he's 25% more effective than the average major league hitter—and plays shortstop. He also plays for the Yankees, who have more money than God and need something to spend it on. Isn't Forbes a business magazine? Shouldn't they have an editor that laughs at this sentence… That Jeter rakes in eight times what an average starting shortstop does, while putting up only marginally better numbers, is the biggest disparity between a player and his posi...