Statistics in the Outfield

By Greta Lorge February 16, 2008 | 5:46:59 PMCategories: AAAS 2008

And by analyzing four years of high-resolution data from Baseball Info Solutions (BIS)—containing information on some 120,000 balls in play per year—Jensen was able to rank the best and worst fielders at each position based on the number of runs saved or cost. The results showed what Derek Jeter-haters have long suspected: that with and average of 13.81 runs lost per season, he’s a lousy short stop. Meanwhile, his teammate A-Rod is one of the best in the league with and average of 10.4 runs saved.

But what the model doesn’t—and can’t—take into account are intangibles like charisma and grace. As the influential baseball writer Bill James once wrote: “Hitters are judged on results; fielders, on form.”

Image: flickr/Wally Gobetz

Well…I have no excuse for updates. So enjoy the visible image instead.

Read and WEEP!!!

(HT: Fide-O)

Now, just a little diversion from my marathon weight lost regime to interject a little contemporary theology/church life. An absolute HOMERUN hit by IM with this peice below. I couldn’t have said it any better. Enjoy!!!

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Reactions to the “60 Minutes” Joel Osteen Piece

October 14th, 2007 by Michael Spencer

The mentality that thinks in terms of marketing Jesus inevitably moves toward progressive distortion of him; the pursuit of the next emotional round of experience easily degenerates into an intoxicating substitute for the spirituality of the Word. There is non-negotiable, biblical, intellectual content to be proclaimed. By all means insist that this content be heralded with conviction and compassion; by all means seek the unction of the Spirit; by all means try to think through how to cast this content in ways that engage the modern secularist. But when all the footnotes are in place, my point remains the same: the historic gospel is unavoidably cast as intellectual content that must be taught and proclaimed. -D.A. Carson, The Gagging of God

A few thoughts on tonight’s 60 Minutes’ piece on Joel Osteen.

1. Byron Pitts, the reporter doing the piece, was simply superb. To the point. Unmoved by show. Understood the problem. In fact, probably understood far more than Osteen himself does about Christianity.

2. As much as I would like to join those who say that Osteen is a simpleton who doesn’t know what he’s doing, a close examination will show that at every point where there is a choice between being part of the church or departing into heresy, Osteen sticks with the church where there is money to be had and departs from the church where there is a faith to be confessed. He’s a heretic, even if he is a believer, and he communicates a purposefully false trivialization of the person and work of Jesus Christ in favor of a man-centered motivational message of self-improvement.

Again, as I’ve said before, every evangelical leader needs to personally and by name repudiate and separate from Osteen, and call upon him and his followers to come back into the faith that is articulated in the Apostle’s Creed.

3. Osteen’s 73 million dollar cash cow is making a lot of people wealthy. This is about money, and Osteen is smart enough to know there is more money to be had by avoiding begging on TV. This doesn’t change a thing, however. He’s taking enough money to fund a huge part of the modern missions movement and using it to put on a show and promote materialism.

4. The line about getting people into “church” who have been out of “church” is simply crap, to be polite. No one in this movement is in church. They’re in the worst form of the prosperity Gospel, they are abandoning the God of the Bible, and they are assisting in the glorification of a man who is assisting in the humiliation of the Gospel of Jesus. Osteen is a motivational speaker, and he uses only enough Christianity as necessary to get in the pockets of the gullible. Osteen is a Gospel preacher like Col. Sanders is an army officer.

5. Osteen’s tears of gratitude over being part of “changed lives” shouldn’t erase the fact that he is responsible for the spiritual delusion of millions, and his dressed up denial of the Biblical Gospel will be judged for the lie that it is on the day of judgement. I’ve got hundreds of letters from people telling me that IM essays “changed” or “helped” them. Send me 73 million bucks and I’ll be grateful, too.

6. The piece got what it needed out of Dr. Horton, but you should read Made In America to get the whole picture of what Horton would say if he had more time.

7. Evangelicals: Want to know why thousands of us are looking toward Rome? How bad can Marian dogmas and purgatory be in comparison to a movement that has tens of millions of people hailing Osteen as the great Christian proclaimer of our age? From Graham to Osteen. God help us. You cannot help but feel dirty.

8. Osteen probably doesn’t have the knowledge to be able to judge his own errors in the light of Biblical truth. Sad, but true. He simply has no idea that he has no idea. He thinks Jesus, the Holy Trinity and the Holy Scriptures are all means to the end of having a better paycheck. According to Osteen tonight, you can get the same truths from any psychologist or motivational speaker.

9. The story no one seems to want to tell: Osteen never used the principles that are in his books in order to succeed. He dropped out of college after one year at ORU. (Too academic?) He was a media guy at his dad’s church. He was brought into the pulpit by his dad’s sudden death, and he was clueless. Parroted his dad’s methods for a couple of years, then found Norman Vincent Peale’s positive thinking and abandoned the Gospel for “life coaching.” In other words, he stumbled into daddy’s pulpit and found what drew the crowds. A guy with a message of personal improvement like Tony Robbins? Hardly.

Note: My previous essays on Osteen are available if you search “Osteen” on the search engine. For more substance, go over to Westy Seminary and read some of Horton’s Osteen writing, especially the “Glory Story” piece.

Day 27, 28, 29 (10/07/07 – 10/09/07)

• Just walking like usual…noticing some significant tightening around the chest and stomach areas. Weight loss has been minimal but encouraging.
• Did not walk on Sunday (Day 27).
• Walked 1.5 miles on both Day 28 & 29.
• Tried to do a little running last night but the knee-hip combo is not doing good. =(

Peace out!!! Off to watch Evan Almighty.

Day 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26 (10/01/07 – 10/06/07)

Way behind in updating this site. So I’ll make this quick for the 2 of you who visit. =)

• Day 21, 22, 23 – Walked in the PM. 1.5 miles per day.
• Day 24, 25 – Took these 2 days off.
• Day 26 (Saturday) – Just found out that I will need to fill pulpit in the AM. Will be walking tonight to hopefully get the mind geared up for teaching. Please pray.

Day 20 – 9/30/07

Confession time…

• Running is killing my knee/hip.
• Blew out 2 pairs of sneakers in less than 20 days. Yes, they were old and did double duty with work/play.
• I just got some new hiking shoes/cross trainers but they are not good for exercise.
• So…with that said, I’m going to scale back running and increase walking in the AM and PM!!!
• Also, I’ve been trying to convince myself that I feel the pleasure of God while I run but it isn’t working yet. =)

Distance/Time: Walked 1.7 in 25 minutes.

Day 16, 17, 18, 19 – 9/25/07 – 9/29/07

OK!!! Way behind here in posting anything. I’ve been swamped with work, church, family, etc. Freaky weather this week. 92 on Wednesday and 90 on Thursday. Air quality was real bad. On top of that we’re working with a new product that kills the lungs. It’s basically human waste reenigneered into a topdressing that you put on lawns. I know, it’s disgusting but it works.

Anyway, here’s the update…

• Day 16 – Up @ 4:30AM so to have time to meet with Pastor friend.
  • Ran .8 and walked .2.
  • Total time: 10 min.
  • Very encouraged about this progress. If I can run a 10 minute mile in the next few weeks I will be stoked.
• Day 17 - Did not wake up into I had too. Took the day off (run/walk) due to the ridiculous work day/temp. conditions. Felt good to rest the legs. Worked like a mule all day in the hot sun with the humanure. LOL!!!

• Day 18 - Had no problem getting up and actually wanted to get outside. Unfortunately, my time came in at 11 minutes as I was sucking air even walking. Sadly, I’ve had a sinus cold for the last few days so this has set me back a bit.
  • Anyway, ran the .8 and walked .2.

• Day 19 – Spent the morning sleeping in (6AM). Then went out to breakfast with the guys from church and ate the Hungryman!!! Idiot!!??!!

All in all, it was a pretty productive week. Total weight loss has been 6lbs and hopefully we can crank it up this week by way of diet and pushing myself further with the walk/run. Early AM temps should be around 50 degrees so I’m looking forward to walking less and running more.