What the Hell is Bill James Thinking?

The Godfather of sabermetrics Bill James is under massive scrutiny following his ridiculous tweets regarding the current players of Major League Baseball.

The tweets have since been deleted, but the one that set fire to the baseball world read as follows:

“If the players all retired tomorrow, we would replace them, the game would go on; in three years it would make no difference whatsoever. The players are NOT the game, any more than the beer vendors are.”

Bill James: What the hell are you thinking? You are currently in a position tied to the Red Sox, with a job as Senior Baseball Operations Adviser. A major league team actually values your opinion, let alone the team that just won 108 games and won the World Series (James is going to receive a World Series ring from them). Coming out and saying that if all of the players were to die today, an entire new group would come in and replace them and with time, people would get over it is a wild move, especially when the team you work for is at the pinnacle of baseball. The comments seem to be driven based on players salaries, but even then, the team you are associated with has one of the highest payrolls in baseball, and is in one of the biggest markets in all of sports.

The Red Sox rebuked the statements made by James, going on record with the following statement.

The face of the MLB players union, Tony Clark, was also deeply offended by the comments made by James, as he had to go to bat for the players he represents. Clark put out the following statement:

Clark makes a good point here. He makes it clear that the current 750 players in the Major Leagues are the cream-of-the-crop, top talent in the world, and if the game were to not have these players, baseball would suffer terribly. The game wouldn’t be nearly as entertaining, as historically, replacement players who have taken over during players strikes have never competed at the level as everyday professional athletes.

Bill James is being blinded by his sabermetrics. His thought process that a winning baseball team can be assembled through stats and a computer are valuable in moderation, but he is ignorant to the fact that character plays a vital role in winning baseball games. He shouldn’t be so shallow as to overlook the character that the Red Sox, his own team, displayed throughout the 2018 season in their World Series run. Honestly, James’ comments were asinine and uncalled for. There was no benefit to be had for him making those comments public, and he deserves the ridicule and backlash that he has received for said comments.

As for Bill James’ reputation, it’s going to take a big hit here. He has long been praised for how he revolutionized the game of baseball, but one thing that he will never do is change the game entirely. The players, their personalities, intangibles and skill sets are still very important to the game of baseball, and replacement level players would never be able to compete at the same level or be as entertaining as the current 25-man rosters of the 30 Major League Baseball teams.

It’s time for Bill James to take a step back and realize that he needs to be more selective of what he posts on social media. It isn’t out of his realm to post outlandish comments, as he has said similar things in the past and in the books that he has written. But that doesn’t change the fact that Bill James is highly-regarded in the baseball world, as his contributions have been beneficial to baseball teams of all levels. Still, these recent comments will very likely damage the reputation he has built up, as it as if he doesn’t find the players in the Major Leagues to be the backbone of the game of baseball.