if the a's are not the best team in baseball this year, we should just ignore AVG. does AVG lie?
if the a's are not one of the four best teams in baseball this year, we should just ignore SLG and ERA. do SLG and ERA lie?

i believe the a's and rays also have the two best W-L records in baseball right now.

Spring training records and stats are pretty much meaningless in terms of what happens in the regular year.

So this whole conversation is moot.

While I'm inclined to agree with PT that using spring training performance to determine the best players is somewhat stupid, isn't that kinda the point of spring traing? I know that a large part of it is just to gear up for the season and get everybody going, but isn't the A's organization using this time to determine who should fill in the spots on the roster that are not already set in stone. So if Conrad goes 30/30 and plays decent defense while D. Murphy struggles why is it so crazy to suggest keeping Conrad over D. Murphy?

I think this sort of thing works on a kind of scale, if Ichiro doesn't get a hit in spring training you still start him opening day, on the other hand, if Linden continues his tear don't you have to think about giving him one of the open spots?

I guess my point is this; if you think that spring training performance is totally meaningless why not just play your starters from day one and get them the most at bats so they'll be ready rather than wasting your time with Brooks Conrad?

This post really annoyed me.

Here's why any stat, not just OBP, should be taken with a grain of salt
A) Spring Training isn't real
B) Spring Training is a small sample size
C) Players who won't be sniffing the majors will be pitching (and, for pitchers, hitting) to them in the majority of that small sample size
D) Players work on things, thus creating unrealistic situations (like Harden only throwing breaking balls just to work on those pitches).

Here's why your comments on OBP are beyond ridiculous:
A) Nobody ever called it an "end-all-and-be-all" stat (and if they did, ignore them). It's just the stat the correlates with winning more than any other. (This is true for the basic stats. Obviously more complicated ones have been created that do the job better. But WARP isn't really what this conversation is about).
B) Does OBP lie about what? Does it not really tell you how many times a player got on base? I don't really get what you're trying to say here.
C) You don't cite anything that shows that OBP isn't a predictor of winning. Even if ST is mostly meaningless, the A's and Rays have very good records right now. They also have very good OBPs. Other factors are certainly included, but you're actually proving the point you're arguing against. Two teams with a high OBP are winning games. It doesn't mean they'll win when things matter though.

Also, I'm starting to hate Brooks Conrad and it's not because of anything he did. I wish people would actually do some research on players before blowing their load over 20 at bats.

and replace his user name with one you've never seen before - say "Fnarkle". If I saw this post, by a user I'd never seen here before, I'd ban the user as a troll; if you saw it, you'd roll your eyes and ignore it.

This is not to equate our beloved Foolshgame22 with a troll - it's to suggest that Foolshgame22 decided it would be fun to write a silly post (it doesn't even stay on message for more than a few words at a time!) and see who took the bait. Is that about right, Foolsh? Because it kinda reads like something you write Saturday night and then go "I wrote that?" when you're sober Sunday morning.

Dusty Baker and Adam Dunn walk into the urologist's office, and Dusty says "I need a shyster!"

is a better overall evaluation of a hitters talent than OBP is.

and notch just shy of 900 total bases ...