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00:008 o'clock on a Tuesday, whether it is brioche, whipped cream, or boneheads, the floor is Bob
00:11Fesco's for a bonehead raw on a Tuesday.
00:16Bob's Boneheads.
00:18You're an idiot.
00:18You don't know what you're talking about.
00:20Actually, that sums up everything that I'm going to be talking about here.
00:24And that, my friends, Bob's Bonehead this week, analytics in sports.
00:29Here we go.
00:30Here we go.
00:31Analytics in sports.
00:32This last week was Josh Hart talking about analytics.
00:37I'm never a huge analytics guy.
00:40You know, at a certain point, they're a lamppost to a drunk person.
00:45You can lean on them, but it won't get you home.
00:47So there you go.
00:47That's the analytic comment that we had from Josh Hart last week.
00:50They are like a lamppost to a drunk person.
00:53You can lean on it, but it won't get you home.
00:55And he's exactly right about that.
00:58And I think the war on analytics is happening right in front of our eyes.
01:01Fans are over this crap.
01:03Fans are done with their favorite team, the Royals, using analytics.
01:07Because it doesn't work.
01:08It doesn't attribute to wins.
01:10And Kenny Atkinson, who was the head coach of the team in Cleveland yesterday,
01:14not the Warriors, the Cavaliers,
01:17had this to say after game three, before game four, about analytics.
01:25Analytically, I think we've won the expected.
01:27I said three out of three.
01:28We're two out of three in the expected.
01:30I don't know if you guys follow that.
01:31It's an expected score.
01:33You know, and we've won two out of three.
01:36And I know you're looking confused.
01:37But there is really, you know,
01:40if you believe in process and all that,
01:42like, man, I'm...
01:44So, you know, take that later.
01:46I know I don't throw that on them.
01:48I see it for myself.
01:50I'm like, man,
01:52we have this feeling.
01:53I have this feeling.
01:54Then I can go to our analytical table and be like, man, we all...
01:57You know, last...
01:58I think last night it was...
02:00The expected score was like one point or two.
02:04I was shooting way below expected.
02:06I'm shooting way over.
02:09You know, I know no one wants to hear that.
02:11I think you guys like to hear that.
02:13I know, you know, general public,
02:16no one wants to hear that.
02:16Everyone's outcome-based.
02:19You know, sure, I get that, too.
02:21I get that, too.
02:22Everyone is outcome-based.
02:24I get that, too.
02:25No, that's the only thing that we need to be focused on in sports.
02:29Right there is why sports has gotten out of hand.
02:32And why the nerds suck.
02:34I mean, they really do.
02:36Like, suck it, nerd.
02:37Because right there, that's the head coach of a team
02:39that just got swept away in the NBA Finals,
02:41losing every game by 20 or 30 points,
02:43has the balls to sit out there and talk about
02:46the expected versus reality.
02:48Expected is a fantasy land in which we live,
02:51where we can create the greatest scenarios that we want.
02:54Beautiful flowers and wonderful foods
02:57and great money for everybody.
02:59And that, oh, man, that's the expected land in which we live.
03:02The reality is life sucks and it's really hard, right?
03:05Everything in life is really, really hard.
03:07That's the expected versus the reality.
03:10The reality is you got your ass kicked on the court
03:14and you're going back there and you're telling people
03:17that based on the analytics,
03:19we probably should have won two of
03:21or at least all three of the first three games in the series
03:24because that was expected versus what was reality.
03:27He talks about believing in the process.
03:29You got swept away, you're 0-4.
03:31There's no process there.
03:33Analytic.
03:34He keeps going with the expected, the expected, the expected.
03:37Do you know what the expected doesn't do
03:38when you're sitting there using your Macintosh computer
03:40trying to figure out a spreadsheet for today's lineup
03:43or whatever it is that you nerds are doing over there
03:46in front offices of professional sports teams?
03:48You know what you're not doing?
03:50You're not focusing in on the human being side of things.
03:52And so you can have all that expected
03:55and the numbers say this should happen.
03:56What if James Harden's elbow is bothering him a little bit
03:59and he didn't tell you that
04:00and you don't know about that kind of stuff?
04:02Or what if somebody had a bad day at home
04:05and they came to the ballpark or to the court
04:07and they're pissed off because they got into a fight
04:09with their wife or maybe somebody's aunt died
04:11and you don't know that
04:12and you're not dealing with the expected at that point.
04:15You're dealing with the human side of things.
04:17And as long as these teams continue to pump out
04:20the expected versus reality
04:23and tell you to believe in the process
04:25and not show you any results for it,
04:26well, all you're doing is trying to justify
04:28your jobs to ownership.
04:30That's what analytics is.
04:31It's justification of jobs to owners
04:33when the results aren't where they need to be.
04:36And as far as fans are concerned,
04:38you know, he talks about maybe you guys
04:39are interested in this kind of stuff.
04:40If the media continues to feed this kind of stuff,
04:43then you're just along for the ride
04:45and you're a jock sniffer at this point in time
04:46because this kind of stuff isn't working.
04:49If you're sitting there
04:50and you're listening to that Kenny Atkinson
04:52talk about the expected
04:53and you're a media member, you're like,
04:54yeah, I see what you're saying.
04:56No.
04:57Sports and life was created
04:59and winners and losers are in everything.
05:02It's not what's expected to happen.
05:04If we lived our lives on what we expected to happen,
05:06nobody would do a damn thing.
05:08We'd all just walk around and go,
05:09I expect this to happen
05:10because the numbers would say it's going to happen.
05:13You've got to go out there
05:14and you've actually got to factor
05:15in the human side of things.
05:17And hearing that coach say that,
05:18that's grounds for termination.
05:20If you're in Cleveland today,
05:21why do you want that guy leading your team?
05:23He has absolutely no feel
05:25and he has the balls to sit there and say,
05:27well, we should have won two of the first three games
05:29based on what was expected.
05:30Expected versus reality
05:32are two widely different things.
05:35Yeah.
05:35And James Harden said they're the better team.
05:37That was awesome.
05:38That was great.
05:39Analytics described the process
05:41of using logic, reasoning,
05:42and the breakdown of complex ideas
05:44into smaller component parts
05:46to understand them.
05:49That's the definition,
05:51which is to me completely lost.
05:53What?
05:54The definition of...
05:55Analytic.
05:56The process of using logic, reasoning,
05:58and the breakdown of complex ideas
05:59into smaller component parts
06:01to understand them.
06:02Logic, you said.
06:03They don't use any logic
06:04when it comes to these analytics.
06:05They don't.
06:06There's no logic used at all.
06:07It's a number.
06:08I always...
06:09And I know that...
06:11What's his name?
06:11Billy Bean
06:12kind of introduced this to baseball
06:14and it worked once.
06:16This reminds me...
06:17Baseball analytics
06:18and NBA analytics.
06:20I feel like those are the two sports
06:21that really dive into it.
06:23It reminds me of the time
06:24that the Miami Dolphins
06:25figured out that they could run
06:26the wildcat running back offense
06:28and it worked one time.
06:29One time.
06:30And it worked against
06:30the New England Patriots.
06:31And then it was just kind of like...
06:33Then everybody had a week to prepare.
06:34And then it was like,
06:35oh, that doesn't work anymore
06:36because the surprise factors out.
06:38Whereas, like,
06:39to me, where I get lost in analytics
06:40when it comes to this Royals team,
06:42not necessarily the NBA team,
06:43because I heard Charles Barkley
06:44out there saying, like,
06:45oh, man, Wimby,
06:46there's just need to...
06:47You know, he's getting hit too hard.
06:48It's like, no, hit him harder.
06:49Let him get tougher.
06:50Let him get used to those hits.
06:52Like, you see LeBron James, right?
06:53He gets hit all the time.
06:54You're like, oh, he's faking that.
06:55That's a 6'8 dude
06:57that weighs 240 pounds.
06:59Like, those hits are not light.
07:00He's not selling...
07:02Now, some of you is.
07:02But, like, when he goes to the rim,
07:04like, those are people that are like,
07:05I've got to hit this guy harder
07:07because he's bigger.
07:08And what Barkley was wanting Wimby to do
07:10is take those licks
07:11so that now he knows
07:12what he's got to do in the offseason
07:13to maybe get a little bit more stronger
07:15to take the ball to the rack,
07:16even though it's not hard for him to do that.
07:18But, like, guys will hit Wimby harder.
07:19They will hit him higher.
07:20What do you do in the offseason?
07:22You adjust to that.
07:23Right.
07:23Whereas, like, with analytics,
07:26you're telling me that you have a system
07:28that you run,
07:29yet in the Royals lineup,
07:30there's two guys that don't move
07:31and aren't doing anything.
07:33Well, that's part of the system
07:34you wouldn't understand.
07:34Right.
07:35And that's fine.
07:36But, like, no, I know.
07:37I'm just saying, but, like,
07:38Vinny Pasquantino,
07:41201 average,
07:41Salvador Perez now 215.
07:43I don't use average and stuff.
07:44And to what they're telling us
07:47is that these guys have proven it.
07:49They don't need the analytics to get it.
07:51But yet, they'll get out of it.
07:54Whereas other guys in the lineup,
07:55it's like, well,
07:56we don't know what they're going to do yet.
07:57And, you know, analytically,
07:58I don't know.
07:59So, hang on a second.
08:00What you're telling me then, Dusty,
08:02is three and four in this lineup,
08:04they're using analytics to say
08:06that they can do this.
08:08But with Jack Caglione,
08:09where they don't have any evidence whatsoever,
08:12they're telling us he can't do something.
08:14That's where the make it make sense
08:16comes into play for me.
08:18And that's why last year I talked about it
08:19with the manager who will be with us tomorrow.
08:21And I was like,
08:22how do you know that Noah Cameron
08:23can't pitch in the sixth inning
08:25if he's never pitched into the sixth inning?
08:27And it's one of those, like,
08:28well, we eventually will get him there.
08:30Like, you know, it's like,
08:31okay, well, he's pitched like six times now.
08:33He's made six starts at the MLB.
08:34That's more than 90% of people will do
08:37on the face of the earth.
08:38And yet, you don't know if you don't know.
08:40And, like, we had a conversation
08:41about the pool yesterday.
08:43And one of my buddy's father-in-law was like,
08:45how can you explain it to me?
08:46And I was like,
08:47well, when you taught your kids how to ride a bike,
08:48did you tell them you can only learn
08:50how to ride your bike
08:50when it's perfectly sunny and 80 degrees outside?
08:53No.
08:53Because some days your kid's going to ride his bike
08:55and it's going to rain.
08:56And some days he's going to ride his bike
08:57and it's not going to be in his neighborhood.
08:58But you know what?
08:59He's never going to learn
09:00if you don't let him learn.
09:01And I'm much more happier finding out
09:04that Jack Caglio might fail in the major leagues
09:06if he got 900 at-bats.
09:08I'm going to be more pissed off
09:09to know that he made it after 150.
09:11Like, I need to see them play more.
09:14And I need to just, quite honestly,
09:16I just need to understand it.
09:17And right now, I don't understand it.
09:18And I honestly say,
09:19I don't think a lot of people that use it understand it.
09:21No, I think you're right about that.
09:23And I don't think fans understand it.
09:24Because you don't see it in football.
09:26Yeah.
09:26We do.
09:27We do.
09:28Yeah, of course we do.
09:28But they don't rely on it as hell.
09:30Like, I think if you're looking at the way
09:32that the leagues use analytics,
09:33baseball is by far overdone this thing.
09:35What's the example in football?
09:36I mean, fourth down.
09:37Yeah, fourth down.
09:38Yeah.
09:39But I'm thinking, like,
09:40from an athlete's perspective.
09:41Like, you wouldn't be like,
09:42hey, Mansoor Delane,
09:44you don't play well on the road.
09:45Oh, that kind of stuff.
09:46No, no, no.
09:46Yeah, yeah, yeah.
09:47But in basketball, it's like,
09:48oh, their guards are all 6'3".
09:51We need speed.
09:52We're not going to use the height.
09:54Why not?
09:55You have another advantage.
09:56You have that.
09:56You have a disadvantage.
09:57Whereas, like, football, it's like,
09:58well, I mean, I guess I could use it for Kareem Hunt.
10:01Can't run the ball more than five yards.
10:03But by God, 87% of the time,
10:04fourth and one, he's getting it.
10:05Yeah.
10:05That's fine.
10:06But that's not analytics.
10:07That's just using.
10:09That's stats.
10:09Yeah.
10:10That's smart.
10:11That is analytics, though.
10:13That's my point.
10:13Like, that term gets overused and misused.
10:16Like, yes, Royals analytics sucks.
10:18Kenny Atkinson sounds like a complete nincompoop.
10:20Yeah.
10:20Those things are true.
10:21Right.
10:21But that's not analytics fault.
10:22That's the people implementing it.
10:24Analytics has moved us a long ways in sports.
10:26But now it is, and that's what makes, to me, sports even more fun now.
10:29Because you've got people being idiots using analytics.
10:32And you've got people being smart using analytics.
10:33Like, I'd love to talk to some people over at the White Sox and see how they've done it.
10:37They are surely using analytics.
10:39It's not what we're using over here in Kansas City, but it is.
10:41But they also use the eye test, right?
10:44I mean, look at where the White Sox as an organization are right now, right?
10:47They've got great young players.
10:49They've got players that are going out there and hitting home runs.
10:52They've spent money in the offseason.
10:53The Royals could have had Murakami.
10:55They didn't want to win bad enough.
10:56I mean, that's ultimately what it boils down to.
10:59Did you want to win bad enough this offseason?
11:01It doesn't seem like the Royals wanted to win bad enough, you know, this offseason.
11:04And to make matters worse, and I know we had it kind of at the top of the dock, and
11:07we can talk to Vern about this.
11:08I don't know what you guys thought about this, but even for me sitting there yesterday watching that game,
11:14John Sherman should be pissed off after what he witnessed yesterday at his ballpark.
11:18That place was chanting, let's go, Yankees, louder than anything that I've heard this year of fans cheering for the
11:24Royals.
11:24I don't know if you guys heard that, but I heard it clear as day on ESPN yesterday.
11:28That's the thing right now, that if you're John Sherman, that should be the thing that forces you to make
11:32a move here and do something different.
11:34Your ballpark was taken over by the opposing fans, and they were chanting, let's go, Yankees, at your ballpark yesterday.
11:40That should piss John Sherman off.
11:42If Knicks fans continue to lose their mind in Times Square, a guy who was interviewed last night,
11:47I would give up my effing co-workers, F them, because they're all useless.
11:50I would give up half my family for the Knicks to win it all.
11:54Josh Vernier on the other side here at 96.5 The Fan, you're home for the KC run.
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