I do think they're justified in showing exasperation at this point though. Some people will always mong away, but at this point, pretending there's a debate or 'divide' is just chatter or a desperate attempt to not drown. Like I said, advanced metrics are as much a part of the game now as the grass and dirt. Reporters need to get with the time. It'd basically be like going to a history class and hearing your teacher demand that everyone refer to Russia as the Soviet Union…

However, just as these writers dehumanize the sport by spewing unsubstantiated ad hominem attacks, the sabermetic blogging community has fallowed their lead. In just recent years they have used numbers, often from unproven formulae still in development, to cast aspersions on players, Red Sox players, with the same self serving certitude and pomposity as Massaroti, Felger, CHB, etc. And within their bubble they are believed. I.E.??? Small sample size UZR data painted Ells as a poor defender and it stuck, despite later defensive metrics showing the opposite. Today a sophisticated
blogger called Kalish "nothing" because of his injuries. It is now
acceptable to publically embarrass a highly talented 24 year old
prospect because of surgeries? More snark can be heard about
Doubront, Gomes, Gomez, Sweeney, Victorino, even PD and Papi
(my favorite was the "put a fork in him" contingent of a couple years
ago, as "clearly proven" by his early season woes, and this still shows up on usually intelligent sites. And this negative and personal vitriol has ftered into the less than intelligent blog sites like the Herald, NESN, ESPN Boston, with exactly the same self-righteous pomposity as the saber blogs and mainstream joirnalists and talking heads.

These players are often young men fighting to establish a career, growing into manhood, on the dating circuit or establishing a family
and trying to provide for it. To attack them in such manner is
destructive, petulant, thoughtless, and perhaps as malicious and
wrong as Mazz or Minihane (who sometimes gets it right.)
Boston was once called "The Athens of America", not the biggest but the most intelligent city. As you suggest, where did that go? Who can restore this pre-eminent status? You are right that the older, non-sabermetric guys, except for Gammo, are a detriment (and I'm older than most of them, maybe all) but that's not a solution. The attack dogs at CSNNE are young and still don't get it. Maybe the intelligent few like the brilliant and factual Speier and Normandin (and Gammo) are the best models. Perhaps the impetus for change at all levels can come from the Geeks who may have won, but are still learning how to wield their newfound power to do good or harm. It won't come fro
Felger, nor Windy, nor Plimpton.