Why do I bother?

The following is an email I just wrote to Marcus Hayes of the Daily News immediately after reading this article-

I just read your article from yesterday. After last night's game, Pat Burrell has a .417 on-base percentage. Why did you leave his OBP (which was .411 at the time) out of your article? This will also, in all likelihood, be his third consecutive season having an OBP of .388 or higher and an OPS of .890 or higher, which puts him in some elite company. Why did you not mention this? You're a smart man- you can't honestly believe these numbers mean nothing. And it's not like I'm mentioning his WARP or VORP or RC/27. Just OBP and OPS. These are hardly "super-nerdy" metrics. In fact, according to the "super-nerdy" metrics, which are worthless except for the tiny little fact that they are easily the best tools we have for evaluating player performance, 2007 is his best offensive season since 2002.

The Phillies still have the best offense in the NL, and that's with the missing Chase Utley and the slumping Ryan Howard (why did you not bash him?). And a large part of their awesome run production is Pat Burrell. Sure, he makes too much money for what he brings to the table. Most players in his salary bracket do- Pat's numbers are just as good as and often better than guys like Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Lee, and Aramis Ramirez. Would you bash those guys if they were Phillies? I doubt it, since usually their old-style statistics give them the outward appearance of being better than Burrell. But if you're willing to take time to understand why they matter, new ways of thinking can prove why a man like Pat Burrell is more important to the Phillies' success than anyone credits him for.