Joe Posnanski obviously can't come right out and respond to Daugherty's idiocy today, but this blog post was clearly inspired by Daugherty's column:
*I want to point out that I got these statistics from the Bill James Website. I would also like to take a moment to say something about my friend Bill, something that he probably would not want me to say. But every couple of weeks, it seems I will see yet another person throw Bill out there as the essence of statistical evils and pajama-wearing baseball geekdom. It makes makes me pretty ill. True, part if it is because we are friends, but a much larger part is that if you read Bill's work at all, if you look at his theories with anything resembling an open mind, if you consider at all what he's getting at ... you realize that the man LOVES baseball. I mean loves baseball, loves the game, loves the stories, loves the characters, loves the ins and outs of strategy, loves the moments, loves trying to figure out why things happen, and why so many people buy into stuff that is probably nonsense. I don't mind people saying that Bill is full of crap -- hell, we ALL have to deal with that (and Bill is never shy about saying that someone else is full of crap, including me). But the people who try to make it sound like Bill's love and understanding of baseball are wrapped up in obscure mathematics and unworkable thoughts and cold data just don't get it at all.
Aaron Harang also gets some love towards the end.