Talk:Bases Fallacy

This is a bit disingenuous as all statistics are approximations of values (with admitted varying accuracy). While Total Average was known to be flawed by the cognoscenti from the moment Tom Boswell was "that young man" and trotted it out there, it used simple statistics in a time when Pete Palmer's of the world -- people with computers at their disposal to crunch numbers -- were rare.

So, yes, it was known to be flawed, but one could also figure it with a Sporting News (no internet or even Baseball Weekly) and some scratch paper (believe it or not calculators were even somewhat uncommon among those who were not scientists or accountants).

We sometimes sacrifice for simplicity . . . a less extreme discrepancy than the difference between RC & TA is the difference between OPS and OBPxSlg. It is known that multiplying gives us a more accurate number, but adding is not grossly less accurate. And OPS also gives us a number that's more intuitive because it is greater than its components.