Manny Machado might think “Moneyball” is fool’s gold.
The seven-time All-Star third baseman is in the middle of what is — so far — his worst season in the major leagues.
And on Friday night, after a 1-for-4 game that included grounding into a double play in a 5-0 loss to the Mets, Machado took the opportunity to go off on the state of baseball and what he perceives as an over-reliance on analytics.
“The game’s evolving, man. It’s definitely getting harder to play. It’s definitely getting more strategic,” Machado told reporters after the Padres’ 10th loss in the last 11 games. “I just wish we can get the analytics out of the way. I think there’s too many stats out there. Too many stats, way too many numbers. I don’t even know half of the stuff that goes up there. I look at the board sometimes, and I even ask some of the guys, like, ‘What is WCCVBB, whatever it is? What are these names that are being created?’
“I mean, it’s just crazy to even keep up with.”
Machado, a three-time Silver Slugger winner, has seen his more traditional, back-of-the-baseball-card stats hit new lows.
Through 60 games, he’s hitting .175/.262/.355 with a 73 OPS+ — all of which would be career lows if the season ended today.
His advanced stats, whether or not he’s looked, have painted a slightly better picture (his hard rate still ranks in the 66th percentile), but his expected batting average an slugging are both below career norms.
The Padres, even at 32-30, have disappointed so far this season for a team that came in with high expectations.
On top of Machado’s struggles, Fernando Tatis Jr. only hit his first home run of the season on May 30 in what has been an inexplicable power outage.
Machado said baseball still boils down to one thing as the Padres look to get their season back on track.
“At the end of the day, it’s about competing,” he added, according to The Athletic.
“You got to go out there and compete and take away all those analytics, take everything you could possibly think of, and go out there and try to catch the ball and make more outs, right?
