Productive Outs

Larry Mahnken at the Hardball Times has presented a study on "Productive Outs", the new "junk stat" (as described by Lee Sinins) being promoted by ESPN. Mahnken basically debunks Buster Olney's contention that productive outs are a good thing.

I agree. I wrote Olney at the time he published his original article and suggested that stats like OPS with runners on base (which was ignored in the article) might also help explain how teams are scoring runs. Olney never replied. I'm glad others see this as the reactionary (against the "Moneyball" teams) junk stat that it is.