A GM openly talking about sabermetrics?

Even Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta didn’t really openly talk about sabermetrics, they just acknowledged they used them.

MLB.com had a Q&A with new Pittsburgh GM Neal Huntington (hat-tip to Fire Joe Morgan), and here’s what Huntington had to say:

We are going to utilize several objective measures of player performance to evaluate and develop players. We’ll rely on the more traditional objective evaluations: OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage) , WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched), Runs Created, ERC (Component ERA), GB/FB (ground ball to fly ball ratio), K/9 (strikeouts per nine innings), K/BB (strikeouts to walks ratio), BB%, etc., but we’ll also look to rely on some of the more recent variations: VORP (value over replacement player), Relative Performance, EqAve (equivalent average), EqOBP (equivalent on base percentage), EqSLG (equivalent slugging percentage), BIP% (balls put into play percentage), wOBA (weighted on base average), Range Factor, PMR (probabilistic model of range) and Zone Rating.

Holy crap. Even I don’t look at a lot of those. Huntington did point out that they’re going to rely on scouts too:

… we will continue to stress the importance of our subjective evaluations. Succinctly stated, we believe that a combination of quality objective and subjective analysis will allow us to maximize our probability of success and to make the best possible decisions.

Way to go Neal. I will now be pulling for the Pirates to have some success more than I usually do. Their fanbase deserves better than what they’ve gotten, and it would be great to see a GM who openly discusses sabermetrics succeed.