Study says Braves not going to academic playoffs, either (and Hudson reacts!)
The Wall Street Journal would have you believe this is the poster child of the Braves? But how do you explain the "smart" Nationals being 16-45?
The Braves haven’t played the smartest baseball of late, with the recent mental and physical miscues of shortstop Yunel Escobar being prime examples of that. But how does the team really rank in overall intelligence?
Well, according to the Wall Street Journal, dead last.
The Journal — apparently taking a break from stock market analysis and fluctuating values of the Euro and the Yen — did an academic analysis of major league baseball rosters. A reporter checked how many players on each team attended a university, whether that was a “top 15″ university (according to the U.S. News and World Report rankings), whether they graduated and whether they currently start. Each was assigned a point value.
Guess what’s coming?
The Braves’ finished with four points. Unfortunately, the WSJ did not grade on a class curve. The next closest team from the bottom was Texas with 12 points.
The team deemed the smartest was Oakland (32 points). But I’m guessing just showing up at the stadium with text books and a copy of the periodic table is not going to help the A’s get out of last place in the American League West.
Although it wasn’t included in the story, the Braves finished last among National League East teams, well behind Washington (23 points), Philadelphia (21), New York (20) and Florida (14).
OK. So, the Nationals are the smartest team in the division, but they have the worst record in baseball (16-45)? That pretty much blows the validity of this study out of the water right there, doesn’t it?
However, it’s worth noting that the American League East, considered by most to be baseball’s best division, also is the “smartest,” according to cumulative point total. Boston (31), Tampa Bay (31), Toronto (30), Baltimore (29) and the New York Yankees (22) also scored well.
In the Braves’ defense, the team has a history of drafting a lot of high school players. Also, the study graded only players who have appeared in a game this season (as of June 1). So it did not include pitcher Tim Hudson (Auburn), who is on the disabled list. It also does not include players who attended only community college (Mike Gonzalez, Brandon Jones).
But still — 4 points? (Check out a photo gallery of Braves with college credit.)
UPDATE: When our Carroll Rogers told Hudson of the story, the Braves’ pitcher, who used to pitch for the “smarter” A’s, cracked: “I knew over the years I’ve gotten dumber. Now I know why. I’m surrounded by a bunch of morons.”
Pretty quick for an Auburn guy.
He then added (seriously): “Well you figure the Braves are known for drafting high school talent, that’s probably a big reason why. Oakland’s Billy [Beane] is more of a big draft college kids guy. For them they draft college kids and it means they can get them to the big leagues quicker. With Atlanta, they’d rather develop them in the minor leagues for four years than getting a college player. That has a lot to do with it.”
The breakdown follows. There will be a test later.
Following are the major league teams that the Wall Street Journal considers the smartest and dumbest — at least, according to its own arbitrary point system. Teams were awarded points for every player on the roster with a college degree or college experience. The WSJ said point values were weighted, depending on whether the player attended an “elite school” and if the player is a starter. The WSJ said managers also were included in the formula. We’ve also added the current standing of the top and bottom teams, just to see if there is any correlation. Draw your own conclusion. (Mine: No.)
TOP OF THE CLASS Record
A’s 32 27-35 (.435)
Rays 31 34-31 (.523)
Diamondbacks 31 27-37 (.422)
Red Sox 31 38-25 (.603)
Blue Jays 30 34-31 (.523)
BOTTOM OF THE CLASS
Braves 4 30-32 (.484)
Rangers 12 35-27 (.565)
Reds 13 31-31 (.500)
Marlins 14 32-33 (.492)
Angels 15 33-29 (.532)
Royals 15 28-34 (.452)
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80 comments Add your comment
PMC
June 16th, 2009
2:20 pm
Somewhere in this is surely justification for drafting a pitcher out of Vanderbilt.
Sonny Clusters
June 16th, 2009
2:31 pm
Whoa! We was as smart as anybody when we was playing ball. Jeff could hit and run and catch and throw and still go to class and pass some of the stuff we had to do when we was in school together that state championship year. I think hes plenty smart to make the Braves aveges go up when you add him in with Chipper who knows all about huntin and arm-barring and science. I rescent the idea my team is not smart as them other teams they playing. I think the Braves are pretty smart and they was always.
Supes
June 16th, 2009
2:34 pm
Top 2 picks this year…players from Vandy and Harvard. Should improve that score for the future:)
Peter
June 16th, 2009
2:36 pm
Obviously we need to start with the front office and owners, who obviously are not that smart, as the team is mediocre, and playing as such !
mitch
June 16th, 2009
2:38 pm
Mr. JS–sometime funny, sometime not. This time not. Also, you meant “validity”, not “credibility.” Your pal, Mitch
Dave 55
June 16th, 2009
2:42 pm
This is such a dumb study, because most players turn pro out of high school, and the ones that get drafted out of college do so as a junior and thus don’t graduate. By this measure, the NFL is the smartest league of players. Pointless.
Batt 603B
June 16th, 2009
2:43 pm
Isn’t there some guy at Gwinnett that we got for Blaine Boyer who has a degree in something like Aeronautical Engineering from Ga. Tech? I think you call it North Ave Trade School
Robert
June 16th, 2009
2:50 pm
Must be slow news week.
Jeff Schultz
June 16th, 2009
2:51 pm
PMC: Yes. Especially if he throws in the 90s.
SONNY: Shocked you weren’t first. You’re not sleeping on me now, are you? And you still owe me two papers and a makeup quiz, slacker.
SUPES: Yes and yes, and neither would have me.
MITCH: Actually, I think you’re right. About validity, I mean. So I changed it. On the funny factor: oh well. Don’t shoot, I’m only the piano player (name the album).
DAVE 55: Right you are. It’s only for amusement.
Duke
June 16th, 2009
2:51 pm
I played some ball and I know who’s smart. Baseball players are a lot smarter than hockey players. Some of them don’t even speak English. Try to talk to one.
Troglodyke
June 16th, 2009
2:52 pm
I guess the true test is what will the players do when they can no longer play ball? If they’ve been good stewards of the ridiculous sums they’ve earned, it won’t matter. But have they? if they aren’t that bright to begin with, and didn’t stay in school, do they know how to manage their money? So–out-of-work baseball player, no education, and no money left. No one will be laughing then.
The bottom line is that an education is worth way more than money. Our country’s predilection to eschew education for sports, rap careers, or movie stardom is no longer surprising. It’s just sad. And sadder still is all the no-talent or low-talent hacks who think they’ll get to the majors or the NFL, but don’t belong anywhere near it. They blow off schooling, and then they have nothing. Stupid.
I personally have no idea why one would want to be uneducated, but apparently a lot of people do.
John
June 16th, 2009
2:56 pm
Since when did Brian Barton go to GT? He went to Loyola Marymount and Miami…
BravesFan
June 16th, 2009
2:59 pm
JS. Elton John. Great album inculded the classic crocodile rock. I can relate to this because I play college baseball, doesn’t mean im smart though
Batt 603B
June 16th, 2009
3:00 pm
John I humbly apologize. But am I not correct that he is realatively well educated?
John
June 16th, 2009
3:03 pm
You’d be correct on that assessment.
Pete the Great
June 16th, 2009
3:12 pm
Really, you wrote this article? Oh, how embarassing for you Jeff. Have you nothing better to do than to find negative articles to write about the Braves? What a sad sack you have become.
Pete the Great
June 16th, 2009
3:15 pm
So, Jeff, did your buddy John Smoltz go to college? I mean you seem to be Smoltz’s “voice” here with your anti-Braves rhetoric.
Hot Phone Sex Princess
June 16th, 2009
3:24 pm
Jeff, honey, ‘Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player’ was the name of the album. ‘Crocodile Rock’ was the single. Didn’t you graduate from the School of Rock?
Springs
June 16th, 2009
3:24 pm
No points for Parkview High School?
mitch
June 16th, 2009
3:24 pm
BravesFan–thanks. Actually, I know that album very well and like it. But for some reason, I was thinking about that other guy. Joel somebody. Mitch
GT
June 16th, 2009
3:25 pm
My curiosity is not on the ones that made the Braves but the ones that didn’t make it through the minors. I am pretty sure college never hurt anybody though most people than didn’t go haven’t a clue why you need to.
Tim
June 16th, 2009
3:28 pm
Chris, go take your bigoted butt back to the 1950s please.
Brian
June 16th, 2009
3:29 pm
They wasted a lot of energy on a study that just illustrates the two main development philosophies in baseball. Drafting high-ceiling high school players and utilizing a strong Latin America pipeline, the model the Braves had success with for a decade and a half, and the new sabermetric “Moneyball” types like Oakland, Boston, and Toronto that go heavily after college players. This has almost zero to do with how smart baseball players are, on the field anyway. Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz are three of the smartest pitchers of the last 50 years, and they didn’t go to college.
JD
June 16th, 2009
3:31 pm
Jeff – Your titles have just the right amount of cruelty, humor, wit, and truth in them. This is one of my favorites
mitch
June 16th, 2009
3:36 pm
BravesFan (again) and HPSP–it’s coming back to me now. The album had the great “Daniel,” also, but the best on there was “Blues for Baby and Me.” Mitch
Curtis Jones
June 16th, 2009
3:37 pm
The Braves haven’t had a real “brainiac” since Pascual “Magellan” Perez.
JD
June 16th, 2009
3:38 pm
Logic would say that the “dumber” a team is (based on the amount of school attended) the better it is. The best players typically aren’t going to choose to go to more school when they can make it pro. Like that 16 year old who said he’s skipping the rest of high school so he can enter the 2010 draft.
Likewise, the not so naturally talented players play in college longer. They’ll be in the majors quicker, but the ones out of high school tend to be naturally better. At least that’s my thought, anyway.
Braves Gal
June 16th, 2009
3:39 pm
The smartest thing Tim Hudson did at Auburn was meeting and marrying his wife, Kim. He might be the brawn of the family but she’s clearly the brains.
Napoleon
June 16th, 2009
3:40 pm
Your mom goes to college!
bruce
June 16th, 2009
3:41 pm
wsj where is your sports section? and did you make recommendations on this year’s draft… maybe only on the college players?
bruce
June 16th, 2009
3:43 pm
How many of the top IQs at the WSJ are bilingual? Do they conduct their business in at least two languages? And performance reviews…. baseball players get more of those than anyone in any business… daily and in the press. WSJ should be smarter than to take on baseball players for performance and ability.
Brian
June 16th, 2009
3:44 pm
JD, I don’t think even the Moneyballers would tell you they’re more likely to find a transcendent kind of superstar in the college ranks. College players’ ceilings aren’t as high, but they’re also less likely to be busts, just because of the longer development period and amount of sample data. The sabermetricians are all about number crunching. Basically, college players are a more predictable bunch, albeit perhaps not as “talented”.
Outside Robber
June 16th, 2009
3:45 pm
I’d be in favor of someone commissioning a study to determine the most intelligent sports beat writers covering the various teams in MLB.
Kip
June 16th, 2009
3:45 pm
I believe that was my line, Napoleon
poop
June 16th, 2009
3:45 pm
Its because the braves typically draft high school players and not college.
Dave
June 16th, 2009
3:46 pm
George W. Bush went to an Ivy League college. That tells you all you need to know about the premise of this survey.
JD
June 16th, 2009
3:47 pm
There’s nothing quite like offending a good portion of your readers. Cox should be ashamed for letting you publish something like this on the front page of your web site. There are plenty of us who dropped out of high school early on, got our GEDs, and are doing perfectly well in this world. You don’t need a college education to be ’smart’ and well employed and a very productive member of society. In fact, I know several Cox/AJC employees who are rather high up at Cox Media, Cox Interactive, WSB, or at the AJC who never finished college (and some who didn’t finish high school). This article seems to imply that maybe we shouldn’t be taking your publications and broadcasts as seriously because your employer hires people without college degrees?
Simply put: unless they went to college for “baseball degrees” and failed out, their college status doesn’t mean squat.
marc
June 16th, 2009
3:51 pm
Chill out fellows. It’s a joke. I think it’s hilarious. I have this vision of Bobby Cox having a conversation in the locker room with a guy from Princeton (not Harvard) and a guy from Vanderbilt. That would be worth hearing.
observor
June 16th, 2009
3:54 pm
I love how every sports blog has idiots like dave that feel the need to find any reason or excuse to inject their moronic political opinions into any discussion, no matter how irrelevant it may be.
Brendan
June 16th, 2009
3:58 pm
Does Bobby Cox count??
BigHittas
June 16th, 2009
3:59 pm
Vandy is overrated.
hmmm
June 16th, 2009
4:00 pm
Someone got paid for this? And you got paid to reproduce it? Isn’t America great!
Shamus Thacker
June 16th, 2009
4:04 pm
When Frenchy said the Braves might move him for “financial reasons,” I thought he was delusional.
Nice to know he’s just dumb as Hell.
BigHittas
June 16th, 2009
4:04 pm
not to defend Dave, but the fact that Dubyah went to Yale could be considered comedy, not necessarily politics.
BenHb
June 16th, 2009
4:13 pm
I can’t believe so many of you get offended at seeing something negative printed about your team. Schultz is just reporting on a meaningless study, that even he said in case you’re too dense to notice. Secondly, how is everyone pretending like the Braves are so smart based on how they play? How about Francoeur never adjusting, Andruw definitely never did (granted he doesn’t count for this survey), Yunel with that ridiculous play two days ago. I wished we played smarter ball…
Also, someone mentioned that this was a waste of a lot of energy? Really? Seems relatively simple to me. Just look at a teams roster and see who went to college. What’s so energy-wasting about that? Especially if the people doing it actually didn’t mind.
Dave Perry
June 16th, 2009
4:13 pm
Well, there you go. The WSJ thinks a college education makes you smart. What a bunch of horse manure. Some of the dumbest people I ever met I met in college. And while serving in the military it was the college grads who couldn’t make it through the military training schools. Want to know why? Because colleges don’t education, they diploma!
BenHb
June 16th, 2009
4:19 pm
How long does it take a comment to show up usually, because I’m not sure if I’m double-posting this or if the submit comment button ate this the first time I tried to post it…
I can’t believe so many of you get offended at seeing something negative printed about your team. Schultz is just reporting on a meaningless study, that even he said in case you’re too dense to notice. Secondly, how is everyone pretending like the Braves are so smart based on how they play? How about Francoeur never adjusting, Andruw definitely never did (granted he doesn’t count for this survey), Yunel with that ridiculous play two days ago. I wished we played smarter ball…
Also, someone mentioned that this was a waste of a lot of energy? Really? Seems relatively simple to me. Just look at a teams roster and see who went to college. What’s so energy-wasting about that? Especially if the people doing it actually didn’t mind.
All I'm Saying
June 16th, 2009
4:23 pm
Clearly, Schultz is searching, reaching, straining to find stuff to fill his new weekly content quota. And, obviously, despite everything going on, the WSJ has people sitting around wondering what they can come up with to fill their fish wrapper. Even someone with only a G.E.D. knows how D-U-M-B this WSJ story is: First, how many players in Cooperstown went to college? Second, how many players with World Series rings went to college? Third, then there is the fact that you can have ‘book smarts’ and still be a dumb baseball player. Geez, what a waste of cyberspace (AJC), newspaper (WSJ), and time….Please wake me when they trade Frenchy or the whole team goes on a hitting streak.
Rev. Otis Nixon
June 16th, 2009
4:27 pm
THIS IS GETTING RIDICULOUS, JEFF!!!! HOW MANY NEGATIVE STORIES ABOUT THE BRAVES CAN YOU WRITE IN A 48 HOUR SPAN??? WHERE IS THE BALANCE????
Rev. Otis Nixon
June 16th, 2009
4:30 pm
THIS IS GETTING RIDICULOUS, JEFF!!!! HOW MANY NEGATIVE ARTICLES CAN YOU WRITE? DOESN’T IT START TO LEAVE A BAD TASTE IN YOUR MOUTH?? YOU MUST REALLLY HATE THE BRAVES.
Jeff Schultz
June 16th, 2009
4:35 pm
BRAVES FAN: Ding! Ding! We have a winner. Did you have to Google?
PETE THE (NOT SO) GREAT: I believe Smoltz had scholarship offers, sir, but declined. But somehow I think you knew that.
HOT PHONE SEX PRINCESS: Do you have rollover minutes? (Thank you. I’m here all week.)
CURTIS JONES: Perez knew his circles. Or, perimeters.
BIGHITTAS: Yeah, but I went to Harvard. Not to class. Just visited. But I went there.
ALL I’M SAYING: 3 blog a day, 15 a week, plus 3-4 print columns. Darn right I want to have to make quota. And I did today! Yesssss! Now who took my beer?
Daniel
June 16th, 2009
4:36 pm
Who cares if they can spell? All they need to know is “Scott Boras” and how to whine until they’re millionaires.
Greg from Marietta
June 16th, 2009
4:37 pm
THIS HAS TO BE THE DUMBEST STUDY EVER!! What a waste of time and effort. I take it that the folks at the WSJ have very little to do these days. This is paramount to studying shoe size in relation to home run production, one thing has absolutely no bearing on the other. Since when does academic achievement have any correlation to physical or athletic prowess?? Maybe we should rank the WSJ journalist by their OBP or batting average.
Bobby's Cox
June 16th, 2009
4:42 pm
All you have to do is watch the at-bats this team gives and realize it’s not a smart baseball team.
Btw, I like that we drafted college players this year. They are more ready for the majors and you get some kind of common sense ingrained in you by taking college courses….
Hot Phone Sex Princess
June 16th, 2009
4:45 pm
Jeff, I have rollover minutes that you can only dream about.
Bobby's Cox
June 16th, 2009
5:01 pm
Well, there you go. The WSJ thinks a college education makes you smart
I will use this argument as a rebuttal to my post at 4:42. True, you don’t need a college education to be “smart.” Most of the richest people in the world are college dropouts, but it still hurts seeing your team rank as dumbest on the WSJ. At least we have an valid excuse now for poor play and retarded dumbfounded at-bats…
TROTTINGHOME
June 16th, 2009
5:11 pm
This only proves the boys on Wall Sreet don’t know sh** about baseball either.
And if they did we wouldn’t have the economic melt down they gave us.
Texas just layed of front office people. I got layed off 9 months ago and peanut butter is getting to be old, but I am glad I got it.
TROTTINGHOME
June 16th, 2009
5:12 pm
Hot Sex…nothing better. I will take it plain or with almonds.
Hillbilly Deluxe
June 16th, 2009
5:24 pm
While education is a good thing, intelligence and education many times have nothing to do with each other.
Bubba
June 16th, 2009
5:29 pm
And this surprises you….why?
Adam
June 16th, 2009
5:55 pm
With travel and scout ball getting so big and kids like SI Cover Boy Harper in Las Vegas taking the GED you might have a poll in a few years of how many teams had players who even attended high school!
Ted Striker
June 16th, 2009
6:07 pm
I wanna see a study based on hottest girlfriends. (The heck with hottest wives, they tend to plump up).
Ted Striker, over and out.
Mitch C
June 16th, 2009
6:11 pm
I’ve been a Braves fan since 1983, and during the Braves bad years in the 1980s, this used to cross my mind.
I lived in the New York City area then, and used to watch the Mets and Braves play at Shea Stadium every year. During the years in 1985-1990, which was the Mets best period back then, and the Braves worst, it used to occur to me that most of the Braves, except for Dale Murphy, played the game with dumb, clueless looks on their faces. The Mets, by contrast, looked intense, always ready to play, and more often than not, made smart plays. This is probably why the Mets, and everyone else during that time, used to kick the Braves butts with regularity.
During the championship years of 1991 to 2005, the Braves always seemed to not only have the best players, but they maximized their roster potential, and made the most of what they had. Every year, until the playoffs, they played “smart” baseball.
Maybe there is a correlation between good baseball teams, and “intelligence”. I dont know. Your post is interesting to think about, to say the least.
Mitch
Sonny Clusters
June 16th, 2009
6:17 pm
Jeff, what was the numbers before Boyer and Chuck James left? Did they take points off for Chipper?
Adam
June 16th, 2009
6:25 pm
BTW with this scout ball and travel ball emphasis I GUARANTEE you will see fewer and fewer college players going pro.
It’s stupidly competitive out there and many parents with dollar signs in their eyes now are willing to play the lottery with their kid making it.
Want an interesting poll? Find out how many of these high school-only players had a batting cage/mound in their backyard built by dad or an uncle…. How many played 80-100 games a year from the age of 10 on and how many actually had a 3.0 GPA or above in high school?
Think it’s bad now — just wait — Just ask Boras with all his high school “consulting” deals.
Jeff Schultz
June 16th, 2009
6:32 pm
Hey, for those of you who read and commented earlier, check out the new version above. Hudson has a GREAT quote, which Carroll Rogers emailed to me.
Ted Striker
June 16th, 2009
7:10 pm
Hudson is funny. (Don’t know what his girlfriend looks like but I’ll give him points for wit).
Ted Striker
June 16th, 2009
7:27 pm
Are there bonus points for knocking up a Hooters waitress?
Gman
June 16th, 2009
7:31 pm
Wow, we really miss Glavine and Smoltz – they are, as we know, smarter than everyone else combined.
Scorby Jones
June 16th, 2009
7:35 pm
67 comments and the only one worth reading is the first one! (one more, if you include this waste of a comment)
Ken Stallings
June 16th, 2009
7:36 pm
This is a stupid column! All it does is measure what percentage of the team roster attended college. The Braves have always had a philosophy of drafting pitchers out of high school and avoiding college pitchers due to the established risk of injuries.
The Braves made a rare exception by drafting an NC State pitcher, Joey Devine, hoping he’d make a quick transit through the farm system and help fill an immediate need in the bullpen.
The result? He suffered injuries, performed poorly, and is now on the DL with Oakland!
All that matters is baseball talent and smarts.
The Wall Street Journal article is at best a whimsical effort, at worst foolish. Once again, it appears you cherry picked some pointless article to make a dubious point.
I cannot remember the last column you wrote that I agreed had a sage point to make. Are you trying to write stuff to get criticized?
Tom
June 16th, 2009
8:43 pm
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3510042
Jeff Schultz
June 16th, 2009
9:25 pm
Tom, thanks for the reminder.
the hope of the braves nation rests in your hands mr hanson
June 16th, 2009
9:26 pm
that is awesome! braves are the dumbest in baseball…..
i know that article may not mean much for actual success on the diamond but i do believe that it is telling. especially on our part. this team is full of dumb@sses… i wish they could do a study drive. i bet the braves would be dead last in that study as well. still, pretty funny…. or pretty sad, which ever way you intend to look at it.
SC Ace
June 16th, 2009
10:26 pm
You should add Brian Barton (mr. rocket scientist) to the photo gallery
Dawg A
June 16th, 2009
10:33 pm
And it took this study to figure this one out. Just watch them play!!!
Dave
June 17th, 2009
11:57 am
I love being called “idiot” by someone who can’t even spell “observer.” Nice!
Louise
June 18th, 2009
5:54 am
Washington Nationals should be always competitive enough to keep pace with the others. I really like them; they’ve always been my favourite teams in MLB. Just read about them here:
http://www.nationalsclub.com
dub
June 19th, 2009
12:25 pm
I DON’T KNOW WHY EVERYBODY WANT TO BLAME YUNEL FOR WHAT THE BRAVES ARE DOING HELL IF IT WASN’T FOR YUNEL THERE NO TELL ING WHAT THE BRAVES RECORD WOULD BE.IF THE BRAVE DON’T WANT HIM TRADING A SEE WHAT YOU GET .JUST LIKE THE REST OF THE TRADES YOU BE GOING DOWN HILL .BRAVES MANAGER & FRONT OFFICE JUST ANI’T RIGHT TO.THAT WHY ALL THE BAD LUCK IS HAPPENING TO THEM.
Buzz
June 20th, 2009
10:48 am
Dub, with that compilation of letters I am left wondering, do you play for the Braves?