The Inanity of Buster Olney

I was perusing ESPN.com today, when i came across an article by scribe Buster Olney. I usually find the man's arguments and articles well thought out and interesting to read. This was not the case with his latest piece. In it he describes the revelation he and Buck Showalter shared while sitting at the exclusive Baseball Tonight lunch table:

Buck Showalter walked over to the rest of the "Baseball Tonight" pod in Bristol on Thursday night holding a stat sheet in his hand and bearing the kind of expression he has when he's seen something very interesting. He was holding a list of the total hit-by-pitches stats for the majors this year.

"What do these teams have in common?" he asked. "The Yankees. The Red Sox. The Phillies. The Rangers. The Angels. The Dodgers."

Well, those are the teams having the best seasons in the majors, somebody responded.

"Those are the leaders in batters hit," Buck said.

Hmmm. Does it mean something, such as a reflection of the philosophy of those teams regarding pitching inside? Does it mean nothing? Is it a coincidence?

I don't know. But Buck's right: Those are very interesting numbers.

No they are not interesting. They are in fact distinctly boring and coincidental. Anything but interesting.

By the way, who is 3rd in the NL in hit batters?

Your World Champion 50-65 Cincinatti Reds.

Coincidentally, they are also the 3rd worst team (record-wise) in the NL. 

Interesting.....