The Red Sox are denouncing the recent comments made by senior advisor Bill James, calling the pioneering baseball statistician’s tweets downplaying the importance of MLB players “inappropriate” and “absurd.”
James was widely criticized by the baseball community after arguing with fellow sportswriters Wednesday on Twitter that MLB players are replaceable and no more integral to the game than “beer vendors” and other people working in the professional baseball industry. The influential writer, who led the mainstreaming of advanced analytics and was hired by the Red Sox as an advisor in 2003, argued — in a now-deleted reply to a tweet about agent Scott Boras complaining about teams tanking for draft picks — that lower-paid MLB players make “more money than they are worth.