Roughly two hours before first pitch of the Royals’ 5-4 win over the Orioles on Saturday night, Bill James strongly rebuked a sabermatrician on Twitter.
Mitchel Lichtman had tweeted about the Royals: “I think this is the worst lineup, offense and defense, I’ve seen in 30 years of analyzing lineups.”
James, the noted baseball analyst who lives in Lawrence, responded forcibly by writing back: “COMPLETELY wrong, Mitchel; just completely wrong. You are confusing ‘unproven’ with ‘bad’. This lineup is VASTLY better than what they were putting out there two months ago.”
The Royals were likely unaware of James’ words, but they made him a prophet.