Building a Winner

(An excerpt from an article called "Doctoring the Numbers" by Rany Jazayerli.)

Finally, unquestionably the most important lesson to be learned from the 2006 Tigers is this:

When it comes to building a championship team, there is simply no substitute for good scouting.

This may seem like a pretty basic point, but it's not. While we've gone to great lengths to destroy the notion that the scouts vs. stats debate is anything like an either/or proposition (beer and tacos, remember), it would be silly to deny that different teams emphasize each data set differently, and that on the extremes there are teams that emphasize one almost to the exclusion of the other.

Article available at: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/baseball/mlb/08/08/extra.mustard/1.html