Great find. its quotes like these that make me discount any excuse Burke may have had about the state of the team when he inherited it. Every GM of a cup-contending team uses advanced stats as a tool to give their team a competitive advantage - MG, Chiarelli, Holland, Bowman, probably Holmgren from the bold moves they've made.Larry Goodenough wrote:But when you hear that Chiarelli has internalized some data that he hasn’t released to the public, and Burke goes off pretty convincingly against the statistics, (calling much of it “horseshit” and falsely states that “nobody has ever won a championship with Moneyball”) and looking at the position of those two teams in the standings, it’s apparent that there’s at least some value to this.
I wonder if McPhee uses the same philosophy as Burke. Without Ovechkin falling into his lap, would the Capitals be considered cup-contenders the past couple years? He's been at a loss to get the most out of his stars, and hasn't had a ton of luck with his acquired veterans, and has ultimately taken a team boasting one of the most skilled players of all time a perennial underachiever.
One guy I'm curious about is Pittsburgh's GM Ray Shero. He's had the two superstar kids, but unlike McPhee he's made it to the Championship. However, he did that with Malkin and Crosby on ELCs, which is a massive advantage for any GM. Last year was very impressive with both injured, but this year they're being carried by Malkin having what may be a career year. And at the end of the day, Malkin + Crosby > Ovechkin + Backstrom.