Written by a fan, for an argument.

I'm Chris — dad, youth coach, former athlete, lifelong Baltimore fan. I run numbers for a living and I love the game more than the spreadsheet. This blog is where those two facts argue.

The idea is simple. The top line is what happened. The bottom row is what mattered. Every stat gets asked what the score was when it happened, because clutch and padding look identical in a season total. Every player gets asked how much of his number is him and how much is the building around him. And every chart gets a dated source, because data paints; it doesn't prove.

I'll state my thesis going in, show you the numbers as fairly as I can, and tell you what I learned. I won't always be right. That's the fun part.