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Nathaniel's Bio

Hey, I'm Nathaniel, I'm 18 years old and I'm in the JMU class of 2011.

I'm a big NBA and NFL fan, but my primary love (which most of my writing here will be on) is professional baseball, both the major and minor leagues. I aspire to work in a major league front office in some capacity. In that vein, I am majoring in statistics here at JMU.

I could probably name 60 or 70 players in every major league organization and give you a 5-minute scouting report on each. I absolutely hate the Quadruple-A stereotype; read my article about it and the Garbage Player Phenomenon for more info. I also write a statistical analysis column on the A's for Scout.com. Furthermore, I developed UVI, one of the best metrics for baseball analysis.

I'm heavy into stats, but I you won't see 50 VORP calculations in my articles, so they aren't particularly esoteric (except for my Introducing UVI article, which obviously is about a pretty complex stat). I also firmly believe that statistics are imperfect and that you do need to watch a player and look at scouting reports to get a good idea of what they are in the present and what they are likely to become in the future. Thus, you'll see both scouting and statistical evaluations go into any conclusion I make.

I like to let most other writers cover obvious things so I can focus on some more under-the-radar players and phenomena and call attention to them, so you'll see that reflected in my articles. I was born in Philadelphia, lived half of my life in southern Virginia, half in Northern Virginia, and now I go to college in western Virginia, yet I'm an A's fan. I like the Rams in the NFL and Warriors in the NBA. No particular reason for any, but I'm not a bandwagon jumper; I stick with my teams.

Thanks for reading my articles and giving me any feedback, positive or negative. Even if you think my opinions are crazy and tell me so, it keeps me in touch with the other side of the argument I'm making.

Like I said, I do have a really wide knowledge base on baseball, so if you ever want any info or something on a player you've never heard of, I'm the guy to ask.

Nathaniel Writes About

The Short List facts and information about Nathaniel Stoltz

Favorite Athletes

Baseball: Jack Cust, Jon Knott, Scott McClain, John-Ford Griffin, Rich Harden, Chad Gaudin, Josh Hamilton, Jeremy Brown, Colter Bean, Joe Koshansky, Mike Oquist, Brooks Conrad, Marshall McDougall, Scott Deal, Juan Morillo, Nick Swisher, Matt Stairs, Mike Bacsik, Seth McClung, Danny Ray Herrera, any player that's been wronged by Quad-A. Basketball: Kelenna Azubuike, Baron Davis, Kosta Perovic, Eric Piatkowski, Troy Murphy, Kyle Korver, Zendon Hamilton. Football: Bruce Eugene, Marc Bulger, Steven Jackson, Torry Holt, Kevin Curtis, Kliff Kingsbury, Carson Palmer.

Favorite Sports Teams

Oakland A's Golden State Warriors St. Louis Rams

All Time Sports Moment

End of Super Bowl XXXIV (Rams-Titans)

Most Memorable Game Attended

Rays 11, Nats 0 sometime in July 06.

Most Unbreakable Sports Record

All the pitching games started, wins, complete games, etc. from late 1800's to early 1900's

Ruth or Mays?

Ruth was ahead of his time.

Unitas or Montana?

I wouldn't know, I wasn't alive. Montana I guess.

Pele or Maradona?

Who is Maradona? Pele by default.

Jordan or Gretzky?

This is more of a basketball vs. hockey to me so I'll take Jordan.

Pac 10, Big 12, Big 10, SEC, ACC, or Big East?

I'm from VA and my dad went to UNC so I was raised following the ACC.

Bulletin Board (31) Post a note »

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  1. by Tim
    4 days ago

    Hey man, what do you think about Indians SP prospect David Huff?

  2. by Dave
    15 days ago

    Hey man, I've been enjoying your stuff, and I'm completely blown away by your knowledge about the minors. I'd love to follow prospects that closely, but I think it takes way more time than I have, which is where your articles come in very handy. It was pretty clear how much you love minor league baseball when I looked at your favorite players. By the way, you have some interesting theories on putting together a team. The hardest part of getting a front office job is probably breaking into the business in the first place, but should you have that luck, I think you'll find your niche.

  3. by Braden
    20 days ago

    I gotta admit, that was a helluva play by Crosby.

  4. by Galen
    24 days ago

    Thanks for the support on the Joba story. You are very correct by saying the Rays are going to be a threat in 2010. I might even say next year or if things go the way they are, this year. If the Red Sox and Yankees have any kinks when it comes to the rotation, you might see your Rays basking towards the top of the AL East.

    Have a great week!

  5. by Bryan
    26 days ago

    Meh...I'm used to it. I love the Toronto Sports Scene. Mediocrity is just...amazing. Really it is. Interesting take on Zito though, I have to say there was always something about him that had me believing it was all just hype. Again, nice work.

  6. by Bryan
    26 days ago

    Thanks man....but in all honesty, Gibby is not that great of a manager to begin with so all of the guys you named really aren't helping his...um...."malfunctions" on the bench either—these most recent mental lapses are just a few examples and he definitely will have more over the course of the season. With a better manager this team could do better things (I'm not saying how much better because I don't know really), but then I'd sound like Tim McCarver.

    Ps. I love Chip Cannon. I've got my Jays jersey on hold for the day he makes the show. Simply the greatest baseball name ever!

  7. by Timothy
    26 days ago

    It's good to see someone else on this site that has a love for stats, especially baseball stats.

  8. by Dan
    27 days ago

    If my calculations are correct, UVI now has its own tag here on b/r!!

  9. by Kyle
    27 days ago

    Lol, yeah Mr. Buck is putting my fanhood in question. That guy is just, ugh...

  10. by Dan
    28 days ago

    I'll be keeping up with your writing (and what people have to say about the Skins and Irish and Hoos), but I haven't yet decided if/how often I'll actually write stuff. Maybe once school lets out and I don't have a school paper to also write sports for.

    Speaking of which, you can keep up with my writing for the Cav Daily here:

    http://dansports.tumblr.com

  11. by Justin
    29 days ago

    Nathaniel - Awesome work on the UVI stat! I also want to work in a front office someday, probably MLB but hockey is a possibility as well. Anyway, I read the UVI articles and didn't notice any effect that a player's defense would have on UVI. Maybe I simply overlooked something, but I was wondering if there was a way to incorporate a player's defensive strengths and weaknesses into UVI. Since we're both famila with the A's, I'll use a healthy Mark Kotsay as an example. His offensive numbers were dismal, however one cannot deny that his defensive abilities saved more than a few runs against the A's when he was with the team. I'll go back and read the articles again, but if you could point me in the right direction as to where to find a player's defensive abilities incorporated into UVI, that'd be awesome. If defense isn't incorporated in UVI, I'd love to help you work on including it. Even though many argue we're coming out of the "moneyball" era, defense is still valued highly. If a stat could be conceived that incorporated every aspect of a player and only that player (unlike VORP, which is fun but unsubstantiated), than I think most people would be shocked over how many truly overrated players would be exposed. I'm always looking for new ways to break down the game and players of all levels so this is fascinating to me. Get back to me and let me know if I missed something or if you have anything in mind. Thanks, take care

  12. by Bryan
    about 1 month ago

    Ugh....I just read what I wrote—it was supposed to be more of a compliment towards your ingenuity and creativeness instead of some kind of back-handed stab. My apologies...I absolutely loathe exam time.

  13. by Bryan
    about 1 month ago

    I must say: I put no faith whatsover in 'adjusted statistics' and all that jazz, as whether it's near-sighted or whatever, I'll take my good'ol Batting average, strikeouts, and everything else while reading and watching them play.

    That said, I admire your work ethic for creating such a complex stat (even though I couldn't keep up with it and my head hurts now).

    Good stuff.

  14. by Divya
    about 1 month ago

    Good work on all your articles. The minor league stuff is good, and I liked the analysis of how to fix the Giants.

  15. by Divya
    about 1 month ago

    Good work.

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