Boston Red Sox consultant Bill James J.R. Richard Jersey , best known for his work with baseball analytics leading to the Moneyball era, said MLB players are no more vital to the sport than beer vendors.James posted a series of Twitter messages, which were later deleted, downplaying the importance of individual players, saying they could all be replaced if necessary, per ESPN.com."If the players all retired tomorrow, we would replace them," he wrote. "The game would go on; in three years it would make no difference whatsoever. The players are NOT the game, any more than the beer vendors are."The Red Sox released a statement about the comments:Boston Red Sox RedSoxThe #RedSox Statement Regarding Bill James鈥?Recent Remarks: JffB08HqadMajor League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark called the remarks "reckless and insulting":#MLBPA MLB_PLAYERSExecutive Director Tony Clark鈥檚 regarding Bill James鈥?comments... UHa4j1LSqDHouston Astros starting pitcher Justin Verlander was among the stars to speak out against James' point of view, referencing the recent World Series triumph by the Red Sox in aTwitterpost."Wonder if the Red Sox win the World Series with a replacement player for Mookie Betts or J.D. Martinez or Davis Price or Xander Bogaerts or Jackie Bradley Jr. or Chris Sale or Rick Porcello or Andrew Benintendi or Rafael Devers or Craig Kimbrel or ........ http://www.astrosfanproshop.com/authentic-jose-altuve-jersey ," he wrote.James has made a career of creating ways to identify hidden value. His initial foray into advanced stats has undeniably changed the way the game is consumed with websites likeFanGraphsproviding a seemingly endless amount of metrics for evaluating players.So the 69-year-old Kansas native should know better than most that the likes of Betts, Mike Trout, Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer can't simply be replaced, especially in a three-year span.If Trout, who has two years left on hiscontract, leaves the Los Angeles Angels after 2020 it could take a generation before the franchise finds another player on that All-World level.To think every baseball player could suddenly retire and the Angels would find another five-tool outfielder walking around the streets of L.A. is a mind-boggling opinion. Even if the game would go on, as he said, the product and competition would suffer.As a result, it's no surprise James' comments have received so much kick back in a short period of time. NEW YORK (AP) — The batting average for the major leagues is on track for its lowest finish in nearly a half-century.This comes despite slightly more robust offense of late — hits topping strikeouts the last two months.According to the Elias Sports Bureau, there were 7 Craig Biggio Jersey ,134 hits and 6,818 strikeouts in August. That left the season totals at 34,350 hits and 34,103 strikeouts, the first time this season hits led at the end of a full month.The season’s batting average rose one point during August to .249. Unless it goes up to at least .251 it would be the lowest since .244 in 1972.Strikeouts topped hits in April (6,656 to 6,360) and June (6,776 to 6,640) while hits also exceeded strikeouts in May (7,033 to 6 George Springer Jersey ,971) and July (6,546 hits to 6,195). Before this year, the previous low differential for a full month was in April 2017, when there were 138 more hits than strikeouts.Strikeouts per game averaged 16.47 in August, down from 16.6 in July, 16.9 in June, 16.75 in May and 17.5 in April, which was a record for a full calendar month. Strikeouts project to 40,964 http://www.astrosfanproshop.com/authentic-evan-gattis-jersey , which would be the 11th consecutive season setting a record, topping last year’s 40,104. The total was 32,884 in 2008.There were 989 home runs in 414 games last month, an average of 2.39 that raised the season average to 2.31. The average was 2.54 through August last year, just above the record-setting final figure of 2.51.