Statistical Shenanigans (Part One)

I apologize in advance for an overtly sabermetric article. I have to vent. It won’t happen again, I promise—except in part 2.

Correlation and regression coefficients are perhaps the two most abused statistical measures by (baseball) analysts. How often do you see a baseball study quoting a correlation of 0.2, or an R squared of 0.49, and being told that the result is meaningful? Quite often I’d posit. Is it? Some studies say a correlation of 0.3 is strong, others dismiss it. Who is right?

The Hardball Times