Do not fight the regression monster. That, my friends, is the rule to live by when thinking about the upcoming trade deadline.
You hate to begin a baseball column with a statistical precept like that, even when it's a simple concept such as regression. But while the concept is perhaps simple, it is also powerful and, still, often misunderstood.
Fifteen years ago, if you had tried to sneak the term "regression" into a baseball column at, say, a major newspaper, your editor either would change it or ask you to insert a wonky definition that would have disrupted the silky rhythm of your precious prose.