Werth slams analytics 'super nerds' for 'killing' baseball

Jayson Werth walked away from professional baseball in late June after a 15-year career, and now he's airing his grievances with the current direction of the sport.

The former outfielder, who was a member of the 2008 World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies, told "The Howard Eskin Podcast" for 94 WIP in Philadelphia he isn't a fan of front offices entrusting analytics experts for information.

"They've got all these super nerds, as I call them, in the front office that know nothing about baseball but they like to project numbers and project players," Werth said, according to ESPN.

"... I think it's killing the game. It's to the point where (they should) just put computers out there. Just put laptops and what have you, just put them out there and let them play. We don't even need to go out there anymore. It's a joke."

Werth was one of the key contributors to the Washington Nationals' rise from the NL East basement in 2010 to their current run of playoff appearances, making the postseason in four of the next seven campaigns.

While some of his former teammates, such as Daniel Murphy and Ryan Zimmerman, have embraced the role analytics plays in the modern game, Werth believes it's removed "the human element."

"When they come down, these kids from MIT or Stanford or Harvard, wherever they're from, they've never played baseball in their life," he said. "When they come down to talk about stuff like (shifts) ... should I just bunt it over there? They're like, 'No, don't do that. We don't want you to do that. We want you to hit a homer.' It's just not baseball to me."