Category: Statistics

NL Cy Young: A no brainer

No surprise here.  Jake Peavy won the NL Cy Young.  And almost as much expected, it was unanimous. But what might be a little unusual (but certainly warranted) was that Arizona’s Brandon Webb almost got second place with an almost unanimous vote. He got 31 of 32 second place votes. That essentially left seven pitchers to … Continue reading “NL Cy Young: A no brainer”

No surprise here.  Jake Peavy won the NL Cy Young.  And almost as much expected, it was unanimous.

But what might be a little unusual (but certainly warranted) was that Arizona’s Brandon Webb almost got second place with an almost unanimous vote. He got 31 of 32 second place votes. That essentially left seven pitchers to divvy up the third place vote with Aaron Harang getting the last second place vote. Ironically though, it was Brad Penny who received the most votes of the remaining seven, not Harang.

Carrie Muskat, the Cubs.com beat reporter, reported that Zambrano came in fifth in the Cy Young. Unfortunately, fifth place meant he only got 3 votes. 

One last note… The Hardball Times notes that Webb actually had more pitching win shares than Peavy did in 2007. 

Check out the sabermetrics on the new Pirate GM

Pirate sabermetricians are going to like the new Pittsburgh Pirate GM.  During a Q & A, Neal Huntington showed off his baseball smarts: The Pirates upper management has widely ignored OBP (on base percentage) in the past. How important will OBP be in player evaluation under your leadership? — Eric S., Pennsboro, W.Va We are going to … Continue reading “Check out the sabermetrics on the new Pirate GM”

Pirate sabermetricians are going to like the new Pittsburgh Pirate GM.  During a Q & A, Neal Huntington showed off his baseball smarts:

The Pirates upper management has widely ignored OBP (on base percentage) in the past. How important will OBP be in player evaluation under your leadership?
— Eric S., Pennsboro, W.Va

We are going to utilize several objective measures of player performance to evaluate and develop players. We’ll rely on the more traditional objective evaluations: OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage) , WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched), Runs Created, ERC (Component ERA), GB/FB (ground ball to fly ball ratio), K/9 (strikeouts per nine innings), K/BB (strikeouts to walks ratio), BB%, etc., but we’ll also look to rely on some of the more recent variations: VORP (value over replacement player), Relative Performance, EqAve (equivalent average), EqOBP (equivalent on base percentage), EqSLG (equivalent slugging percentage), BIP% (balls put into play percentage), wOBA (weighted on base average), Range Factor, PMR (probabilistic model of range) and Zone Rating.

That said, we will continue to stress the importance of our subjective evaluations. Succinctly stated, we believe that a combination of quality objective and subjective analysis will allow us to maximize our probability of success and to make the best possible decisions

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Considering what the Pittsburgh fans have had to deal with in the recent past (and believe me, I know.  We’ve hear about from Bucs fan Todd V on The Baseball Zealot), they have to me drooling with anticipation.  This guy sounds like he has a head on his shoulders. 

/hat tip Baseball Musings

Court says MLB Stats not copyrightable

In the case of CBC Distribution and Martketing v. MLB, a court of appeals upheld an earlier decision that MLB players’ names and stats are not copyrightable A correct decision in my opinion. I want to write more but I’m busy packing appropriately enough, for our APBA league All-Star weekend which also uses player’s names … Continue reading “Court says MLB Stats not copyrightable”

In the case of CBC Distribution and Martketing v. MLB, a court of appeals upheld an earlier decision that MLB players’ names and stats are not copyrightable A correct decision in my opinion.

I want to write more but I’m busy packing appropriately enough, for our APBA league All-Star weekend which also uses player’s names and stats to some extent.

In the meantime, read more about the decision at Ars Technica.

 

 

HT interviews Retrosheet founder David Smith

Hardball Times is known for their unconventional,and rather entetaning Q&A interviews.  This week, Chris Jaffe from HT takes on David Smith, the founder and mastermind behind Retrosheet.  It was a special interest to me since (besides the obvious) we at Baseball Zealot Radio interviewed Mark Pankin also of Retrosheet a few shows back.  You can read Smith … Continue reading “HT interviews Retrosheet founder David Smith”

Hardball Times is known for their unconventional,and rather entetaning Q&A interviews. 

This week, Chris Jaffe from HT takes on David Smith, the founder and mastermind behind Retrosheet. 

It was a special interest to me since (besides the obvious) we at Baseball Zealot Radio interviewed Mark Pankin also of Retrosheet a few shows back. 

You can read Smith interview on the Hardball Times website.

 

 

Baseball Reference now has Minor League Stats

This email from Baseball Reference dropped into my inbox today:

Baseball-Reference.com now has minor league stats from 1992-2007. In
addition to player, team, league and major league affiliate pages, we
also have sortable batter and pitcher leaderboards for every league,
level and year.

You can access it at B-R’s minor league section,

In true Baseball Reference fashion, the database is well organized.  It’s sorted by Organization, level and leagues.  Of course, everything is interactive allowing you to click away to your heart’s content.

Fun with Boxscores

For the stat geeks I was playing around with some of the boxscore data that Baseball Reference has available (much of the actual raw data is courtesy of Retrosheet).  I’m amazed what you can find out these days.  There’s a boxscore video tutorial narrated by none other than B-R founder Sean Forman.  It gives you … Continue reading “Fun with Boxscores”

For the stat geeks

I was playing around with some of the boxscore data that Baseball Reference has available (much of the actual raw data is courtesy of Retrosheet).  I’m amazed what you can find out these days. 

There’s a boxscore video tutorial narrated by none other than B-R founder Sean Forman.  It gives you an idea what’s out there. 

For the real number crunchers, try B-R’s Play Index, a set of data tools that allow you to find streaks, events, totals etc.  Some of the more involved searches using the Play Index do require a paid subscription. 

 

Posada talk

Jorge Posada is the topic of late at Baseball Reference’s Stat of the Day Blog.  Andy crunched the numbers and determined that as of now, Posada is having the best year for a 35-year catcher using the OPS+ stat.  Also, Steve L has found that if Posada continues his season, he will have five seasons … Continue reading “Posada talk”

Jorge Posada is the topic of late at Baseball Reference’s Stat of the Day Blog. 

Andy crunched the numbers and determined that as of now, Posada is having the best year for a 35-year catcher using the OPS+ stat. 

Also, Steve L has found that if Posada continues his season, he will have five seasons with 130 games and and 120 OPS+ since turning 30 years of age.   Nobody else has done it more than twice.  You can see the list here.

I never gave Posada more than two looks before (and honestly didn’t think he 35 years old already).  Both these stats point to a catcher with some durability to be sure. 

 

Hit Tracker: a web site dedicated to the Home Run

A screen cap from Hit Tracker When I’m cruising the web, I’m always on the lookout for unique sites, that is, sites that show me something I can’t get anywhere else.  Hit Tracker definitely fits that bill.  I haven’t seen anything like it.  It is essentially a database of all homeruns hit this year.  I’m … Continue reading “Hit Tracker: a web site dedicated to the Home Run”

Hit Tracker

A screen cap from Hit Tracker

When I’m cruising the web, I’m always on the lookout for unique sites, that is, sites that show me something I can’t get anywhere else. 

Hit Tracker definitely fits that bill.  I haven’t seen anything like it.  It is essentially a database of all homeruns hit this year.  I’m impressed to the extent that they are filtered and sorted.  On this site, you can see homeruns:

  • sorted by distance
  • sorted by speed off the bat
  • sorted by “No Doubts” (ball cleared the fence by at least 20 vertical feet AND landed at least 50 feet past the fence)
  • sorted by “Lucky Homer” (A home run that would not have cleared the fence if it has been struck on a 70-degree, calm day)
  • sorted by “Just Enough” (ball cleared the fence by less than 10 vertical feet)

and a host of other interesting stats. 

The database is interactive… you can click away to your heart’s content.  One added bonus, each homerun in the database has link to MLB’s video of the blast. 

I’m probably not doing it justice, so head on over to Hit Tracker and take a look for yourself.

BP interviews UI physicist Alan Nathan

Baseball Prospectus has interviewed University of Illinois physicist Alan Nathan who focuses much of his research on the physics of baseball. 

Of course, the name should be familiar to Zealot readers.  Our podcast, Baseball Zealot Radio interviewed Nathan for our last show.  It was a fascinating show so be sure to take a listen. 

Here is a link to Baseball Prospectus’ interview.  Unfortunately, you’ll need a BP subscription to read the whole thing.

(hat tip True Blue LA)

Baseball Zealot Radio interviews Professor Alan Nathan on the Physics of Baseball

As he says, Professor Alan Nathan has been a physicist for all his career but a baseball fan all his life. What started out for him ten years ago as a one-time gig lecture on the physics of baseball at the University of Illinois, it has mushroomed into ongoing series of lectures and projects focusing on the topic.

This was a very interesting interview for me despite my initial trepidation of not knowing ANY physics.  Never fear, Alan broke it down so even I could understand it.

Here are the show notes for Show 26:

Hosts: Tom and Shawn

Summary: Alan Nathan is a professor of physics at the University of Illinois who lectures often on the physics of baseball.  During our interview with Alan, we cover the effects of spin on the flight of the baseball, wood versus aluminum bats,  and “Is there such a thing as a rising fastball?”.

Definitely, take a listen to our interview with Alan as he has a unique way of looking at the game.  Afterwards, swing on by his website entitled The Physics of Baseball.  There’s a plethora of info related to his field.

At the end of the show, Alan mentioned that MLB was making a lot of data from Gameday available to the public.  Alan provided me this link to an article on Friar Watch which explains how to access the data and how to use it.

Much thanks to Alan Nathan for his time.  I found the interview very insightful and hope you do too.

Thanks for listening!!

Time: 46:39

Date Recorded: 7/24/07

Direct Link to Show 26

Baseball Zealot Radio website

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