No Pepper

by Tommy Bennett on Nov 30, 2009 11:33 AM EST

How Jared Diamond explains the usefulness of strikeouts, or what Mark Reynolds and Anna Karenina have in common. I think what you're really seeing here is some other cause which is correlated with strikeouts that is eliminated as players move up the ladder. Just for convenience, I'll call it "batting eye."

Jim Bouton's triumphant return to the major leagues after eight seasons in the wild. If you haven't read Ball Four then I suggest you add it to your holiday gift list.

Photographer Scott Rovak captures the moment at which Albert Pujols takes the life of an innocent baseball. Whoever titled this iteration of the file did so "albert_mash_blog.jpg" which would make for a killer dance move or album title.

FanGraphs has undertaken fan projections for all players. Since fans are most likely to project totals for the players they know best, I suspect that ordinal rankings may be accurate but that all players will be projected optimistically. But of course this is a cooperative game and so it is subject to assumptions about knowledge of the participants.

There is essentially zero correlation between Game Score consistency (as measured by standard deviation) and won-loss record. Game Score goes on my list of all-time least favorite metrics but Bill Baer provides interesting insight nonetheless.

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FanGraphs Projections

It’s going to be interesting. All of us FanGraphs/RotoGraphs guys got to test it out before it went public, and the system is pretty nice.

Like you, I am worried a bit about fans being objective and willing to downgrade a player when appropriate. But, it’s worked well for Tango when it comes to defense, so I think it’s worth a shot. Don’t think it will be able to beat the computers, though.

MLB Notebook / Baseball Daily Digest / FanGraphs Fantasy

by Zach Sanders on Nov 30, 2009 2:21 PM EST reply actions

Tommy - No love for game score.

What measure you you think should be used to measure game by game comparisons? You used xFIPs recently so is that the one. I sadly think there is some merit to being able to measure consistency. A team like the Yankees could use a more consistent pitcher with a higher ERA/FIPS than one that is more inconsistent, but would have a lower ERA/FIPS because the Yankees would be able to score more points and win. Bad offensive teams want the inconsistent player so they have a chance every other game of winning.

Jeff Zimmerman - Protecting the world from RBI's and Wins from my mom's guest house.

by Jeff Zimmerman on Nov 30, 2009 11:11 PM EST reply actions