It is time to vote on the BtB Sabermetric Writing Awards! As a reminder, the community vote has a 50% say in who gets the award (the other 50% being an internal vote among BtB writers as well as a few invited guests).
Here is the present category description.
Research that takes established sabermetric principles and applies them to help understand a specific case (typically a player, a team, a transaction, etc). The difference between novel and applied research is newness of approach and scope of impact.
And here are your nominees, along with a description provided from the nomination thread. They are sorted randomly, courtesy of excel's rand() function.
1. Matt Klaassen (devil_fingers): God of Little Things 2008
http://www.drivelinemechanics.com/2009/1/18/726678/god-of-little-things-2008
Excellent article by DF applying and analyzing WPA.
2. Josh Kalk: Pitch Sequencing
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/pitch-sequencing/
Josh Kalk uses PITCHf/x data to investigate which pitch types are best thrown in combination.
3. Nick Steiner (vivaelpujols): What do stats tell us?
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/what-do-stats-tell-us/
I took DIPS a bit further looking at pitch location, stuff and some aspects of approach to see the difference in AJ Burnett’s best in worst starts of the year. The conclusion was that there was very little difference, despite an ERA difference of about 8.
4. Steve Sommer: Worth the Money?
http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2009/12/17/1202544/worth-the-money#storyjump
Why: Takes a probabilistic view on contracts using simulation. It’s the same general concept of looking at contracts as doing linear surplus, but it puts some ranges on likelihoods. Inputs still need some tweaking, but the methodology is sound (at least I think it is).
5. Dave Allen: Run Value by Pitch Type and Location
http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2009/03/run_value_by_pi.php
http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2009/03/run_value_by_pi_1.php
http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2009/03/deconstructing.php
http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2009/03/deconstructing_1.php
Really, it’s a series of articles on run value of various pitch types with heat maps for plate location. Fantastic application of earlier work by Joe P. Sheehan and others.
6. Jeremy Greenhouse: Holliday-Bay: Visual Scouting Reports 1.0
http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2009/11/hollidaybay_vis.php
I wish every player comparison was this good. Jeremy makes the rest of look bad.
7. Dan Turkenkopf: Stealing a run
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/stealing-a-run/
This took on a very simple concept, and gathered some great conclusions from it. The conclusion regarding the break-even point was excellent.
8. Justin Bopp: DiamondView
http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2009/9/....dview-composite
Going with the visualizations again, I believe this is the best way to visualize a player’s skillset that we currently have. The stuff that Justin is doing with the team reviews, especially comparing players to position average and making a team composite, have been excellent.
9. Max Marchi: Catching Sabathia: Jorge’s vs Jose’s way
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/catching-cc-jorges-vs-joses-way/
Why: Love this as a use of pitchf/x to get further at catcher "fielding" impact. The approach is fairly novel, but I’m putting it here under applied research because it is (arguably) mostly focused on the question of Jorge vs. Jose rather than "how can we evaluate catcher impact on defense."
10. Sky Kalkman: Which is Better Compensation: Prospects or Draft Picks?
http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2009/7/20/950254/which-is-better-compensation
Taking other people’s research on the value of various types of prospects and draft picks, and comparing and contrasting the two. An excellent resource.
Vote below the jump!