Update 2/17/10 - Driver needed for PC and order of commands changed
There seems to be no more questions on installing the Pitch F/X database, so I will continue on with installing and plotting in R. I am pretty much a beginner with R, so I will be struggling with you from now on. If anyone has any tricks or advice, please chime in.
1. Follow Part 1 - Advanced Graphing Techniques Part 1 - Installing a Pitch FX Database on a Computer
2. Goto http://cran.r-project.org/ and download the version for your computer. For Windows I selected the base version. I will be following the Windows instructions from now on. Others can chime in with the Apple instructions. Once the other instructions are verified, I will add them to the article.
3. Install R following the instructions. The only variation I took was that I installed all instruction manuals on my machine.
4. Start R and go to Packages along top tool bar. Select a location near you under the CRAN Mirror
5. Go back to Packages and select Install Packages. You want to add:
RODBC
Once it is added close R
5.5. Install ODBC Driver for MySQL at:
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/odbc/5.1.html
6. Open Microsoft Windows Control Panel and then double-click the Administrative Tools icon. Double-click on the Data Sources (ODBC) icon. Add a new User DSN called pfx with a MySQL ODBC 5.1 Diver.
7. Once a new User DSN is created, select it and press Configure
Set the following values (I am not 100% sure these are the same for all Window machines)
Server: localhost
port: 3306
user: root
Database: php2
These are the same as the ones on the SQLyog login and the Pitch F/X dataset installed
These setting let R know what database to use. Here is an image of the previous 2 panels discussed:
8. Open R again
In the R console run:
library(RODBC)
channel <- odbcConnect('pfx')
odbcGetInfo(channel)
sqlTables(channel)
All 4 lines can be copy and paste at once. These will connect R to database and let you know that they are connect. No errors should be seen and the Pitch FX tables should be listed.
9. Running a query. First you need to tell R that you are plotting a query.
Here is the query for Joe Mauer's home runs. I was having some problems, so I added "as x" and "as y" to describe the px and pz coordinates. Note, the entire query needs to be on a single line.
query <- sqlQuery(channel, "select p.px as x, p.pz as y from atbats a join pitches p on p.ab_id = a.ab_id join games g on g.game_id = a.game_id join players pl on pl.eliasid = a.batter where pl.last = 'Mauer' and pl.first = 'Joe' and g.date like '2009%' and a.event = 'Home Run' and p.type = 'X';")
Also the extents of data can be set at this time with the xlim and ylim commands
plot(query,xlim=c(-1.5,1.5), ylim=c(0,5))
Here is the command that will draw a red strike zone at the defined points:
lines(c(1,1,-1,-1,1),c(1.5,3.5,3.5,1.5,1.5), col=c("red"))
Here is what the output should look like:
8. Saving graphic. Select the R - Graphic Window, go to the top toolbar and select File, Save as and then the image type you want. The above image is from a saved file.
That is it for now. I am sure there will be more questions this time so fire away and let us know if you find out any ideas to make process smoother or better.
