Viewing Baseball Through a Prism of the Numbers
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Bats The Yankees, the Mets, and Major League Baseball Search Bats SEARCH PREVIOUS POST NEXT POST Viewing Baseball Through a Prism of the Reyes’s Moving What Happens to All Numbers Problem Those No. 42 Jerseys? By SEAN FORMAN APRIL 16, 2010 12:08 AM Sean Forman is the creator of Baseball-Reference.com, an online ABOUT baseball encyclopedia of players, teams and box scores in the The New York Times reporters Tyler Kepner, Ben major and minor leagues. Shpigel, Jack Curry and Joe Lapointe, along with their Times colleagues, will bring baseball fans inside the run Sabermetrics at its core is an attempt BATTING RUNS up to the 2008 baseball season with access, analysis and the latest updates from spring training. to measure the value added by baseball 2009 Leaders Team Runs Outs About the Bloggers players. It is intensely concerned with Used TYLER KEPNER accurately assigning credit or blame for Albert Pujols STL 79 417 Tyler Kepner has covered the Yankees for The New York Times since 2002. He joined The Times in 2000 as the what happens on the field. Prince Fielder MIL 62 440 Mets beat writer. A native of Philadelphia and a Adrian SD 58 428 graduate of Vanderbilt University, Kepner has also This has value not only in ranking Gonzalez covered the Angels for the Riverside Press-Enterprise in California and the Mariners for the Seattle Post- players for what they have done, but Joe Mauer MIN 57 351 Intelligencer. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and also in predicting which players are Mark Teixeira NYY 45 449 their four children. BEN SHPIGEL most likely to contribute wins and Ryan Braun MIL 43 447 losses. Traditional statistics like batting Ben Shpigel has covered the Mets for The Times since Hanley FLA 42 402 2005. Before then, he was a staff writer for the Dallas average, runs batted in, wins, losses Ramirez Morning News for two years. He also worked at The News and earned run average certainly give Joey Votto CIN 40 328 Journal in Wilmington, Del., and for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Shpigel received a bachelor's us some of the picture. But they do not Adam Dunn WSH 39 411 degree in English and journalism from Emory present the whole picture, a big reason University and a master's degree in journalism from Miguel Cabrera DET 38 438 Columbia University. He and his wife, Rebecca, live in sabermetrics has gained such wide Manhattan. acceptance in the major leagues. Batting Runs measures JACK CURRY the number of team runs Jack Curry has covered baseball for the The New For example, the player who hits the created by the batter York Times for 18 seasons. Since 1998, he has served as the newspaper's national baseball writer. Before that, sacrifice fly is credited with an R.B.I., (through hits, walks, hit- Curry covered the Yankees from 1991-1997. He was also but no credit is assigned to the batter by-pitch) relative to that the beat writer for the New Jersey Nets' 1990-1991 season and covered college basketball, college football whose double moved the runner to of a league-average and wrote for the Metro section. Born in Jersey City, third, a much more valuable act. player. This is also N.J., Curry graduated from Fordham University. He and his wife, Pamela, live in New Jersey. adjusted to the park So today we begin publishing an played in. alternative leader board. Using 2009 ARCHIVE Select Month numbers, we will begin with four statistics: one batting, one pitching, one ERA+ fielding and one overall team statistic 2009 Leaders Team ERA+ IP RECENT POSTS (expanded numbers appear at Zack Greinke KC 205 229.1 The Bats Blog Is on the Move bbref.com/nytimes/). Chris Carpenter STL 183 192.2 This blog’s regular features, including live game analysis, Tim Lincecum SF 176 225.1 news and notes from Tyler Kepner, David Waldstein and Batting Runs are a creation of Pete others, can now be found on the baseball section of our Palmer, an editor of many baseball Felix Hernandez SEA 174 238.2 website.Read more… Jair Jurrjens ATL 158 215.0 encyclopedias, and are an attempt to Yankees Set to Resume Cano Negotiations, measure all of a batter’s positives and Adam STL 157 233.0 With Sides Still Far Apart Wainwright negatives: hits (even if they don’t score The free-agent second baseman Robinson Cano is a run), walks, hit-by-pitch and outs. Roy Halladay TOR 155 239.0 reportedly still seeking a 10-year deal for $310 million, figures the Yankees are said to be unwilling to meet. Matt Cain SF 151 217.2 The ultimate run-scoring value of each Read more… Randy Wells CUBS 147 165.1 of these events has been researched — Alderson Delivers More Laughs, but Few for example, a double is typically worth Dan Haren ARI 146 229.1 Definitive Answers 0.85 runs. We then add up the value of When asked what he has done thus far in the off-season, ERA+ is the pitchers Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson responded with a each batter’s events and create joke. Read more… adjustments for the hitting park-neutral E.R.A. Fantasy Baseball: The Mets and Cano environment by era and by park, so a relative to the league. Above 100 is better than The Mets maybe should, but most assuredly won’t, defy all performance in Coors Field in 2000, a expectations and make a legitimate bid to lure Robinson hitter’s park, can be compared to one average and below 1000 Cano away from the Yankees.Read more… is worse. in Dodger Stadium in 1968, a pitcher’s Some Options for Granderson and the heaven. The statistic is presented as Yankees TOTAL ZONE The Yankees are waiting to hear whether Curtis Granderson runs generated when compared to a will accept their qualifying offer, and set their outfield for league-average batter. 2009 Leaders Team POS TZ 2014, or test the market and send the Yankees chasing another free agent. Read more… E.R.A.+ is a little bit simpler. It takes Randy Winn SF OF 31 the league-average E.R.A. adjusted to Franklin Guttierrez SEA OF 31 the ballpark, divides it by the pitcher’s Justin Upton ARI OF 22 E.R.A. and multiplies by 100. So 100 Yunel Escobar ATL SS 22 @NYTSPORTS ON TWITTER would be exactly league average and Evan Longoria TB 3B 21 FOLLOW more than 100 is better than average. J.D. Drew BOS OF 21 Chone Figgins LAA 3B 20 Total Zone is a new defensive metric Nelson Cruz TEX OF 19 created by Sean Smith. It considers the outcome and location of every ball hit Ichiro Suzuki SEA OF 19 into play, then works out how a fielder Case Blake LAD 3B 18 did relative to his peers. The end figure Total Zone is the number is the number of runs a player saves or of runs saved by the costs his team. Total Zone does not fielder when compared to consider fly balls caught by infielders or an average fielder. It throws scooped by the first baseman. considers balls fielder, Simple Rating System goes beyond double-play turns for wins and losses, combining each team’s infielders and arms for margin of victory and strength of outfielders. schedule to determine how many runs better than average the rated team is. For example, last year’s Yankees were 1.26 runs a game better than average. This translates to a 100-win team, which is just about where the Yankees were. 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