Wednesday Reading for the Wicked Smaht
I just adored this post by Joe Posnanski on just how complicated those old-fashioned “simple” stats are. Batting average? Mind-bending. ERA? Positively Byzantine. Wins? Posnanski even has a quiz to help you test your knowledge of the arbitrary rules surrounding pitchers’ wins. Also noteworthy is this observation: If Billy Beane was in your fantasy league, you would know him as “The jerk who keeps screwing Bob, the computer tech who doesn’t know anything about baseball.” I just really like the idea of Billy Beane being in our fantasy league.
And across town, Nate Silver Baseball Prospectus has finally—finally!—come up with a means of using PECOTA to measure which teams have the most Heart. He’s no doubt expecting the thank you note from Murray Chass any day now.
To round out our stat-tastic Wednesday reading, head on over to Sabernomics, read up on Jeff Francoeur’s stated goal of increasing his walk rate, and enter their French God of Walks Contest.
Baseball book club alert: Manny Ramirez has been reading (and even underlining passages of) The Secret, the best-selling New Age book by Rhonda Byrnes (via The Joy of Sox) as part of the left fielder’s new, Mannytating lifestyle. And according to Call of the Green Monster*, Jonathan Papelbon picked up To Kill A Mockingbird, in the words of manager Terry Francona, “probably [thinking] it was a guide on how to effectively kill a bird.”
And if all this math and reading is just too intellectual to get you through the rest of hump day, courtesy of Ladies… we bring you a video of the 1986 Dodgers “getting down with their bad selves.” They call it “The Baseball Boogie.” I call it, “pure awesomeness.”
*If Red Sox Nation were an actual nation, COTGM would be its Onion.
March 12th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I love Bill P’s counterattack on the traditional baseball statistics. The imaginary convo on the introduction of batting average is great. I think (I could be wrong) that in the early days of baseball statistics, a walk counted as a hit and that a distinction wasn’t made until later. (I’m talking really early days, back when guys like Hick Carpenter had to look at 6 balls to get on base.)
Regarding The Baseball Boogie:
- This should be played on the Jumbo-HDTV at Turner field the next time the Dodgers come to town. That would be so freakin sweet.
- Also, there is no mention of the Dodgers or depiction of the team logo, so I think the Dodgers front office must have (wisely) realized early on this was incredibly stupid.
- “Come on baby, and boogie with me, we’re gonna dance til a quarter to three.” Was that Pedro Guerrero?
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March 12th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
The Call of the GReen Monster bit is priceless
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March 12th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Danny O, I do believe your knowledge of early days baseball is correct. It’s always fun to imagine what the game must have been like back when balls caught on a hop were outs, you had to score 21 runs to win, and the batter could call for the pitch he wanted. We’ve come a long way, baby.
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March 12th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Sammy, indeed—having just read the bit about Manny, I felt it was one of those truth-is-stranger-than-fiction moments!
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March 12th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Wow….that Baseball Boogie video was by far the cheesiest sports team video I’ve ever seen…they make the ‘85 Bears look like The Beatles compared to that wreck.
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