As I have found, there is not only a plethora of information out there about sabermetrics, but within the study of sabermetrics there are many things to learn. I am not going to try and attack this subject all at once, since I will probably be overwhelmed with statistics and language that I have never heard before. I mentioned in my first post about the statistic 'runs created'. This was one of Bill James' first breakout statistic that caught nationwide attention. After years of putting James on the back burner, as baseball executives viewed him more as a disgruntled fan who thought he knew more about baseball than he actually did, James was recognized for his brilliance.
The first model that James had for runs created was fairly simple to what it has transformed into today. His model:
Runs Created = A + B/C where A is on-base factor, B is Advancement factor, and C is opportunity factor
More in depth, the formula is simply this :
Runs Created = (Hits + Walks) x Total Bases/(At Bats + Walks)
With this formula, James figured he could correctly estimate the amount of runs a player SHOULD produce in a given season, or career, or whatever other time period he wished to know. Instead of focusing on a players batting avereage, rbi's or even hits alone, James believed that this was more valuable to know; after all, the point of a baseball game is to score as many runs as possible, not to collect the highest batting average.
I have decided that I will take a few players who I personally like and think are valuable and apply their stats to this formula. I have also decided to take some players who are viewed as valuable, but in fact are not as valuable as their rbi and batting average numbers make them seem. I will blog my findings in the near future.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
First Post!
Well, I'm trying out this blogging thing for the first time. Although I am a recent graduate with a degree in English, I didn't do much free writing (let along any sort of blogging) in college. However, I am prone to surf the internet from time-to-time, so I hope I will be able to acquire the necessary information for this assignment.
To be honest, during this entire first paragraph I had no idea what I was going to become an "expert" on; however I have come up with the most ideal topic for myself and my own interest. I am currently ready Michael Lewis' novel "Moneyball", which is based on a concept created by Bill James, baseball statistician. Instead of following conventional methods of evaluating players, such as batting average, runs batted etc..., James felt that those sort of available statistics were not good enough. He also believed that there must be other statistics not yet discovered that people could use in order to correctly evaluate a player.
Through intense research on his own, James first created a statistic called runs created. Runs Created = (Hits + Walks) x Total Bases/ (At Bats + Walks). This sort of statistic now widely used by baseball franchises across the country, was somehow not known of before James. With this sort of thinking and his yearly release of his book "Baseball Abstract", James fostered a new field of thought amongst many statisticians (many of whom were wall street men simply finding a more interesting way to utilize their talents). This field of thought grew into the term "Sabermetrics". SABER is an acronym for Society For American Baseball Research.
As an avid baseball fan and overall sports fan in general, this is what I plan to blog about for the next few months. My goal is to become an expert on sabermetrics and the types of statistics that it looks at. An obvious dream job for me would to become a GM for a baseball team (although I know that path that one must take to get there is very tough). Possessing this sort of knowledge could be extremely helpful for me in this pursuit. I intend to search the blogs and website, of which there are plenty, in hopes of learning all I can about sabermetrics.
To be honest, during this entire first paragraph I had no idea what I was going to become an "expert" on; however I have come up with the most ideal topic for myself and my own interest. I am currently ready Michael Lewis' novel "Moneyball", which is based on a concept created by Bill James, baseball statistician. Instead of following conventional methods of evaluating players, such as batting average, runs batted etc..., James felt that those sort of available statistics were not good enough. He also believed that there must be other statistics not yet discovered that people could use in order to correctly evaluate a player.
Through intense research on his own, James first created a statistic called runs created. Runs Created = (Hits + Walks) x Total Bases/ (At Bats + Walks). This sort of statistic now widely used by baseball franchises across the country, was somehow not known of before James. With this sort of thinking and his yearly release of his book "Baseball Abstract", James fostered a new field of thought amongst many statisticians (many of whom were wall street men simply finding a more interesting way to utilize their talents). This field of thought grew into the term "Sabermetrics". SABER is an acronym for Society For American Baseball Research.
As an avid baseball fan and overall sports fan in general, this is what I plan to blog about for the next few months. My goal is to become an expert on sabermetrics and the types of statistics that it looks at. An obvious dream job for me would to become a GM for a baseball team (although I know that path that one must take to get there is very tough). Possessing this sort of knowledge could be extremely helpful for me in this pursuit. I intend to search the blogs and website, of which there are plenty, in hopes of learning all I can about sabermetrics.
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