THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Baseball Seminar

MGL, Dan, Alan, Brian, and others!

Friday, March 30, 2012

SABR Analytics presentations, with audio

For those who missed it:

http://sabr.org/analytics

Perhaps a few of the Staight Arrow readers can give us their recommendations?

Glove-slap: Peter.

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Moneyball at Villanova

Glove-slap: NaOH.

Jeffrey S. Moorad, ’81, vice chairman and CEO of the San Diego Padres, headlines a panel of baseball and television executives at the Villanova Sports and Entertainment Law Journal Symposium, “Moneyball’s Impact on Business and Sports” on Friday, February 10 at noon.

Former Governor Edward G. Rendell, ’68, will be the moderator of the panel that also features Billy Beane, vice president and general manager of the Oakland A’s, Omar Minaya, senior vice president of baseball operations for the Padres and former general manager of the New York Mets, and Phil Griffin, president of MSNBC.

...

The symposium will be held from 12 until 2 p.m. on Friday, February 10, at the Pavilion on the campus of Villanova University.  The event will be simulcast live to the Villanova Law website at http://www.law.villanova.edu.  **Due to popular demand, the location of the event has been moved to The Pavilion**

There will be no cost for this event, and no CLE credits are offered.  On-line registration is required; please click here to reserve a seat at the symposium.

Monday, January 02, 2012

Professor Tangotiger

UPDATE: Early-bird registration now closed.  Thanks to all who expressed their interest.  Time for the next phase.

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UPDATE: Early-bird registration closes on Friday, Jan 6.

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Want to take an online class from me?  Now’s your chance:

http://tangotiger.net/teaching.html

Friday, September 23, 2011

Sports Economics research rankings

Glove-slap: Millsy.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Data processing course: CSC108H

It’s in Toronto, but there’s some stuff posted online.  So, check it out, and see if it helps you.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Another stat symposium

For some reason, these are all held in New England or San Francisco. 

Friday, March 04, 2011

BABIP video

I can’t see it at the office.

Thursday, March 03, 2011

Pronunciation guide

Good stuff.

The correct one for wOBA is wubba (Ray Charles at 1:54).

Thursday, February 17, 2011

By The Numbers

Two new issues.

I LOVE the way that Pavitt reviewed Panas’ book: on its own terms, and with respect to the intended audience.  There’s a market for every piece of art, and Pavitt evaluated it like that. 

Monday, February 14, 2011

Saber video

No sound at the office, so you’ll have to tell me what it’s about.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Are you kidding me?

Wow, there are so many things wrong with this story, my head is spinning!

In case you don’t read it, here is a synopsis:

High school pitcher throws 80 with a wicked curve.  He gets cut from his high school team on the second day of tryouts.  Why?

He has two prosthetic legs and the coach says that he can’t field bunts and the other teams could win by constantly bunting.  Wow!

From the article:

Anthony, a sophomore, was cut on the second day tryouts. Coach Mike Bradley’s main concern was that Anthony can’t field bunts, and that teams would take advantage of his inability to jump off the mound quickly.

What a wonderful inspiration to the school, community, and the world to have this kid pitch on his high school team. And it is not like he can’t pitch.  A high school kid throwing 80 with a “wicked curve”, while not MLB material, is at least average for most high schools.  Who the f**ck cares if their team wins with him pitching?  How is that relevant in high school sports?

Perhaps most importantly, and this was pointed out (because it is obvious) in the SB blog entry (hat tip to them) by Andy Hutchins that referenced this story, what kind of effing coach from another high school is going to order his team to bunt against this pitcher?  Again, who cares if THEY win the game. They should be honored to play against someone like this kid.  And if they bunt, the kid simply drills the next kid in the ribs with his 80 mph heater.  End of story.

BTW, what about the adage that, “Pitching is all about the legs?” Seriously.  Is that another baseball truism down the drain?

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

THT Reference Library

Great job by studes and his team to flag important articles, and categorize them.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Fangraphs Library

More saber-friendliness from Fangraphs.

I’ve been meaning to dump, I mean, move, the Tangotiger Wiki somewhere.  Steve, if you are out there, and want it, let’s talk.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

SaberLibrary suggestions?

Steve’s box is now open…

Monday, January 17, 2011

LOB% video

Fun video… if otherwise inaccurate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggFArD4tffk

LOB% is dependent on OBP and to a lesser extent wOBA.  If you take the best pitchers according to say FIP and the worst according to FIP, you will find the LOB% will be much higher for the good pitchers than the bad ones.  This is unlike say BABIP which has a much smaller relationship to the talent level of pitchers and so in that case we can say it is mostly random variation.

Monday, January 10, 2011

FIP video

Can’t see it from the office, but the commenters in that thread are all positive…

Friday, November 19, 2010

Three wishes for your sabre genie

Guy wrote:

It would be interesting to make a wish list of what we all wish the baseball writers knew that they mostly don’t know now.  If you had to limit it to 3 ideas (and not so broadly drawn that it incorporates all saber ideas), what would they be?  Before this week, I think all of us would have put “ignore wins and losses” in our top three, maybe even ranking it 1st.  I would think about progress in those terms.

Fantastic idea!  What I wish baseball writers knew:
1. Pitcher seasons won-loss records are so polluted with teammates influence that they should be discarded

2. A batter’s batting average tells you almost nothing after you already have OBP and SLG, so only reference it in the most specific of cases

3. A batter’s RBI total is heavily influenced by batting order and teammates, that you can instead focus on OBP and SLG with men on base instead to get a better indicator

The end-result of these three things is that the “three stats” to show for pitchers and batters is:
ERA, IP/GS, K minus BB per batter faced
OBP, SLG, ??

(That last one is subject to discussion.  Right now, all I’ve got is SB.)

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Math + baseball = Ripken fun

Cal Ripken brings kids a math challenge.  I’ll try it with my kid this week, and I’ll let you know what it’s like.

Monday, November 08, 2010

Skills I learned from sports

Kristi elaborates on her six: Time Management, Teamwork, Reliability, Sportsmanship, Responsibility, Confidence.

Let’s see, for me?  Off the top of my head, I’ll split it into two parts: playing the sport and researching the sport. 

For playing, I learned about justice and fairness (rules are the same for both sides); instant gratification (your efforts are rewarded, or punished, with little time lag); unique personalities and skills (each person brings something of his own to the table, in his own way); a new world (you can draw a clear line separating your real life from your hobby).

Researching?  Critical thinking, creativity, dealing with limited evidence and uncertainty, bringing others into your world, exploring the world of others.

The only bad thing about sports is just like we see on TV: the gasbags who have all the answers drown out too many people before they drown themselves.  So, I guess I also learn tolerance for those who want education, and I learn to throw the garbage to the curb.