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Thursday, January 10, 2008
Wanna do some peer review?
Some academics don’t like us. Others though appreciate our no holds barred approach. I firmly believe that any punch above the belt is a fair punch. Of course, once the guy is down, you back off. (I hate those old hockey brawls where the guy would pin someone to the ice, and still keep punching the guy.) If you can offer criticism in an honest manner, without personally insulting someone, I think it’s fair. You might come off as arrogant, or rough around the edges, but those are things that the reader can get past. Respect, and quality of content. That said, I got an email:
Tom,
My name is Bobby Swift. I am a senior at Harvard College and a member of the Harvard Sports Analysis Collective. Our paper, “Improving Major League Baseball Park Factor Estimates” was recently accepted for publication by the Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports. The paper will be published in April.
We develop a new estimator for Park Factors using an ANOVA weighted fixed-effects model for run generation. Our estimates are significantly less variable and more consistent on a year to year basis than ESPN’s published estimates. We are currently in the process of receiving feedback and reviews of the paper.
I am contacting you because we would appreciate, if you are willing, some feedback on our paper. I thought the feedback you and MGL gave Shane Jensen on his SAFE system was insightful and spot on. I think that comments from you, MGL, and other readers of your blog would be incredibly helpful.
Here is a link for our paper:
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/%7Ehsac/Blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/pfpaper.pdf
Here is a link for our blog:
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hsac/Blog/Best,
HSAC
I haven’t looked at it yet, but you guys know I have strong feelings on the matter of park factors. Let’s check it out, and see what we can do to help.