THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Here are the paper assignments from the syllabus, which I find interesting:

ASSIGNMENT 1: Write maximum 2pgs on the following topic: Take a look at your
favorite position player. Given what we’ve learned so far in class, write about his offensive
performance this year. Is he a candidate for regression to the mean? (due week seven)

ASSIGNMENT 2: Write maximum 2pgs on the following topic: “In popular
discussion of baseball saber and traditional are often portrayed to be in an antagonistic
relationship with each other. Do you agree? How can they, or should they, coexist?” (due
next class)

END OF SEMESTER PROJECT: “What I would do if I were the General Manager of ___”
Using the information covered in class and any other resources you can find, propose a
realistic off-season plan of a team of your choice. The budget and information on
prospects will be provided. The presentation should be 5-10 minutes long.

I especially like the first one, because of “Is he a candidate for regression to the mean?”

You may be able to read the syllabus here (PDF file):

http://www.decal.org/file/1575

The site linked in the original post doesn’t host the syllabus, it just links to the PDF from the university-related site.

If not, the course is being run by a couple of Cal-Berkeley students, Kei and Ryo Wakabayashi (brothers, probably).  Hank Ibser is the faculty sponsor.  The Book is part of the course material in the syllabus.

ABOUT:

This is a blog managed by the two facilitators of STAT 98/198: Introduction to Advanced Baseball Statistics (Tues 6:30-”8:30pm”, 122 Wheeler) at UC Berkeley.
This blog will feature insightful articles written by amazing bloggers and journalists, articles by us, and information regarding the class (reading, assignments, etc).
We hope you check out this blog often and frequently!

Currently, the class is full. However, we are working on expanding the capacity of the room, so if that happens, an updated information on enrollment policy will be posted.

Syllabus and other course information will be uploaded soon.
If you have any questions, please e-mail us at saberdecal AT gmail DOT com

Comments and discussion are welcome and appreciated (even if you are completely unaffiliated with the school), but absolutely no politics or religion is allowed in any way, shape or form.

As far as the syllabus is concerned, it seems like a light class if it is three credits. Sure it is an intro course, but half the grade is “Attendance and participation” and then the other three assignments are pretty fluffy too. They are meeting for 15 weeks, so I doubt it would be anything than 2 credits.

On the other hand, I love that this class is even an option at such a great school. I wish such a class was available when I was in college, and I may embark on teaching a night class in my local HS (Nassau, NY)

It looks like they’ll be reading selections from Moneyball, The Book 69-96, 152-182(someone should e-mail them and tell them to buy it from the Amazon link here, if they are looking for a new copy), with more readings to follow.

The syllabus correctly uses the term “saber”—which refers to sabermetrics—while the title of this entry incorrectly uses “SABR”—which refes to the Society for American Baseball Research.

SABR/4: are you the same person who wrote to me a few months ago, where I said this was a matter of opinion?

As I said then, course codes have four-letter terms, all caps.  For example, ITAL401 would be an advanced course in Italian.

When I use SABR101 or SABR401, it’s always in relation to this concept.  Hence, my use of the term SABR in the subject header.

I’m a student at UC Berkeley and one of the two facilitators of the class; I’m pretty surprised to find my blog linked here.

DeCal classes, as you can read on http://www.decal.org, are student-run classes where students “facilitate” (not necessarily “teach") classes on various topics. It’s a pretty cool system that we have in UC Berkeley, and as huge baseball fans, my twin brother and I decided to give it a shot at running a course of our own.

I think there should be an emphasis on the word “introduction”, by the way; all we are trying to cover are the basics that we feel people should know to read/understand statistically-oriented materials. (and Kei and I, as facilitators, do not know anywhere near as much about baseball statistics as Mr. Tango and other esteemed baseball bloggers/statisticians do)

It’s actually a 2-unit course, and everything we’re doing this semester is a big experiment; I don’t know if the course load is good enough, if the way we’re running the course is the best way to go, etc. If any of you have suggestion, etc., please let us know.