The second, August 1982, issue of the Baseball Analyst features a fine Dallas Adams contribution, interpreting careers as expressed in major league games played by age (completely without examining any other statistics). While there’s really only some perfunctory analysis, there’s a ton of information about the aging patterns of ballplayers, displayed in three tables and a half-dozen graphs. Adams concludes that Hall of Fame players are about two years “better” than the average everyday player. He also breaks out catcher careers, and concludes that they reach the majors about a year older but are otherwise pretty much indistinguishable from everyone else. Interesting stuff.
Craig Wright offers a critique of Paul Schwarzenbart’s fielding analysis in the first edition of the Analyst, pointing out some weaknesses and commenting on some findings. This works all right as a comment, but there’s no analysis and Wright’s alternative numbers are only superficially explained. Of course, this journal’s audience knew Wright’s credentials, so this isn’t really problematical.
Dick O’Brien’s two brief contributions–about batting order and clutch hitting–are too brief and too dense to be readily accessible. What does show is that he’s done a lot of research and analysis.
Jim Morrow offers some statistical analysis attempting to break scoring into its components, using regression analysis. The effort’s a failure in the sense that his “linear weights”-like calculations are less predictive of actual performance than slugging percentage. Why the technique failed merits further investigation; that does not occur in this issue of the journal.
The last article is another Dallas Adams study, this one apparently showing that heavily-used rookie pitchers tend to have short careers. The general notion is now accepted wisdom, but I’m frankly skeptical about his underlying data; it looks skewed in ways that really needed discussion. I’m aware of commentary on this study in subsequent issues of the Analyst; we’ll see how that develops.
Once again, these offerings demonstrate an enormous amount of data collection and number crunching, long before Retrosheet and Baseball Reference. (Bill James comments on that in the introduction.) All in all, a useful outing, but flawed.
Posted by
joel
Posted on
January 21st 2012
Filed under
Baseball CrankSpace
Bookworm Alley
The best piece is Eugene Murdock’s profile/interview of 96-year-old Paddy Livingston, at that time the oldest living major leaguer. What makes the piece more than a reminiscence is Paddy’s attitude about the game; all things considered, he preferred to be home in Philadelphia. Not many journeyman players sit out entire seasons because they didn’t like the contract.
Posted on
Jan 21st 2012
I’m talking to you, Carl Levin. And you, Debbie Stabenow. Tim Walberg, too.
Posted on
Jan 18th 2012
This is not exactly a beginner’s book. The expected reader has some familiarity with photography and wants to better understand and master their camera. Advanced users may find the book useful as a review, and may find a tip or two they’d not previously seen, but may find some of the explanations annoying. That’s OK, as they’re not the intended audience.
Posted on
Jan 18th 2012
The author was involved in computing from the mid-fifties to the early eighties, and played fairly important roles in the SAGE, TX-2, and Linc projects, all of which are key to understanding how computing developed. He also was heavily involved in BBN’s pioneering Arpanet efforts, and moved on to Xerox PARC in its prime, where he helped design the first laser printer. So he had a first-hand view of the development of electronic computing in the period between the pioneering efforts and the beginnings of microcomputing. This is a different, quite personal, account of what his computing projects were like, and his assessment of the issues as they looked to the participants during the period.
Posted on
Jan 7th 2012
Bill James published 40 quarterly issues of a newsletter called The Baseball Analyst beginning in June of 1982. His idea was to “provide a place where people who have research they want to do can find a place to print it.” The first edition contained five articles, and was apparently edited by James:
Posted on
Dec 31st 2011
The best piece of research in the book is the Cleveland essay, where they discover that teams who win from far behind (rallies of five or more runs) are fairly likely to win the next game they play, but virtually certain to lose the fifth game after the comeback win. They offer, and dismiss, the pitching rotation as an explanation. This just screams for a followup study; I don’t know that it’s ever been done.
Posted on
Dec 31st 2011
This book’s subtitle is “Machiavellian Statecraft and the English Reformation,” which pretty much sums up the author’s argument. It’s an adequate overview of Cromwell’s life and accomplishments, and does a satisfactory job of presenting alternative interpretations where the facts and interpretations are contested. Be aware that the author’s a political scientist; this book is much more about Cromwell’s politics than a proper biography. If that’s what you’re looking for, this book will fit your purpose.
Posted on
Dec 24th 2011
Rickard examined the mining practices of most of the major mines on the range, with the significant exceptions of the Calumet and Tamarack mines, where non-employee mining engineers were not welcome. For the mines he did examine, he highlighted what they did best, the roots of their technical preferences, and any glaring weaknesses he identified in their processes. He then did the same for the associated mills (including, interestingly, the C&H mill on Torch Lake). There’s a wealth of technical detail, and enough economic detail that one could estimate the entire cost of production for many of the mines.
Posted on
Dec 14th 2011
Roughly fifty maps of towns and mining locations on the Keweenaw peninsula, with only a minimal amount of text. These are sort of idealized maps, actually, showing each town/mine’s main features but not tied to specific dates. So (according to the author/mapmaker) some of the maps include structures which not only are no longer there but which never coexisted on the specific site. The result is that each map locates both current (2009) buildings and construction which was dismantled 70 years ago.
Posted on
Dec 12th 2011
