prone to enthusiasms….
I’m a baseball fan, and a baseball researcher. Both interests are represented here.
The Extra 2% is a well-researched account of the turnaround in the (Devil) Rays fortunes when the current management team took over. It’s largely focused on baseball operations VP Andrew Friedman (essentially the GM), team president Matt Silverman, and owner Stuart Sternberg, all of whom have finance backgrounds. There’s also a lot about team manager [...]
Filed under
Baseball CrankSpace
Bookworm Alley
Posted on
January 30th 2012
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.
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Baseball CrankSpace
Bookworm Alley
Posted on
January 21st 2012
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.
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Baseball CrankSpace
Bookworm Alley
Posted on
January 21st 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:
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Baseball CrankSpace
Bookworm Alley
Posted on
December 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.
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Baseball CrankSpace
Bookworm Alley
Posted on
December 31st 2011
Perhaps one groundbreaking article is enough to ask. All in all, this is a decent effort, again edited by Bob Davids with help from Kermisch, Tom Hufford, and Bob McConnell.
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Baseball CrankSpace
Bookworm Alley
Posted on
December 11th 2011
A fine piece of research. Most minor leagues failed in the 1950s; we need more people examining why specific leagues succeeded.
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Baseball CrankSpace
Bookworm Alley
Posted on
December 10th 2011
Excellent pictures. But not otherwise worth your time.
Filed under
Baseball CrankSpace
Bookworm Alley
Posted on
November 26th 2011
This edition of the Abstract begins with two long essays–a rather dull 18-page project about ways to validate various analytical methodologies, and a fascinating 41 page essay which purports to be about Rookies but which is actually about comparing careers using similarity scores. Bill explores lots of possibilities in this essay, which has more breadth than depth, but enough substance to satisfy almost everyone.
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Baseball CrankSpace
Bookworm Alley
Posted on
November 26th 2011
An oddly interesting book. Now, more than a century later, Pop Anson’s remembered mainly for his racism, and because he had approximately 3,000 hits (the total depends on what you count, actually, and in this case it’s fair to debate the margin). In his time, he was considered a formidable player, and an excellent captain (manager), albeit grouchy and rough-edged. Neither is a well-rounded image.
Filed under
Baseball CrankSpace
Bookworm Alley
Posted on
November 15th 2011
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