Baseball's Nerd Machine

Links (6)

The Griddle: The end of boxcores? Is it Pfxible?
Published 5/23/2008 at Baseball Toaster
Darren Everson of the Wall Street Journal thinks that the baseball boxscore as we know it is obsolete. Instead, it will be a brave new world of pFx and radar guns . Everson attended a Pitch f/x "summit" in San Francisco last month as MLB.com rolled it out in every park this year. Since sportswriter Henry Chadwick ushered in the modern age of scorekeeping in the 1860s, the chief tool baseball analysts have used is the naked eye. Statistics in the box score cover only what can be observed: the number of runs the pitcher allowed, for example, or the doubles a hitter collected. ...

Nerd Machine
Published 5/23/2008 by noreply@blogger.com (Jason) at It is about the money, stupid
... That said, the new Pitch f/x on MLB.com is pretty neat. Have a ride in the latest Nerd Machine. I've developed and often use this phrase as it relates to me and my job and I think it's relevant to this discussion: Data is interesting ...

WSJ: Everson: Baseball’s Nerd Machine
Published 5/23/2008 at BBTF's Baseball Primer Newsblog
WSJ: Everson: Baseball’s Nerd Machine Since sportswriter Henry Chadwick ushered in the modern age of scorekeeping in the 1860s, the chief tool baseball analysts have used is the naked eye. Statistics in the box score cover only what can be observed: the number of runs the pitcher allowed, for example, or the doubles a hitter collected. Even the advanced “Moneyball” statistics developed in recent years also rely on what can be seen and recorded by hand. Pitch f/x starts baseball down the path of learning how players do things—which batter hits the ball the hardest, which ...

R.I.P. Box Score (1860-2008)
Published 5/23/2008 by Jeff Pyatt at RealClearSports - Blog
... An article today in the Wall Street Journal proclaims the death of baseball's box score at the hands of a digital video revolution: Since 2006, Major League Baseball Advanced Media LP, baseball's swashbuckling digital arm, has quietly spent approximately $4 million installing sensor cameras in major-league stadiums that can track and record the trajectory of every pitch. The system, called Pitch f/x, made its public debut in the 2006 postseason. This season it became operational in all 30 major-league parks. So with video data violently ...

Advance Scout, Royals, May 23-26
Published 5/23/2008 by Anders at Batter's Box Interactive Magazine
... Unfortunately we miss Brian Bannister, perhaps baseball's most statistically inclined pitcher. He got rocked by the Red Sox yesterday, alas. This also means that we're missing a Banny Log, Joe Ponsnanski's awesome tracking of Bannister starts. I would still recommend ...

Saturday Morning Odds and Ends, Goatrider on the DL Edition
Published 5/24/2008 by Colin Wyers at GoatRiders of the Apocalypse -
... of .076, down from even last season's anemic .080. This is seemingly connected with his improved batting average - Theriot's fly ball rate and his line drive rate have dramatically shifted since last season, with his ground ball rate remaining constant. He's apparently sacrificing what little power he had for more singles. Also, congrats to Harry of Cubs f/x (which you really should be reading) for being mentioned in the Wall Street Journal. ...