Seeing is believing

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Seeing is believing
The Hardball Times The Hardball Times found this 2/28/2008 on www.hardballtimes.com [flag]
Observation as a sabermetric input. [link]

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Comments (4)

  • philosofool philosofool
    +3

    The first big step forward for sabermetrics was the use of computers to compute results from traditional observations, and I believe this article is correct that the next step will use technology to increase our observational powers. 

     By the way, the SOB results for Hunter and Jones are interesting: why is there a drop off at the highest end of SOB--it looks like around 105-110 the balls start being less likely to be home runs...

     Two possibilities strike me:

    (1) Small sample size at the high end caused a couple of flukes to drag the average down.

    (2) When the ball is really moving off the bat, the ratio of line drives to fly balls increases, and line drives are more likely to fall into play rather than clear the fence.

    Is there another possibility? Anyone know which one of these is correct (or perhaps know that both of them are)? 

    Posted 2/28/2008 [reply] [flag]
  • studes studes
    +1
    Good question.  I wondered the same thing.  I assumed it was your second possibility.  It could be a sample size issue, but there are two data points that trend down at the end of the graph.
    Posted 2/28/2008 [reply] [flag]
  • Derek Carty Derek Carty
    +1
    Excellent article, Greg.  I wasn't aware that a 'Hit-fx' system being created.  As you know, I love this type of analysis, and am looking forward to getting a chance to work with data like this.
    Posted 2/28/2008 [reply] [flag]
  • ger7ry ger7ry
    +1
    As Yogi could have said, you can observe a lot just by observing.
    Posted 2/29/2008 [reply] [flag]

Links (3)

Observational Analysis
Published 2/29/2008 by Tangotiger (tangotiger@yahoo.com) at THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball
... Greg is right on.  Good article, and is an excellent intro to his fantastic piece in the THT08 Annual.  Along with Walsh’s article, these two articles are worth the price of the book by themselves. ...

Friday links
Published 3/7/2008 by MB at Friar Forecast
... Greg Rybarczyk with an article on observational analysis. This one’s like a week old, but it’s awesome stuff. I’m very interested in the PITCHf/x stuff, hit tracker, etc. ...

Rob Neyer Chat
Published 3/11/2008 by Andrew Beaton at Hot Foot
... But see, the difference between me and a professional athlete is that in the back of my mind I’m just a heartbeat away from delivering pizzas. Joe Major Leaguer is set for life, which does alter one’s outlook. I really enjoy reading what Neyer writes, he’s a collegue of Bill James in the school of Sabermetrics, which I support.  Also, this is something I came across recently in Neyer’s blog, which I find fascinating: Observational Analysis. Share This