Archive for the ‘stats’ Category

Why Byrd over Reed?

Jim Hendry went to the free agent market to get his center fielder for 2010. Marlon Byrd was signed this week to a 3-year contract worth $15 million. I took a look at his stats and was astonished by how close his numbers are to that of now former Cub Reed Johnson.

Nearly every category is [...]

January 2, 2010  Tags: , , , , ,   Posted in: Hot Stove, Jim Hendry, biz of baseball, players, roster, stats  6 Comments

John Dewan’s Stat of the Week™

Who are baseball’s best and worst baserunners?
In The Bill James Handbook 2010 we analyze a player’s baserunning ability.  For each player, we measure his ability to move first to third, second to home, and first to home in addition to the number of outs he records on the bases and how he fares in double [...]

November 26, 2009  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: John Dewan, Stat of the Week, stats  One Comment

John Dewan’s Stat of the Week™

Who are the Fielding Bible Award winners for 2009?
THE 2009 FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS have been officially announced after one of the closest races in the history of the award centered around the keystone sack. Second basemen Aaron Hill, Dustin Pedroia and Chase Utley finished with 76, 76 and 73 points respectively, forcing a tie-breaking procedure [...]

November 2, 2009  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,   Posted in: John Dewan, Stat of the Week, awards, book, fielding, stats  No Comments

John Dewan’s Stat of the Week™

Which players have performed the best in the postseason?
Performing well during the regular season is one thing, but producing in October wins championships. As we await the Twins-Tigers playoff and the Division Series, let’s take a look at the best playoff performers among active players.

Most Productive Hitters by On-Base Plus Slugging
(minimum 50 Plate [...]

October 6, 2009  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: John Dewan, Stat of the Week, playoffs, stats  No Comments

John Dewan’s Stat of the Week™

Who are the MVP leaders based on Total Runs?
Teams are clinching playoff spots almost daily now that we’re in the last week of the season, but has anyone sewn up the MVP award? As we did last week for the Rookie of the Year candidates, let’s use the Total Runs metric first introduced in [...]

September 28, 2009  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,   Posted in: John Dewan, Stat of the Week, awards, stats  One Comment

John Dewan’s Stat of the Week™

Who are the Rookie of the Year leaders
based on Total Runs?
With just over two weeks left in the 2009 season, let’s take a look at the top rookie hitters in all of baseball, using the version of Runs Created used in The Fielding Bible—Volume II:

2009 Top Rookie Hitters, MLB

Player

Runs Created

Chris Coghlan, Marlins

74

Seth Smith, [...]

September 18, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: John Dewan, Stat of the Week, awards, stats  No Comments

John Dewan’s Stat of the Week™

Catcher Pickoff Leaders
Over the last several seasons, no one compares. Yadier Molina has nabbed more baserunners who fell asleep on the bases than any other catcher by a wide margin. Here are the leaders in catcher pickoffs since 2003:

Most Catcher Pickoffs
(Since 2003)

Player

Pickoffs

Yadier Molina

33

Miguel Olivo

19

Jose Molina

17

Ivan Rodriguez

13

Jeff Mathis

11

How much is that helping his team? [...]

September 13, 2009  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,   Posted in: John Dewan, Stat of the Week, stats  No Comments

John Dewan’s Stat of the Week™

I’ve always wondered how effective those throws were, statistically speaking. Especially the half-hearted lobs that allow the runner to casually stroll back to the bag without a play.  Here’s what John Dewan has to say…
 
Are throws to first to hold the runner a waste of time?
A fast runner is at first and the pitcher [...]

August 31, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: John Dewan, Stat of the Week, game of baseball, stats  No Comments

John Dewan’s Stat of the Week™

The Latest Scoop
In the previous edition of Stat of the Week, we took a small sample from Baseball Info Solutions’ Enhanced Fielding data to compare Jason Giambi and Mark Teixeira’s ability to scoop bad throws at first base. We showed that while Teixeira scoops more balls than Giambi, he also plays the field more [...]

August 26, 2009  Tags: , , , , ,   Posted in: John Dewan, Stat of the Week, book, stats  No Comments

Kevin Gregg versus Kerry Wood

In April I tried to give now former Cubs closer Kevin Gregg a chance to prove himself. But instead by June he validated all of my original concerns – the guy just isn’t a “winning” closer. He has given up 12 home runs in the closer role, for an average of a hefty 1.9 per 9 [...]

August 18, 2009  Tags: , , , , , , ,   Posted in: Lou Piniella, game strategy, lineup, observations, players, stats  No Comments