BR.com's Sports Reference Blog

July 28, 2006

Deadline Trades - Baseball-Reference.com

Filed under: For Fun, New Features, News — Sean @ 11:38 am

Deadline Trades - Baseball-Reference.com

I did some more updates today.

1) I got all of the new Hall of Famers pages added and linked to the Bullpen which has a lot of good stuff on the Negro Leagues. (Feel free to add your own).

2) I also updated the transactions (THANK YOU RETROSHEET!) through March 3, 2006. These now include many more transactions along with signing dates for the a lot of the amateur draftees. Also there are more dollar amounts included for sales and the like.

3) As part of this, I put together a little page of deadline trades from the last twenty years. It is linked above. You can link to a particular year if you want by adding #YYYY at the end of the url.

July 27, 2006

mod_rewrite - Apache HTTP Server

Filed under: Admin, New Features, Web Design — Sean @ 9:37 am

mod_rewrite - Apache HTTP Server

I added a teeny bit of code to my server configuration, so now all of the alternate domain names should be redirected to baseball-reference.com.

bb-ref.com
baseballreference.org
baseballreference.com
etc., etc.

Let me know if anyone notices any issues from this.

Server Downtime Tonight

Filed under: Admin, News, Uncategorized — Sean @ 8:37 am

I’ve been spending a lot of time on server maintenance issues this week.

1) We now have a huge database server that is going to greatly improve performance on searches and some of the more advanced features that I’m working on.

2) I’m tuning the webserver machine. The site is averaging 17 requests per second day in day out, so we need to handle 40-60+ requests per second at the peak. I’ve ordered more RAM for the server, and it will go in tonight between 2-5AM EDT, so the site will be down about 5 minutes (Murphy willing) when that happens. I’m a little sad about it going down because the server has an uptime of 356 days, but all good things must come to an end.

3) I’m also fiddling with the apache settings and looking at doing some things with thttpd or lighhttd, but that will have to wait until after the vacation and brother’s wedding the next two weeks.

July 25, 2006

Sabermetric Research

Filed under: Other Sites, Research — Sean @ 3:08 pm

Sabermetric Research

Phil Birnbaum has created a one stop shop for sabermetric research in a whole host of sports–not just baseball.

SportingNews.com

Filed under: Uncategorized — Sean @ 2:16 pm

SportingNews.com

As you’ve probably noticed, the site now features links to the Sporting News in the nav bar on its pages.

If you go to TSN, you’ll see similar links on their mlb pages.

For now, we’ve agreed to swap links and I’ll be doing a little bit of blogging on their site.

I’ve always had a great deal of respect for the Sporting News as evidenced by the 60+ years of guides and registers over my shoulder on my bookshelf. They are probably up there with the Hall of Fame with regards to archival materials relating to baseball’s past. Hopefully, this will be a partnership that both sides will benefit a great deal from.

Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Baseball Statistics and History

Filed under: New Features, News, Web Design — Sean @ 2:12 pm

Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Baseball Statistics and History

A couple of tweaks to the site.

1) I added some css to the front page, so it looks a bit cleaner and compressed imo.
2) There is now a leaderboard for outs made by batters. Look for Jeff Franceour at the end of the year.
3) You can now compare similar pitchers. Look for the Compare link in the list of similar pitchers.

Baseball card days (kottke.org)

Filed under: Uncategorized — Sean @ 12:15 pm

Baseball card days (kottke.org)

Jason Kottke waxes nostalgic. I have a few baseball card boxes laying around. Like Kottke, most of my cards are from the 80’s and are therefore worthless or nearly so.

July 18, 2006

Oracle of Baseball - Chain of Teammates - Baseball-Reference.com

Filed under: New Features — Sean @ 5:18 pm

Oracle of Baseball - Chain of Teammates - Baseball-Reference.com

Minnie Minoso haters rejoice. One of the big things people griped about with the oracle was that Minnie and his stunt appearances really screwed up results. Working with the developer, we’ve set up the program to now exclude any player (or multiple players) from the chain between two players. This does not affect a player’s linkability or at-distance lists, but will allow you to exclude players from a chain. It adds another level of “fun” as you try to bump someone from a length six to length seven chain.

Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports

Filed under: Research — Sean @ 2:27 pm

Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports

The latest issue of the JQAS is up with several articles on baseball.

Before & After magazine

Filed under: Business, Research, Uncategorized, Web Design — Sean @ 11:57 am

Before & After magazine

Very cool online magazine with different design ideas. Thanks Seth Godin.

Style changes

Filed under: Admin, Uncategorized — Sean @ 9:07 am

In order to make the tables more legible, I’ve moved the menu to the left and fiddled with some other stuff.

Let me know if this doesn’t help.

Corrected: Walk off HR’s and other Walk off Lists

Filed under: Uncategorized, stats fun — Sean @ 8:08 am

Now including unearned runs


| name_common | WalkOffPAs | WalkOffHits | WalkOffHRs |
+——————-+————+————-+————+
| Frank Robinson | 27 | 26 | 12 |
| Tony Perez | 22 | 20 | 11 |
| Mike Schmidt | 17 | 15 | 10 |
| Dick Allen | 16 | 13 | 10 |
| Reggie Jackson | 16 | 15 | 10 |
| Eddie Murray | 17 | 16 | 9 |
| Harold Baines | 17 | 15 | 9 |
| Hank Aaron | 19 | 17 | 9 |
| Roy Sievers | 10 | 9 | 9 |
| Barry Bonds | 15 | 15 | 9 |
| Jim Thome | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| Dave Kingman | 13 | 12 | 8 |
| Lou Whitaker | 20 | 19 | 8 |
| Gary Gaetti | 14 | 11 | 8 |
| Mickey Mantle | 9 | 9 | 8 |
| Brooks Robinson | 21 | 18 | 8 |
| Dusty Baker | 25 | 21 | 8 |
| Sammy Sosa | 11 | 11 | 8 |
| Jack Clark | 18 | 17 | 8 |
| Rafael Palmeiro | 10 | 9 | 7 |
| Graig Nettles | 18 | 17 | 7 |
| Jim Hickman | 9 | 9 | 7 |
| Bobby Bonds | 13 | 11 | 7 |
| Lance Parrish | 17 | 17 | 7 |
| Will Clark | 14 | 11 | 7 |
| Juan Gonzalez | 9 | 9 | 7 |
| Don Baylor | 19 | 18 | 7 |
| Kirk Gibson | 12 | 11 | 7 |

The rest of the lists after the break.

(more…)

July 17, 2006

Walk off lists

Filed under: Uncategorized, stats fun — Sean @ 2:16 pm

Unfortunately, a user helped me catch a bug in my lists. I’m missing games where the runs were unearned. I’ll get on that and post corrections in the threads tomorrow.

July 13, 2006

Stats Fun: Facing the minimum over 8+ innings

Filed under: stats fun — Sean @ 11:42 am

During the SABR convention Josh Fogg allowed two hits and a walk who were erased on DP’s, to face the minimum 27. In the retrosheet era this has happened 44 times including the perfect games you know. Here they are.

Final column is baserunners. Bob Milacki’s game saw four GIDP’s and a CS for the Twins to erase the five baserunners. The Chuck Taylor and Jose DeLeon games were no decisions that went into extra innings that the team eventually lost.


| name_common | Tm | Opp | date_game | game_id | IP | BF | H | BB | HBP | SO | BR |

| Jesse Barnes | NYG | PHI | 1922-05-07 | NY1192205070 | 9.00 | 27 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| Jim Wilson | CHW | BAL | 1958-06-15 | BAL195806151 | 9.00 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| Lew Burdette | MLN | PHI | 1960-08-18 | MLN196008180 | 9.00 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Warren Spahn | MLN | SFG | 1961-04-28 | MLN196104280 | 9.00 | 27 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 2 |
| Dick Donovan | CLE | BAL | 1962-07-02 | CLE196207020 | 9.00 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
| Sandy Koufax | LAD | PHI | 1964-06-04 | PHI196406040 | 9.00 | 27 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 1 |
| Jim Bunning | PHI | NYM | 1964-06-21 | NYN196406211 | 9.00 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| Sandy Koufax | LAD | CHC | 1965-09-09 | LAN196509090 | 9.00 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0 |
| Woodie Fryman | PIT | NYM | 1966-07-01 | NYN196607010 | 9.00 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| Dick Kelley | ATL | STL | 1966-09-21 | ATL196609210 | 9.00 | 27 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 |
| Jim Palmer | BAL | NYY | 1967-05-12 | NYA196705120 | 9.00 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| Catfish Hunter | OAK | MIN | 1968-05-08 | OAK196805080 | 9.00 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 |
| Gary Waslewski | MON | PHI | 1969-07-06 | PHI196907062 | 9.00 | 27 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 |
| Chuck Taylor | STL | CIN | 1970-07-20 | SLN197007202 | 9.00 | 27 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Reggie Cleveland | STL | CHC | 1973-09-27 | SLN197309270 | 9.00 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Bob Forsch | STL | MON | 1975-04-09 | SLN197504090 | 9.00 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
| Bob Welch | LAD | ATL | 1980-05-29 | LAN198005290 | 9.00 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 |
| Len Barker | CLE | TOR | 1981-05-15 | CLE198105150 | 9.00 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 |
| Mike Flanagan | BAL | SEA | 1982-05-03 | BAL198205030 | 9.00 | 27 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| John Candelaria | PIT | ATL | 1982-07-25 | PIT198207250 | 9.00 | 27 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
| La Marr Hoyt | CHW | NYY | 1984-05-02 | CHA198405020 | 9.00 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| Mike Witt | CAL | TEX | 1984-09-30 | TEX198409300 | 9.00 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| Orel Hershiser | LAD | SDP | 1985-04-26 | LAN198504260 | 9.00 | 27 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 |
| Bret Saberhagen | KCR | MIL | 1985-05-17 | MIL198505170 | 9.00 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| Floyd Bannister | CHW | SEA | 1987-09-13 | SEA198709130 | 9.00 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1 |
| Kelly Downs | SFG | ATL | 1988-06-07 | SFN198806070 | 9.00 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
| Tom Browning | CIN | LAD | 1988-09-16 | CIN198809160 | 9.00 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| Mike Moore | SEA | MIL | 1988-09-17 | SEA198809170 | 9.00 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2 |
| Bob Knepper | HOU | ATL | 1988-09-21 | HOU198809210 | 9.00 | 27 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 2 |
| Bob Milacki | BAL | MIN | 1989-04-23 | BAL198904230 | 9.00 | 27 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| Jose DeLeon | STL | CIN | 1989-08-30 | SLN198908300 | 11.00 | 33 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| Jack Morris | DET | KCR | 1990-07-06 | DET199007060 | 9.00 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 |
| Tim Belcher | LAD | PIT | 1990-07-21 | PIT199007210 | 9.00 | 27 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
| Terry Mulholland | PHI | SFG | 1990-08-15 | PHI199008150 | 9.00 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 |
| Dennis Martinez | MON | LAD | 1991-07-28 | LAN199107280 | 9.00 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Dennis Rasmussen | KCR | CAL | 1992-09-29 | CAL199209290 | 9.00 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Kenny Rogers | TEX | CAL | 1994-07-28 | TEX199407280 | 9.00 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 |
| Mike Grace | PHI | NYY | 1997-09-02 | PHI199709020 | 9.00 | 27 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| David Wells | NYY | MIN | 1998-05-17 | NYA199805170 | 9.00 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 |
| Jon Lieber | CHC | CIN | 2001-05-24 | CHN200105240 | 9.00 | 27 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Woody Williams | STL | SDP | 2001-09-05 | SDN200109050 | 9.00 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 |
| Odalis Perez | LAD | CHC | 2002-04-26 | CHN200204260 | 9.00 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 |
| Randy Johnson | ARI | ATL | 2004-05-18 | ATL200405180 | 9.00 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 0 |
| Mark Buehrle | CHW | CLE | 2004-07-21 | CLE200407210 | 9.00 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 |

Stats Fun: Balk Off - Game-ending Balks

Filed under: Uncategorized, stats fun — Sean @ 9:36 am

The Stanton balk was before he had even faced a batter.


| Pitcher | Team | game_id | date_game | inning | Runner | Opp |
| Ernie Broglio | CHC | CIN196504280 | 1965-04-28 | 14 | Tommy Harper | CIN |
| Hal Woodeshick | HOU | PIT196506080 | 1965-06-08 | 11 | Bill Virdon | PIT |
| Tom Walker | MON | HOU197304290 | 1973-04-29 | 9 | Cesar Cedeno | HOU |
| Warren Brusstar | PHI | PIT197809292 | 1978-09-29 | 9 | Dave Parker | PIT |
| Matt Turner | FLA | ATL199307040 | 1993-07-04 | 9 | Deion Sanders | ATL |
| Jeff Zimmerman | TEX | BAL200004280 | 2000-04-28 | 9 | Mark Lewis | BAL |
| Justin Duchscherer | OAK | SEA200404190 | 2004-04-19 | 14 | Quinton McCracken | SEA |
| Mike Stanton | WSN | MIL200507150 | 2005-07-15 | 10 | Chris Magruder | MIL |

July 12, 2006

Stats Fun: Limp Off Game-Ending HBP

Filed under: Uncategorized — Sean @ 4:04 pm

Same drill as before (35 in this list).


| Batter | Team | game_id | date_game | inning | Pitcher | Opp |

| Jim Davenport | SFG | SFN195807060 | 1958-07-06 | 9 | Larry Jackson | STL |
| Ken Hunt | LAA | LAA196104280 | 1961-04-28 | 12 | Bill Pleis | MIN |
| Al Smith | CHW | CHA196208040 | 1962-08-04 | 9 | Bill Stafford | NYY |
| Bert Campaneris | KCA | KC1196506302 | 1965-06-30 | 9 | John Buzhardt | CHW |
| Clete Boyer | NYY | NYA196507150 | 1965-07-15 | 12 | Steve Ridzik | WSA |
| John Kennedy | LAD | LAN196607210 | 1966-07-21 | 10 | Pete Mikkelsen | PIT |
| Tommie Agee | CHW | CHA196609020 | 1966-09-02 | 11 | Stu Miller | BAL |
| Tom Satriano | CAL | CAL196905010 | 1969-05-01 | 10 | Lew Krausse | OAK |
| Jackie Hernandez | KCR | KCA196906162 | 1969-06-16 | 12 | Jim Roland | OAK |
| Fred Scherman | DET | DET197107290 | 1971-07-29 | 9 | Tom Burgmeier | KCR |
| Bob Robertson | PIT | PIT197207161 | 1972-07-16 | 10 | Fred Gladding | HOU |
| Joe Pepitone | CHC | CHN197208260 | 1972-08-26 | 10 | Randy Moffitt | SFG |
| Wes Parker | LAD | LAN197209220 | 1972-09-22 | 11 | Jim Willoughby | SFG |
| Jerry Davanon | STL | SLN197407251 | 1974-07-25 | 10 | Jack Aker | NYM |
| Rico Carty | CLE | CLE197506220 | 1975-06-22 | 10 | Eduardo Rodriguez | MIL |
| Bill Russell | LAD | LAN197805200 | 1978-05-20 | 9 | Randy Moffitt | SFG |
| Steve Kemp | DET | DET197905230 | 1979-05-23 | 9 | Jim Kaat | NYY |
| Rodney Scott | MON | MON197908170 | 1979-08-17 | 9 | Eddie Solomon | ATL |
| Marc Sullivan | BOS | BOS198605190 | 1986-05-19 | 9 | Ron Davis | MIN |
| Wally Joyner | CAL | CAL198907230 | 1989-07-23 | 9 | Brad Havens | DET |
| Alex Cole | CLE | CLE199106110 | 1991-06-11 | 12 | Ken Dayley | TOR |
| Daryl Boston | NYM | NYN199204230 | 1992-04-23 | 13 | Juan Agosto | STL |
| Rey Sanchez | CHC | CHN199207080 | 1992-07-08 | 10 | Rob Dibble | CIN |
| Mike Bordick | OAK | OAK199308040 | 1993-08-04 | 9 | Jeff Nelson | SEA |
| Archi Cianfrocco | SDP | SDN199508300 | 1995-08-30 | 9 | Greg Harris | MON |
| Paul Molitor | MIN | MIN199605010 | 1996-05-01 | 10 | Jeff Montgomery | KCR |
| Tony Womack | PIT | PIT199704150 | 1997-04-15 | 9 | Sterling Hitchcock | SDP |
| Troy O’Leary | BOS | BOS199706160 | 1997-06-16 | 10 | Ricky Bottalico | PHI |
| Luis Gonzalez | HOU | HOU199708030 | 1997-08-03 | 9 | Greg McMichael | NYM |
| Richard Hidalgo | HOU | HOU199808080 | 1998-08-08 | 9 | Mark Leiter | PHI |
| Eric Karros | LAD | LAN200106200 | 2001-06-20 | 9 | Erik Sabel | ARI |
| Olmedo Saenz | OAK | OAK200207200 | 2002-07-20 | 9 | Dave Burba | TEX |
| Raul Ibanez | KCR | KCA200207210 | 2002-07-21 | 10 | Heath Murray | CLE |
| Paul Lo Duca | LAD | LAN200208230 | 2002-08-23 | 9 | Kevin Gryboski | ATL |
| Manny Ramirez | BOS | BOS200509160 | 2005-09-16 | 10 | Keiichi Yabu | OAK |

Stats Fun: Run Off Game-ending steals of home

Filed under: stats fun — Sean @ 3:58 pm

As always these are from the retrosheet era 1957-2005 (except 1999).


| runner | Team | game_id | date_game | inning | Pitcher | Opp |

| Tommie Agee | NYM | NYN197007240 | 1970-07-24 | 10 | Jim Brewer | LAD |
| Glenn Brummer | STL | SLN198208220 | 1982-08-22 | 12 | Gary Lavelle | SFG |
| Rod Carew | MIN | MIN197209010 | 1972-09-01 | 10 | Ed Farmer | CLE |
| Ed Charles | KCA | KC1196208080 | 1962-08-08 | 9 | Ray Moore | MIN |
| Willie Davis | LAD | LAN196409190 | 1964-09-19 | 16 | Morrie Steevens | PHI |
| Jim Gilliam | BRO | BRO195706140 | 1957-06-14 | 10 | Lindy McDaniel | STL |
| Eddie Murray | BAL | BAL197908150 | 1979-08-15 | 12 | Guy Hoffman | CHW |
| Vic Power | CLE | CLE195808140 | 1958-08-14 | 10 | Frank Lary | DET |

All-Star Thoughts

Filed under: Media — Sean @ 11:23 am

My block had a power outage last night, so I missed the final four innings of the All-Star game, so no comments on any of that. I pretty much tivo’ed through the Clemente ceremony.

Trisha Yearwood should not allow MLB to select her wardrobe. It is disappointing that they don’t show the Canadian national anthem.

My big comment about the production was when introducing the players, I think adding statistical context below their names would be a great touch.

Something like

2B, Age: 26, From: Kentucky
15 2B, 13 HR, 94 H, 51 RBI

would give the viewer some idea why this player is an All-Star. The viewer would then get some insight into some of the young exciting players of the game. Since we are at the All-star break, the viewer could easily double the numbers and say, “Whoa a second baseman on pace for 100 RBI’s. That is a nice little ballplayer that the Marlins have there,” or “Hey I’m from Kentucky too.”

The way they did it
Dan Uggla, Infielder
Florida Marlins

tells the viewer nothing and is more likely to result in the response, “Good grief, this is an all-star?! I’ve never even heard of this guy. I remember when only stars watched the all-star game.”

Debating the merits of the all-stars is one of the fun things about being a fan and giving viewers a little bit of statistical data helps that cause and gives the players some context, especially guys like Jason Bay or Freddy Sanchez or B.J. Ryan who are never on TV.

Also, the way they presented rank in league for the guys at bat made it impossible to figure out what category they meant.

They should have just printed out the additional seven characters.

7th in NL in Hits vs. 7th in NL.

One other thing, I will never ever understand the appeal of the opening montages.

July 11, 2006

Better Defense Through Bruising - Careers

Filed under: Research — Sean @ 2:32 pm

Better Defense Through Bruising - Careers: Johnny Bench

One of the weird things in my study of catcher defense was the dramatic improvement of Johnny Bench from 1969 to 1970. One possibility was the passing of a decade caused Bench to re-evaluate his life and re-dedicate his approach to blocking pitches. A more likely cause was the switch from Dave Bristol to Sparky Anderson. If someone knows of any examples of Anderson wanting to work with Bench on his defense or any articles to that effect, I would love to hear about them.

Most Seasons on World Series Winning Team - Baseball-Reference.com

Filed under: For Fun, New Features — Sean @ 1:11 pm

Most Seasons on World Series Winning Team - Baseball-Reference.com

New page on the site.

ESPN.com: SPORTSNATION - SportsNation Trivia - Baseball 101

Filed under: For Fun — Sean @ 12:10 pm

ESPN.com: SPORTSNATION - SportsNation Trivia - Baseball 101

I did a lot better on this than I did at the SABR convention’s trivia contest. 40 out of 50. I didn’t use the website either. The only pros or analysts who beat me were SABR members Rob Neyer, Gary Gillette, Keith Law and Jim Caple.

July 6, 2006

Quantifying Catcher Defense, and Other Stuff Like That — The Hardball Times

Filed under: Research — Sean @ 9:14 am

Quantifying Catcher Defense, and Other Stuff Like That — The Hardball Times

I was pointed to this excellent article by David Gassko from last November. David looks at all of the different components of catcher defense. He also did some regression to estimate MP’s for catchers and has ERA as the main component of the estimate. I haven’t read the whole article yet, but it looks like a lot of his 2005 numbers jibe with the results that I got.

One comment: I’m a little leery of using ERA in the estimate of MP’s. It seems like ERA is essentially a measurement of the number of baserunners or opportunities and measuring the opportunities directly is likely a better way to go.

July 3, 2006

Better Defense Through Bruising

Filed under: Research, stats fun — Sean @ 11:59 pm

SABR 2006 presentation: Better Defense Through Bruising

Here are the slides from my talk for the SABR convention this year. I was fortunate to win the award for best research presentation. There were a lot of great talks, so it was very flattering to have my talk singled out.

As always, I had a great time at the convention. The city was beautiful and the committee did a great job with the organization.

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