BR.com's Sports Reference Blog

November 29, 2007

Winter Meetings in Nashville Next Week

Filed under: Media, News — Sean @ 1:00 pm

Justin and I will be traveling to the Winter Meetings in Nashville next week. We’ll be arriving Monday afternoon and leaving Thursday afternoon. We’ll be working on some stories and info for some projects for next year (We are developing a daily newsletter product to launch in early 2008.), talking to folks about some ideas, and providing any research help to the media that we can, so don’t hesitate to ask. We see ourselves as being on call during the meetings. If anyone who uses the site is going to be there, I’d love to talk with you (Contact info). Say hello. I’d like to find out how we can make B-R better for you.

Unfortunately, MLB denied my request for a media credential, citing a lack of space and a need to first credential writers and tv folks on deadline. It’s disappointing, but I’m still hoping that I can get credentialed. So for now we’ll be hanging out somewhere else in the building and probably meeting people in the lobby or some such thing. Sorry for the inconvenience.

MLB is Looking for Stringers for next year

Filed under: MLBAM, News — Sean @ 12:02 pm

Here is the ad Cory Schwartz sent out to me.
——————
MLB.com, the Official Site of Major League Baseball, is seeking stats stringers in these markets for the 2008 season:

* Chicago
* Cincinnati
* Detroit
* Miami
* Houston
* Kansas City
* Milwaukee
* Seattle
* Toronto
* Washington, DC

Stats stringers are responsible for digitally scoring games from one of the 30 MLB ballparks, which provides the data used in the live content applications on MLB.com, including Gameday, Mosaic and MLB.TV, and by our business partners. This is a perfect part-time job for a diligent, responsible employee who happens to be a big baseball fan.

Responsibilities include:

* Arrive at the ballpark no later than one hour prior to the scheduled start time;
* Double-check and verify all pre-game information: rosters, umpires, weather conditions, etc.;
* During the game, enter the results of every pitch and game event (plays, substitutions, etc.) using our proprietary software and coding language;
* Work closely with our game-night support staff (via AOL Instant Messenger) to ensure proper scoring of all game events and accuracy of data;
* After the game, enter all post-game information: winning and losing pitcher, saves, holds, time and attendance
* Validate all stats in software box score against the official box score provided by the Official Scorer, and print out a final box score and game text for the club PR staff

Qualifications include:

* Previous experience (including pressbox exposure) with a professional or college sports team, preferably baseball;
* Exceptional (and demonstrable) knowledge of baseball and how to score a baseball game;
* Strong computer proficiency (Windows OS and Windows-based software) and the ability to quickly learn and operate new software;
* Regular availability to attend games in-person as required by the schedule: weekdays, nights and weekends;
* A “team player” with a great attitude, including but not limited to a willingness to make and learn from mistakes and the ability to work closely and cooperatively (and take direction from) our game-night staff;
* Professionalism. It’s a fun job and we pay people to watch baseball, but it’s also an important job and we want people who will take the responsibility seriously.

(New stringers undergo an 8-10 week correspondence training program, and co-score several practice games in the ballpark with a returning stringer, before scoring any games solo in the ballpark.)

Those interested in applying should send a resume and cover later, addressing the above-listed qualifications, to stats@website.mlb.com.

Only applicants that reply via e-mail will be considered – no phone calls please. Due to the volume of applications, we will only reply to those who are under consideration for the position.

20 Times a Pitcher was Hit By a Pitch in 2007 - Baseball-Reference PI

Filed under: New Features — Sean @ 10:08 am

20 Times a Pitcher was Hit By a Pitch in 2007 - Baseball-Reference PI

I added a couple of outputs to the pitching event finder. The batter’s lineup and defensive position are now shown in the output. So for example, you can find that Gaylord Perry is the only pitcher to hit a home run off Bert Blyleven and that Pedro Martinez hit not one, but two opposing pitchers last year.

November 26, 2007

Stat of the Day » Most Times on Base for a LFer either in the HOF or on the ballot - Baseball-Reference PI

Filed under: For Fun, New Features — Sean @ 9:11 pm

Stat of the Day » Most Times on Base for a LFer either in the HOF or on the ballot - Baseball-Reference PI

Just a note that there is a new feature on the Play Index. You can now search the season finders based on the HOF ballot. So you can compare the players on the ballot to all of the players currently in the Hall. A rundown is over on the stat of the day blog.

November 14, 2007

PFR- Rough Team Pages

Filed under: News, Other Sites — Sean @ 4:59 pm

Pro-Football-Reference.com Teams Pages

Work is progressing on football. Here are some rough pages for the teams. I need to get a list of starters on there along with the team gamelogs and a lot of other stuff as well.

SportingNews.com - Fantasy Games and In-Depth Fantasy Analysis

Filed under: Uncategorized — Sean @ 8:46 am

SportingNews.com - Fantasy Games and In-Depth Fantasy Analysis

I’m sure I’m due for a four-game losing streak, but my long sequence offense is racking up the runs so far this season. The pitching staff has been way over its head considering the defense I’m putting out there, but so far so good. I would really like a left fielder who get on base a lot. That would really get the offense humming.

November 13, 2007

Jorge Posada’s Contract

Filed under: Research, stats fun — Sean @ 8:03 am

This is uncharted territory for a catcher. Here is a post I did in a discussion on BaseballThinkFactory.org.

I hear the phrase “Posada has less wear on him than other catchers” repeated so often I decided to check it out. It really isn’t so. From ages 28 to 35, Posada has caught more games than any other player in history (he’s tied with Tony Pena). If we look at 26 to 35, he’s third. And when you add in 93 postseason games he moves up to the top of that list as well. The only players close to him in games played over those ages are Tony Pena, Jim Sundberg.

http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/PDg2 (Ages 28-35)
http://www.bb-ref.com/pi/shareit/EQds (Ages 26-35)

The above includes non-C games. Here are the top ten looking at just games caught.

Ages 26-35
| name_common  | Gs   |
+—————–+——+
| Tony Pena    | 1382 |
| Jim Sundberg | 1314 |
| Jorge Posada | 1295 |
| Brad Ausmus  | 1276 |
| Jim Hegan     | 1264 |
| Gary Carter   | 1255 |
| Yogi Berra     | 1231 |
| Bob Boone    | 1221 |
| Johnny Roseboro | 1212 |
| Ivan Rodriguez    | 1208 |

Ages 28-35

| name_common  | Gs   |
+-----------------+------+
| Tony Pena        | 1087 |
| Jorge Posada     | 1087 |
| Brad Ausmus      | 1057 |
| Jim Sundberg     | 1017 |
| Johnny Roseboro | 1008 |
| Gary Carter       | 1006 |
| Jim Hegan         |  989 |
| Bob Boone         |  983 |
| Roy Campanella  |  978 |
| Rick Dempsey     |  952 |

Here is the number of games those players caught after age 35.

| name_common  | Gs   |
+—————–+——+
| Bob Boone          |  845 |
| Rick Dempsey      |  433 |
| Brad Ausmus       |  386 |
| Tony Pena          |  361 |
| Gary Carter         |  233 |
| Jim Hegan          |  196 |
| Jim Sundberg      |  186 |
| Johnny Roseboro |  141 |

He’s a terrific player right now, but I could see him slipping very badly very quickly. Carlton Fisk is the only player in history who would have retrospectively justified this sort of multi-year deal as a catcher at this age and he caught on average just 110 games/year from ages 26-35 not the 140 that Posada did (including postseason).

One other aspect of this is that Posada’s durability and production is really remarkable and is an underappreciated aspect of the Yankees success. If he misses significant chunks of some of their recent seasons (like a normal human catcher would), they probably miss the playoffs. Based on this, he probably has cleared the bar for the Hall of Fame.

November 12, 2007

2007 Minor League Free Agent Batting Leaders for On-base % - Baseball-Reference.com

Filed under: New Features, News, stats fun — Sean @ 2:48 pm

2007 Batting Leaders for On-base % - Baseball-Reference.com

Just in case you were wondering what freely available talent might be out there. Please let us know if we are missing any listings. This was tedious work compiling this, so mistakes can happen.

November 8, 2007

Football Leaders, Football Records, Football Leaderboards - Pro-Football-Reference.com

Filed under: New Features, News — Sean @ 5:10 pm

Football Leaders, Football Records, Football Leaderboards - Pro-Football-Reference.com

More football stuff. Just in case you were wondering which quarterback lost the most yards by being sacked. Please let me know of any bugs you find.

Football Stats

Filed under: New Features, News — Sean @ 9:14 am

Redesigned Pro-Football-Reference.com

We recently acquired a much improved DB of football stats and are working on getting the new pages together. This is just a list of players with 120 games or more. None of the links work yet, but I’d love to get your feedback on what we might be missing, what we should add etc.

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