(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best baseball books

Okay, I'll try to make this something constructive.



First: "Replacement player is a made up term."

Sure, but that's not exactly a slight against WAR. An average player is "made up" in the sense that no such player perfectly exists, and the same goes for replacement level players. That marker is an arbitrary point, but examples of players who very much fit the idea of "replacement level" exist.

A replacement level player is usually defined as "A AAAA player available for extremely cheap who would be used to replace another player in the event of injury or some other factor - not good enough to be a regular starter at the MLB level except out of extreme circumstance". Take James Loney, who was acquired by the Mets midseason after they lost 1B Lucas Duda to injury for most of the season. Loney was had for cash from AAA El Paso, and performed at around replacement level: -0.1 rWAR and -0.2 fWAR in 100 games. He's an excellent example of a replacement player, and while he's not an exact copy - there doesn't exist one. He fits in the archetype, that's all.



Second: "bWar and fWar can fluctuate by 3+ wins (30+ runs) for the same players' seasons which is a monumental difference."

This is incredibly ignorant of how these stats actually work. fWAR and rWAR are founded upon the same principles, but use different numbers to accomplish their purposes. This isn't to say that one method is more valid than the other or that, as a result of their disagreement, neither are valid (which appears to be your implication, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).

Here's how fWAR is calculated: WAR = (wRAA + UZR + UBR + Positional Adjustment + 20/600PA)/10

wRAA represents how many batting runs above average a player is. I highly reccomend picking up a copy of Tom Tango, Mitchel Lichtman, and Andrew Dolphin's book, The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball to understand where it comes from, but if you don't have a copy at hand, I luckily have one on my desk, and here's a good passage that explains wOBA, the foundational stat behind wRAA:

"... we know the run values of each [batting] event [(this refers to a single, double, walk, etc.)]. For example, we know that the run value of the HR is 1.4 runs above average, and 1.7 runs above the run value of the out. In rate measures, like OBP, the value of the out in the numerator is zero. If we recast the run values of the most common events relative to the out (rather than relative to the result of an average plate appearance), we get the following:

HR 1.70, 3B 1.37, 2B 1.08, 1B 0.77, NIBB 0.62" - Tango, Licthman, Dolphin

Those values are eventually used to create weights for each plate outcome and used as a rate statistic, but if we don't divide those stats by PA (as we do in wOBA) and adjust for league and park offense, we get wRAA.

UZR is a more advanced statistic which Mitchel Lichtman povides for FanGraphs - the guts of it are far too complex to get into in response to a reddit post with a 33% upvote ratio at 2 in the morning, but the idea behind it is that a batted ball to a particular location will be an out x% of the time on average. If you make a play on a ball with a low out%, you receive positive credit, and if you can't make a play on a ball with a high out%, you receive negative credit. That differential is then converted into runs and factored in fWAR. UZR has some issues with it: Josh Stein addresses some of these here, but ultimately it does a fairly good job of measuring defensive value despite the general unreliability of defensive metrics.

UBR is provided by (who else) Mitchel Lichtman and it measures how frequently a player increases the run expectancy of a play while on the basepaths. If you're unfamiliar with run expectancy, here's a brief primer from an incredibly talented and handsome writer. By stealing a base, a teams' odds of scoring runs in the inning increase by a tangible amount, and a player recieves credit for that, again converted to runs.

Positional adjustments takes into account the fact that not all positions are weighted equally. A player who is slightly below average at centerfield is still more valuable than a player who plays RF at an average level, principally because of the differences incurred by playing at that position. You can view typical positional adjustments here. This allows us to compare players who play at different positions.

Finally, that 20/600PA is our representation of replacement level. Over 600 PA, we might expect a replacement level player to be worth 20 runs below average. Hence, we add 20/600PA to obtain our value of value above replacement (if we didn't include this figure, we'd be looking at runs above average).

After determining our runs above replacement value, we then divide by 10 to obtain wins above replacement. Where does 10 runs=a win come from? Pythagorean records, surprisingly! The pythagorean expectation of win% for a team is as follows:

xW% = (Run Scored)^2 / ( (Runs Scored)^2 + (Runs Allowed)^2 )

If we have a team that allows 750 runs and scores 750 runs (about the league average for 2017), their xW% would be .500, and they'd win 81 games and lose 81 games. But let's say we want to improve the team. How many more runs would we need to add to get our team to 82-80? Turns out, to add an additional win to the team in terms of xW%, we need 10 more runs.

760^2 / (760^2 + 750^2) = .506 xW%

.506 xW% 162 = 82.073 Wins

How does this work for pitchers? FanGraphs uses a variant of FIP, called fielding independent pitching. While the notion behind FIP is generally flawed - the stat assumes that pitchers do not exert any control over contact, which is only about 50% true - but weighs the pitching outcomes of Ks, BBs, HBPs and HRs based on how they positively or negatively affect the game. In calculating WAR, FanGraphs also includings infield-pop-ups induced by pitchers as well. FanGraphs then adjusts the FIP figure based on league and park factors, converts that figure to dynamic runs per game using a bunch of math stuffs that it's way too late for but I will link to anyways.

So why the difference between rWAR and fWAR? rWAR is calculated different than fWAR!

rWAR for position players has six components: Batting Runs, Baserunning Runs, Runs added or lost due to Grounding into Double Plays in DP situations, Fielding Runs, Positional Adjustment Runs, and Replacement level Runs (based on playing time). You can read an in-depth description on the calculation of rWAR here, but in a nutshell, rWAR uses about the same method as FanGraphs in determining batting runs, but uses different evaluation systems for the rest of their metrics, including using Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) as opposed to UZR.

Notice that UBR and UZR are not present! Baseball Reference does not use these values in determining rWAR, and hence, their values are different than FanGraph's.

What about pitching rWAR? rWAR deals more with runs allowed (earned and unearned) as opposed to fielding-indepent outcomes, but otherwise operates on similar principles in that it adjusts for leverage, park factors, and league factors. Again - same idea, different measurement methods.

So why can players run such large differences between rWAR and fWAR? Simply put, part of fWAR likes them where part of rWAR doesn't like them, and vice versa. Let's say that a pitcher put up excellent strikeout and walk numbers, but played in front of a terrible defense. fWAR would reward the pitcher, but rWAR would punish the pitcher by virtue of them having given up more runs. But let's say that we have a pitch-to-contact pitcher like Kyle Hendricks, who induces plenty of groundballs and relies upon his defense for outs as opposed to strikeouts. rWAR would now reward that pitcher while fWAR punishes them.

The philosophies behind these two metrics have their own distinct differences, and like any sabermetric measure, must be measured in context. Understanding the context and nuances of the metrics allows you to use them as an effective tool, and understand why the differences are not in themselves an indictment of the metrics.



Third: "I cringe when Brian Kenny regurgitates players WARs on MLB now like he knows what he's talking about."

Brian Kenny is a professional broadcaster who has years of experience covering baseball and the way that it's evaluated. He's actually written an excellent book, which I'll suggest here as well



Fourth: "It undermines actual sabermetrics. Real sabermetrics and analytics are "pitchers whiff rate on his slider", "K-BB% vs LHB"."

What is "real sabermetrics" then? Let's ask Bill James, generally considered the grandfather of this school of thought.

"…what I do does not have a name and cannot be explained in a sentence or two. Well, now I have given it a name: Sabermetrics … [and] Sabermetrics is the mathematical and statistical analysis of baseball records." - James, The 1980 Baseball Abstract

James has refined and restated his definition multiple times across the years, but its most recent definition can be found in a recent Q&A from 2014:

"Sabermetrics is NOT about who is better than who or where players should be rated; not at all. It is about Why Teams Win, and How the Game Changes, and Why the Game Changes, and Why the Game Works." - James, Hey Bill

cont.

I'll give this a shot.

Pitching: I grew up playing backyard baseball (the computer game) so I thought that the aim of pitching was to throw three strikes and sit the batter down, because I was pretty much able to do this every single time against the computer players. Wrong! I became an actual baseball fan a couple of years ago and have since learned that pitching is basically a game of cat and mouse between pitcher and hitter. Most hitters don't have fast enough reaction times that they can "sit back" on a pitch and wait for it to come to them before they decide whether to swing at it or not; they basically have to make an educated guess based on many factors (pitcher's tendencies, pitch count, the way the defense is shifted, etc.) about what kind of pitch is coming and where. Different pitches have different trajectories and speeds. Curveballs tend to curve downward and are usually much slower than fastballs. Fastballs tend to go in more of a straight line although there are different varieties of fastball that have differing amounts of "run" to them, meaning they have a tendency to move horizontally a bit as well as straight forward. Knuckleballs have little to no rotation, which causes the erratic movement of the pitch. There is a lot more to talk about concerning pitching but I think if you really want to learn about it you should check out some books like this for example.



Nats Players: Bryce is the youngest player on the roster and has the highest ceiling of any of our players. He has the potential to be a super star due to his diverse set of skills. You may have heard the expression "5 tool player" before. The 5 tools of baseball it's referring to are: Hitting for average, Hitting for power, Fielding, Throwing, and Baserunning. Bryce is unusual in that he excels in all 5 of these categories, whereas many pros only excel at 3 or 4 but have significant weaknesses in the other categories. Last year our best batter was Jason Werth, and he's coming out of the gate strong this year as well, going 4 for 5 at the plate last night. In my opinion, the best hitters on our team are (in order): Werth, Bryce, Span, Desmond, Rendon, and Zimmerman. LaRoche had a great year in 2012 but slumped pretty badly in 2013. In terms of up and coming players, Bryce is still young and years away from his prime. Rendon just got called up last year and has filled in at 2nd base since Espinosa had hitting issues last year. Strasburg is still pretty young too, and he's arguably our best pitcher.



Attending games in DC: I haven't actually been to more than a dozen games at Nats park but here are some suggestions I have. Divisional rivalry games are usually really fun, so go see games against the Braves (our most significant rival, at the moment) and the Phillies (used to be our most significant rival but have since fallen on tough times). There are certain teams or marquee players that you'll probably want to see if you can as well. If the Tigers come to play, I'd go see them especially if Verlander or Scherzer is pitching. The Orioles are kind of rivals just because of proximity, so it'd be good to see a game against them as well. I'm a (relatively) poor student at the moment so I just go for nosebleed tickets whenever I go, but seats along the third or first base line are usually pretty desirable and consequently more expensive. I was fortunate enough to get seats behind home plate once through my father's work, and my brother and I caught two foul balls that game. So if you feel like splurging a bit you might consider that area. On the whole it's a really nice park and there aren't too many bad seats, though I recommend avoiding the right field upper decks because you may not be able to see plays in right field from your seats.

Hope this helps!

edited two words

1. Teams have a 5-6 man starting rotation, with each pitcher capable of throwing 5 or more innings. They also have a 6-7 man bullpen, which consists of guys who are more specialized and often throw harder than starting pitchers do, but who can usually only throw one inning. Relievers will enter the game when the starting pitchers have reached their physical limit for the day, or are just not pitching well.
   
   
2. There is a lot of thought put into each pitch. The manager, pitching coach, catcher, and pitcher all have a say in it. Depending on the situation (how many outs there are, how many balls and strikes, who's batting, who's up to bat next, who's on base, the score, etc.), they will all communicate what they think the best pitch to throw is. Some guys have as many as 5 different pitches they can throw, while some only have 2 or 3.
   
   
3. I've never heard anyone call them a "striker". :-). They're normally called "batters" or "hitters". The best of the best (Tony Gwynn and Ichiro come to mind) are able to adjust their stance and give themselves a good chance of putting the ball wherever they want, but mostly, batters are just trying to make solid contact and put the ball in play. And like trying to determine what pitch to throw, the situation determines where a batter tries to hit the ball, too. Some guys are good enough to intentionally hit fly balls or ground balls, or hit a ball to a particular side of the field. Most of the time, though, when you see a guy hit a ball into the gap or hit a ground ball up the middle, they were probably just trying to make contact.
   
   
   
4. Field of Dreams was my dad's and my favorite movie when I was growing up. A book about baseball records will give you a good idea of who the greatest players of all time are.

My grandparents were from Missouri and my mother was born here in St. Louis in 1960. They moved around afterwards, but after I was born in Dallas in 1982, the Cards won it all and we moved back to St. Louis. I can't remember a time when I wasn't watching the Cardinals. My first memory, I think, is of the 1985 post season. I don't have any specific memories other than Ozzie doing backflips. He was and remains my all time favorite player. The rest of the 80's were fun, we went to plenty of games at Busch II. The strike hurt me and a lot of other people's view of the sport and it was the McGwire/Sosa race that brought me back. I think it brought baseball back for a lot of people. Over the course of time, I have watched the consistent character and philosophy of what makes up the Cardinal way blossom into a model for the rest of baseball. I value honor and sportsmanship and I think that the organization exemplifies that, and so do the fans. I can't imagine rooting for another team, just like I can't imagine living in another city. I can't remember a time without them.

Edit - I just wanted to add that if you like hearing people's stories about the Cardinals, I highly recommend this book. It is exactly like our thread here, with people talking about their fandom and sharing their favorite Cardinals memories. I met the author when I bought it and he was a great guy, a true Cardinals fan's fan. He signed the book and added little specifics of what we had been talking about just from memory. Awesome dude.

Yes, the Yankees were bestowed with the nickname "The Bronx Zoo" because of the overbearing tendencies of their late owner Steinbrenner, and his tendency to bring in high-priced free agents with enormous egos, to the detriment of the team. Underachieving teams, clubhouse fights, manager firings and rehirings, and general organizational instability were common in Yankeeland for a long time. When I was a kid, being a Yankee fan was a source of ridicule.

There were also issues with the surrounding area around the stadium being a dangerous, burned-out slum, with Steinbrenner threatening to move the team to New Jersey with great regularity, even during championship seasons like 1998. In 1998 a beam collapsed in Yankee Stadium and they actually had to play a home game at Shea against the Angels; Steinbrenner went apeshit, with many people surmising this had to be the last straw and the Yankees would wind up in Jersey.

Being a winning team for the last 15 years cured a lot of that, but for a long time the Yankees were considered a running joke and a shell of their great history.

A word on their history, too: 20 of their 27 championships were won during a 40-year period, before baseball's finances were rebuilt from the ground up to allow free agency in the mid-60s. Before that, the Yankees had a stranglehold on player movement and essentially used most of the rest of baseball as a large farm system, infusing less financially stable teams with cash in exchange for promising players. This is a great book which goes into considerable detail about the highly unethical practices the Yankees undertook to build their "great history", although it only touches on the 50s, which were only the tip of the iceberg.

After the business of baseball was rectified, the Yankees won only 2 championships in the next 33 years, after 20 in the previous 40.

The Yankees' history definitely overshadowed the Mets, but New Yorkers can be split into two pretty definitive groups: bandwagon jumpers and people who are repulsed by bandwagon jumpers. For that reason, no matter what the standings, there will always be Mets fans.

Also, on the documentary, I'm sorry, I can't come up with the name of the film, I just saw it when flipping channels. I will check out the one you mentioned though.

I was curious as to what the hell I was thinking about, so I did some reading.

The NPB was founded in 1950, but the league was just the JBL (founded in 1936) expanded and reorganized under a different structure. So it's kinda like how GM was technically founded in 2009 but really has a longer history.

Looking at some book excerpts, I still don't think we can credit Americanization. For example, from Seeing Stars: Sports Celebrity, Identity, and Body Culture in Modern Japan:

"As the general lack of interest in Japan's first professional team suggests, it was amateur baseball and especially the college leagues and the annual middle-school tournaments that fueled what had become by the 1920s a national obsession with baseball. Even after the successful establishment of a professional league in the late 1930s, amateur baseball and its players remained the primary focus of baseball-related media coverage up through the end of World War II. Throughout the period, newspapers continued to play a central role in the promotion of amateur and later professional baseball, but they were not the only media outlets covering the new national sport, which was quickly surpassing sumo in terms of both coverage and popularity. The 1910s and 1920 saw the emergence of several baseball specialty magazines, as well as baseball-related films. Beginning with the 1927 radio broadcast of the Asahi middle-school tournament at Koshien Stadium, radio coverage of baseball games also became common. Baseball specialty magazines such as Yakyukai, which was first published in 1911, regularly featured photos and fan sections in addition to numerous articles on games, teams, and individual players. Mainstream journals such as Chuo koron and Bungei shunju also gave regular coverage to baseball and its stars."

And from "Taking in a Game: A History of Baseball in Asia":

"The 1931 tour had been a jaw-dropping experience for the U.S. professionals. They played before sellout crowds everywhere. Gates to the ballparks were opened at 6 am for 3 pm games, and fans were standing in line long before dawn. Promoters boasted that people traveled as far as a hundred miles (160 kilometers) to get tickets, and campfires that lit up the Japanese farmland gave credence to the claims. As [Fred] Lieb wrote afterward: 'Unless one has been in Japan, it is difficult to appreciate the tremendous enthusiasm for baseball in the island.' In all, 450,000 Japanese paid to see the barnstorming Americans play in November 1931. That was more fans in a month than seven of the sixteen Major League teams drew during the entire 1931 season. The U.S. professionals pulled more people through the gates in seventeen games in Japan than the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Browns combined drew in 155 home games that year."

This book actually has an interesting explanation for why baseball became popular in Japan but not in other places. Western team sports evolved roughly into their current forms when the British Empire was still incredibly powerful, so sports like cricket and soccer spread to wherever the British happened to be influential. Japan, however, was not as friendly with the British as they were with America, and so baseball took root.

And this book claims that baseball has been the most popular sport in Japan for over a century, and that the popularity of baseball after World War II is due to the advent of night games and television.

Given all of this - and granted it's a cursory reading - I can't conclude that the Americanization of Japan after World War II is what led to its popularity, because it was already popular before the war.
Regardless, I thank you for giving me a rathole to dive into this weekend.

And this book looks nuts.

The Science of Hitting is a fantastic book filled with anecdotes, personal stories and great advice from one of the best hitters to ever play baseball. Even if you have zero intention of ever swinging a baseball bat you should read this because it is just damn good.


On the fiction side I just finished Castro's Curveball. Pretty entertaining. Kind of an alternative history story.


My secret Santa sent me the book 1954 which I will start today. I love Bill Madden so it should be a good read.

For another perspective on the single-season all-stars lineup idea, see Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Lineups, where Neyer put together a lineup for each franchise. His analysis is more subjective than my WAR-reliant list. Here's what he had for the Expos (published in 2003):

Pos | Year | Player | Notes

--|:--|:--|:--
C | 1982 | Gary Carter | Not easy to pick just one, as he played brilliantly in four other seasons before going to Mets; 29 homers and great defense.
1B | 1982 | Al Oliver | A professional hitter's greatest season as a hitter; led NL with 204 hits, 43 doubles, 109 RBI, and .331 batting average.
2B | 1997 | Mike Lansing | Career highs with 45 doubles and 20 homers, and on May 7 he became second NL 2B to homer twice in the same inning.
SS | 2001 | Orlando Cabrera | And it's not even close. Cabrera played brilliant defense at shortstop-- uncommon for Expos-- and also slugged .428.
3B | 1987 | Tim Wallach | Early injury to Hubie Brooks forced Wallach into cleanup slot and he responded with 26 HR, NL-best 42 doubles, 123 RBI.
LF | 1985 | Tim Raines | Played in career-high 160 games, tied for 2nd in NL with .320 average, and ranked 2nd with 70 steals and 115 runs.
CF | 1981 | Andre Dawson | In short season, hit 24 HR, started All-Star Game, won his second Gold Glove, and runner-up to Schmidt in MVP vote.
RF | Pick | Vladimir Guerrero | It's just about impossible to choose between four of Guerrero's five full seasons; in 2002, he finished one homer shy of joining 40/40 club.
SP | 1997 | Pedro Martinez | After three solid seasons with Expos, broke through with 1.90 ERA to win Cy Young honors in last season with club.
RP | 1973 | Mike Marshall | Led league with 31 sves and 92 relief appearances, and also won 14 games and pitched 179 innings.

It's not a novel but every baseball fan needs this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1933405236/ref=aw_cr_item_title

I just got it and it is absolutely beautiful photography and a great encapsulation of baseball. Would be a great cheap gift for any baseball fan

Buy the updated version, goes all the way up to last year

Three Nights in August by Buzz Bissinger -- A through-the-eyes-of-Tony-La-Russa recounting of a pivotal three game series between the Cardinals and Cubs in August 2003.

The Last Boy by Jane Leavy -- Not only an exceptional (!) biography of Mickey Mantle, but also a wonderful look into what life was like at the time as both a fan and as a professional baseball player. Notable stories about the Yankees and its many players of that era, Willie Mays, Duke Snyder.

The Bullpen Gospels by Dirk Hayhurst -- A hilariously honest and at-times brutal telling of what life is like as a minor league, "non-prospect" pitcher.


Up, Up, and Away by Jonah Keri -- Because the Expos are amazing, and I love and miss them.

I enjoy reading The Science of Hitting, I read it before every season and have book marks that I refer to throughout periods of the season if I am struggling. Its more of a mental thing, but helps with relaxation at the plate and a few mechanics.

I also have read The Mental Keys to Hitting in the past, another good one.

Another thing you can do is watch video of yourself, I like to compare swings with good contact/bad contact. I generally watch one part of the body to see if i did something different.

I once rented a book from the library a few years back which was a pretty good summation of Nationals history all the way up to modern day. What Johnson did on some of those postseason teams was amazing.

https://www.amazon.com/You-Gotta-Have-Heart-Washington/dp/1589798430/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=history+of+washington+nationals+baseball&qid=1570974442&sr=8-3

This is the book right here. Good read.

The book provides interesting tidbits such as how Teddy never really did like baseball which was surmised as the reason why Teddy didn't finish the race first all those years.

So this is not the answer you are looking for just a heads up.

If I was just breaking into the sport and wanting to dive deep I would buy this book: http://www.amazon.com/Big-Data-Baseball-Miracles-20-Year/dp/1250063507

It's not a teaching type of book but it talks about the ins and outs of how Pittsburgh took the use of saber metrics to a entirely new level. It dives into the statistics and not only what they saw In them but how they applied them and the results of it. It's all written in narrative form so it's more of a story than a tutorial.

I personally think it is the best recipe for learning saber metrics from a global point of view and it can be entertaining enough to get the foundation you'd need to jump in yourself.

It also shows you just how much further these franchises are compared to the every day fans with their databases which I was surprised with.

Wound up getting The Treasures of Major League Baseball, which I hadn't heard of before. A nice compendium of some historical information and replicas of some memorabilia of things like the scorecard of the game the Giants won the 1951 pennant, Jackie Robinson's retirement letter and Louisville Slugger's ledger for all the custom bats Roberto Clemente ordered.

I remember reading about this topic in Baseball Between the Numbers (by the Baseball Prospectus crew) around 5 years ago.

The game of baseball is so obsessed with stats, that the closer (often the best reliever) is ALWAYS kept until the end of the game so they can get the save.

Think about how many middle-of-the-road relievers have blown a game in the 5th or 6th inning (as an O's fan, I've seen a lot of this). Those tight situations are what a closer is made for, not to record whatever 3 outs happen to come up in the 9th.

Yep. But he and Armando Galarraga handled it extremely well. I'm reading their book Nobody's Perfect. Really interesting, I recommend.

If I can recommend a good baseball read, it would be The Glory of their Times. It got me through blizzard season last year.

Honestly, some of those consequences were beautiful. The way both Joyce and Galarraga reacted in response was just total class, up and down. They even wrote a book together.

I'm not saying it happens often, but even poor hitters can have years that appear to be "breakout years" that are in fact just statistical flukes. Baseball Between the Numbers has a chapter that talks about the plain statistical variation that is likely to happen in any season.

Like I said, it's likely in a given year that a single player will post 50+ points on his average higher than his actual talent level, and if he's already a good player, it's enough to propel him to MVP status.

He even got a book deal out of it. I know in the player polls he is constantly at the top of the list of the best umpires in the game.

There is a really nice piece about him in the book "Ahead of the Curve: Inside the Baseball Revolution" by Brian Kenny.

Highly recommend it

If you want to learn about baseball history from a statistics viewpoint, the Numbers Game is really great.

'The glory of their times.' Unbelievable oral history of some late 19th century and early 20th century players.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Glory-Their-Times-Baseball/dp/0688112730

The Code: Baseball's Unwritten Rules and Its Ignore-at-Your-Own-Risk Code of Conduct

Has interviews and insights from current and former players, managers, and umpires. A great read and makes you look at parts of the game from a different perspective.

The Code is a great read. Offers insight from former players.

It's a book, it's for the Pirates what The Extra 2% is for the Rays or Moneyball for the A's.

Here's one of the relevant quotes:

> Teams typically employ their fastest, rangiest outfielder in center field, which most commonly has the greatest amount of ground to cover. But left field at PNC Park was actually larger than center. Hurdle knew that he essentially needed another center fielder to play left field. You could mask an infielder's limitations by aligning him more smartly via shifts, but even with data-based outfield alignment you couldn't hide lack of speed in the outfield or a player who ran poor routes to intercept fly balls and line drives. The Pirates needed an elite athlete to cover left field, and Hurdle needed someone to find him that player. That someone was Rene Gayo, who more than anyone else helped the Pirates meet their geographical challenges and take advantage of some of the game's other undervalued skills: speed and athleticism.

It then goes into detail on Gayo, scouting in the Dominican, and eventually, finding Marte and making him that guy.

Actually that data was already available from the Lahman database. our dirty secret is that we don't do much of the research that goes into figuring out the numbers. I like to say we put a friendly face on the numbers.

To find out where the numbers came from I recommend Alan Schwarz book, "The Numbers Game" http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F8HC9WM/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1
The real heroes are Pete Palmer, Retrosheet, David Neft and many many others.

I did the entire site all by myself for 15 years. Hans Van Slooten took over last spring and I was kicked upstairs. A lot of the ideas are from Bill James, Pete Palmer, Tango Tiger and others, but I implemented them all.

That kind of stuff happened all the time with the Kansas City A's and the Yankees back in the 1950's. One of the Yankee owners arranged for his friend to buy the Philadelphia A's and move them to KC. That's how Roger Maris ended up in New York.

From 1953-1961 the two teams traded 76 players back and forth: http://www.wcnet.org/~dlfleitz/kca.htm

Also, here's a book on that: http://www.amazon.com/Kansas-City-Wrong-Half-Yankees/dp/0977743659

The Treasures of Major League Baseball: It's a book and it also has reproduced baseball memorabilia throughout the years.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Treasures-Major-League-Baseball/dp/1844423239

Get this. I got a lot of cool stuff out of here and all you need is frames. https://www.amazon.com/Treasures-Major-League-Baseball/dp/1844423239

You Gotta Have Heart is a good history of baseball in D.C., but it only goes through the 2012 season. Could probably use an update!

>he's alright in my book.

And in his book.

Worth a look if you haven't read it already: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Data-Baseball-Miracles-20-Year/dp/1250063507

I disagree. Funny you should mention Ted Williams...

http://www.amazon.com/The-Science-Hitting-Ted-Williams/dp/0671621033

Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager https://www.amazon.com/dp/0618710531/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_sjzBDbZFEQV2B

It's on amazon.
If you have any questions, I will send them to him and post reply here.

https://www.amazon.com/Science-Hitting-Ted-Williams/dp/0671621033/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495826684&sr=8-1&keywords=the+science+of+hitting

A book written about this in Hockey.

And one for Baseball.

Probably Ahead of the Curve.

cough

I think it depends. It's discussed a bit in The Code: Baseball's Unwritten Rules and Its Ignore-at-Your-Own-Risk Code of Conduct, but mostly in the context of pitchers, when called upon to do so, having a difficult time hitting a batter on purpose.