Best products from r/Torontobluejays

First off, sorry for the very tardy reply.

Bill James created the formula for comparing players. To quote the product description from its Amazon.com page, "Win Shares, a revolutionary system that allows for player evaluation across positions, teams and eras, measures the total sum of player contributions in one groundbreaking number. James' latest advancement in the world of statistical analysis is the next big stepping-stone in the "greatest players of all-time" debate."

According to what I've been told a good portion of the 729 pages of the book is the formula. (Yikes!)


As I mentioned in my previous post, I tried to reverse engineered the formula, as actual Win Shares are hard to find online. The Hardball Times have the stats from 2004 to 2008, here.


My formula proved to be pretty accurate compared to the real Win Shares, (after checking, better than my original post let on. Correlations of 0.964454241 for batting and 0.975917803 for pitching).

As well, when comparing batters with pitchers I made a simple adjustment where a score of 1 represents an average batter or pitcher. (WinShares+)


You asked about Blue Jays, here are my WinShares+ for our 2011 Blue Jays:

Jose Bautista 4.452374202
Yunel Escobar 2.216505966
Adam Lind 1.886325449
Ricky Romero 1.256942346
Eric Thames 0.962502621
Carlos Villanueva 0.91155779
Brandon Morrow 0.771125554
Jose Molina 0.73926944
Edwin Encarnacion 0.733394727
Corey Patterson 0.724255056
J.P. Arencibia 0.723165948
Rajai Davis 0.620873494
Juan Rivera 0.596676048
Travis Snider 0.592509269
Jason Frasor 0.493483763
Jon Rauch 0.475365161
Marc Rzepczynski 0.449524589
Aaron Hill 0.412014019
Casey Janssen 0.388963643
Luis Perez 0.324981719
Mike McCoy 0.316367653
Brett Cecil 0.30566225
Octavio Dotel 0.292764748
Jesse Litsch 0.275750902
Jo-Jo Reyes 0.247845682
Shawn Camp 0.209237456
Kyle Drabek 0.201235745
Frank Francisco 0.182529487
John McDonald 0.157193379
David Cooper 0.056151869
Zach Stewart 0.052773517
Jayson Nix 0.034588224
Mike McCoy (P) -0.003304916
Scott Richmond -0.021442667
David Purcey -0.041792814
Chris Woodward -0.045259959


Edited: Formatting.

u/sigbox here is a reply for now from my partner:

---

Win Probability Added (WPA)

We will be publishing a full article comparing the WPA statistic with the RunPlusMinus RPM statistic.

Wikipedia defines WPA as a sport statistic which attempts to measure a player's contribution to a win by figuring out the factor by which each specific play made by that player has altered the outcome of a game. Fangraphs gives a good description of the WPA statistic here and contains references to related articles. As well, Keith Law’s book “Smart Baseball” devotes a whole chapter to WPA.

The RPM statistic measures the contribution of every player’s involvement in every play relative to the historical average contribution of a player in the same role in that game situation. The most succinct way of comparing WPA and RPM is to show the differences when considering their respective adherence to the 5 “CRAZI” principles described in the post “The Best Baseball Statistic”. These are summarized in the table below. The forthcoming article will provide much more detail on each principle.

|Principle|RPM|WPA|
|:-|:-|:-|
|Comprehensive|Yes (all players & events)|No|
|Run-Based|Yes|No (win based)|
|Additive|Yes (player & team)|Yes* (player only)|
|Zero-Sum|Yes|No (average is zero)|
|Independent|Yes|Yes|

The applications of RPM are more extensive than those of WPA. Specifically, RPM results can be used to: assist in-game decision making, predict game winners with more than 50% accuracy, forecast team standings, suggest fair salaries, rank all players and teams on both total and component (batting, running, pitching, fielding) performance.

---

I hope that helps!

- Ivan

In Bill James' New Historical Baseball Abstract, he talks about being part of George Bell's arbitration team one off-season. One of the things he did was compile a list of all the errors that George Bell made the previous season and show that NONE of them actually accounted for a run in a game the Jays lost that year.

This could very well be one of them.

Side note: If you haven't had a chance to read that book, I HIGHLY recommend it. It's VERY out of date now (it came out in 2001), and his "Win Shares" method of determine player value has been picked apart (and replaced by WAR), but it is probably the single best book ever written for learning about the history of baseball and the players. He has entries for the top 100 players at each position, and lengthy stories/explanations about every decade of baseball. One of my favourite from the 1980s section:

> Most Aggressive Baserunner: Alfredo Griffin

> One thing I have always wanted to do was to document Alfredo's baserunning exploits. He really was phenomenal. I personally saw him score from second on a ground ball to second, scoring the lead run in the top of the ninth. I have heard about Alfredo doing things like going first-to-third on infield outs, moving second to third on a pop up to short, scoring on a pop out to the catcher, and taking second after grounding into a forceout. Alfredo figured that if you left the base ahead of him unguarded, it was his. Somebody ought to make a documented list of those basepath heroics, with dates and specifics, before it gets away from us.

To keep cool, this is your best friend:
Frogg Togg Chilly Pad

Though I don't know where to get them other than Amazon in Canada.

No problem. Happy to help someone who is trying to help.

Also, not sure what age range we're talking, but this was my absolute favourite book as a child.

It's not Jays specific, but it's great. $4 used off amazon.

The dynamics were covered in the book 'Great Expectations" by Shi Davidi

https://www.amazon.ca/Great-Expectations-Lost-Toronto-Season/dp/1770411879

AA had to get approval on every deal, it was covered in there

Something I read in this book that I got my dad a couple years ago is kinda sad:

"Unfortunately, Buck Martinez was never the same. He attempted a comeback in 1986 but struggled through a .181 average with just a pair of homers and 12 RBIs in 160 at-bats. As the 1986 season came to a close, the Blue Jays were faced with the rough task of cutting ties with a man who played all out for the team and risked his life and limb (or at least limb) to help the team win its first pennant."

To end on a high note, here's the play with alternate commentary.

Link? I don't see that at all.

KitchenAid KSM75SL Tilt-Head Stand Mixer, Silver
, $269

KitchenAid KSM95IC Ultra Power Series 4.5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer, Ice Blue
$248.98

KitchenAid Ultra Power Series 4.5-Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer with Bonus Flex Edge Beater $298.98

As a book I would recommend Shawn Greens book. Touches on some blue jay stuff, and it's a quick and easy read.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Way-Baseball-Finding-Stillness/dp/B005GNKM72

dog and bonus cat

If you have an inkjet printer, just get vinyl sheets and do it yourself. Bonus, you can do it every year when his number changes.

Could it be this stuff you saw? A reusable, roll-on pine tar stick used to improve grip?

Buck also wrote a book on the '85 Jays that, while it has some repetition in Changeup, is also a good quick read.

https://www.amazon.ca/worst-first-Toronto-Blue-Jays/dp/088902913X

i find even with MLB subscription, the wifi in the SkyDome is too spotty to use for streaming and why use the data when you can just pick up a small portable radio

listening to the actual AM broadcast has no delay whatsoever.. and if you are far in the outfield, you can hear the crack of the bat on the radio before you hear it in the park - its pretty neat

BabyBanz are worth the price - around $30 on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.ca/Baby-Banz-Hearing-Protector-Earmuffs/dp/B002SW3EZ6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1502900686&sr=8-2&keywords=baby+banz

Like I said... Based on last years numbers. I wouldn't mind that swap you mentioned, but this is almost exactly by "The Book"

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Book-Playing-Percentages-Baseball/dp/1597971294

http://www.amazon.ca/Full-Count-Four-Decades-Baseball/dp/0345812530

There's the Amazon linkage.

It's on Amazon, but it's more expensive there. Still, if you're desperate!

Here's another.

100 Things Blue Jays Fans Should do/know before they die

http://www.amazon.ca/Things-Blue-Jays-Should-Before/dp/1600787746