I mentioned to Anthony recently that I had heard of a website, FanGraphs.com, that was supposedly on the cutting edge of statistical analysis. I gave the website a quick look over and was intrigued. However, the website can be overwhelming, even to someone familiar with Professor Beane’s teachings.
This afternoon I decided I would take sometime to figure out what FanGraphs.com was all about. I have to say I was thoroughly impressed with what the website has to offer. As the post title implies I could, and did, spend days/hours/weeks absorbing everything FanGraphs has to offer.
So what’s the big deal with Fan Graphs? (This might read like an advertisement but trust me I’m just an excited baseball stat nerd)
-Fan Graphs tracks Plate Discipline like never before. Type in any players name and you can find out how often they swing at pitches inside or outside the strike zone, how often they swing at the first pitch and much much more.
-Win Shares are awesome. A Win Share is a players runs above average (where an average player produced 20 runs per 600 plate appearances) + their defensive runs above average + replacement value + an adjustment for the position they play. For example take Vernon Wells. Wells, having a terrible year, is actually worse than a replacement level player. Wells is -3.2 runs below average, his defense is a dismal -21.3 runs below average. A replacement player would score 13.2 runs. Wells plays center field so his positional adjustment would be 1.3. So: -3.2 + -21.3 + 13.2 + 1.3 = -10.1. Meaning by starting Wells everyday over a replacement level player the Blue Jays will lose 10.1 runs over the course of the season. Since every 10 runs = 1 win, Wells actually will cost the Blue Jays 1 game this season.
There’s so much to find at Fan Graphs that it’s a must read for any baseball stat nerd, like myself. It’s hard to say the Fan Graphs hasn’t emerged as the leader in statistical analysis even trumping Baseball Prospectus (in fact in Baseball Prospectus’s most recent article they actually use stats from Fan Graphs.)
Notre Dame and Army will play the first football game at the new Yankee Stadium next year, rekindling a tradition that took off after Knute Rockne’s “Win one for the Gipper” speech more than 80 years ago.
The teams will meet in 2010, across the street from where they played more than 20 times, a person familiar with the arrangement told The Associated Press on Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the official announcement is next week.
Finally, I’ll be able to feel at home at Yankee Stadium….I think they should take all the Yankee banners down in and around the stadium and replace them with Notre Dame greats. Instead of Ruth, how about Knute? Joe DiMaggio who? Put a picture of the four horseman up there.
I’m sure this will be overheard on the hot dog line:
Son: “Hey dad, who’s that in the giant picture? Is that Derek Jeter?
Dad: (chuckles) ” No, no son. That’s the great Brady Quinn. Here, I’ll buy you a coke and tell you about him.
Ahh, fathers and sons. Yankee Stadium. and Notre Dame football.
There are some interesting story lines in the British Open. Tiger Woods, however, isn’t one of them. The worlds greatest is going home in a major for the first time since 2006.
From Yahoo!
…Woods won’t be around to see how it all turns out. He took two double bogeys on the back side, limped off with a 4-over 74 and missed the cut in a major for only the second time in his professional career….
…Woods had missed only one cut in a major since turning pro, and that was at the 2006 U.S. Open shortly after the death of his father, Earl. He tried to rally, making birdies on two of the last three holes, but wound up one stroke shy of the cut line
Tiger had this to say:
I hit some bad tee shots, a couple of bad iron shots, didn’t get it up and down,” Woods said. “I kept making mistake after mistake.”
Adam “Pac-Man” Jones has been out of the limelight since he was not re-signed by the Dallas Cowboys awhile back. Well, seeing how ESPN hasn’t mentioned him in a while, they decided that now was a good time to release some amateur video of that fateful night in Vegas.
Listen, This story has been told to death, and I’m certainly not trying to make light of whatever happened. However, it’s not like this is video of the actual crime taking place. If this could be used in court, then that would another story. Instead, we get to see how absurd Pac-Man’s existence is.
First, he’s got a 40,000 dollars in 100s. Then, he changed it 40,000 dollars in singles. That’s 40,000 individual dollar bills. Include a little bit of Nelly and Jermaine Dupree being a disgusting human being, and you have an entertaining video of absolutely no consequence.
During last year’s draft process, I was a huge proponent of Graham Harrell from Texas Tech. People kept pointing out that he was too short, and a system quarterback, but I have maintained that Drew Brees is the league’s best QB at 5′9. I pointed out that all the other former Red Raiders QBs weren’t nearly as talented as Graham.
Today, I might be eating my words. ESPN says:
Graham Harrell is headed to the CFL.
The record-setting Texas Tech quarterback signed with the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Thursday.
Harrell is the NCAA Division I career leader in touchdown passes but wasn’t drafted by the NFL. His workout with the Cleveland Browns did not result in a contract.
Harrell had to fight the perception that his numbers were the product of Texas Tech’s offensive system and he didn’t have the arm strength to succeed in the NFL.
It’s not like there haven’t been players that have returned from the great white north. However, it certainly makes the transition to the NFL more difficult when you aren’t playing in the NFL.
The last time the viewing public saw Cote he was on his back in the middle of the octagon cursing his knee. He blew it up in the middle of his title fight with Anderson Silva and hasn’t been able to get back in the ring. Now, MMA Weekly has an interview with him that sheds some light on where he thinks he’s headed.
MMAWeekly: You did say prior to UFC 100 that you’d like to face Michael Bisping if he defeated Dan Henderson. That didn’t happen—what did you think about Bisping’s performance?
Cote: I think he had a stupid game plan. I was there; I did the French pay per view so I was cageside. He was always turning into his right hand, and Dan Henderson made his career with his overhand right. So it was just a question of time until Bisping got caught. I found that a little bit strange. And Bisping looked very nervous; he looked tight. So I wasn’t surprised at all. After the first round, I said in the second round it will be done.
MMAWeekly: Do you still want to face him?
Cote: Yeah, I want everybody. I don’t care. But I don’t think Bisping needs a fighter like me to fight right now. Right now, I want a big fight that’s going to put me on top of the middleweight division.
Ohhhh, Those are some awful tough words from the French Canadian. I think that he and Bisping would actually make one hell of a fight. They both like to stand and strike, and both of them have kickboxing backgrounds. It would be a three round war in my opinion.
I hope the best for Patrick. According to him, he’ll know soon when he will be able to fight again. He’s aiming for UFC 104 in LA.
July 17, 2009, at 7:59 pm
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