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John Dewan's Stat of the Week
Changes in Qualifications for Outfield Gold Gloves
September 23, 2011 According to an article written Wednesday by Evan Brunell for CBS Sports, Rawlings has altered the criteria of eligibility for the Gold Glove Awards. The biggest change is for outfielders. Instead of voters being allowed to vote for three outfielders in each league regardless of position, they will now be required to vote for [...]
Who are the Fielding Bible Award/ Gold Glove Contenders? (Part II)
September 21, 2011 Last week we looked at the top contenders for post-season defensive awards among catchers and infielders. This week let’s take a look at outfielders and pitchers. Again, there are many considerations that go into who I put on my Fielding Bible Award ballot, but one of the important considerations [...]
Who are the Fielding Bible Award/ Gold Glove Contenders? (Part I)
September 16, 2011 With two weeks left in the 2011 regular season, let’s look at who the leading contenders are for post-season defensive awards. As one of the ten panelists voting for The Fielding Bible Awards I’d like to give you a preview of some of the considerations I put into my [...]
Pitch Repertoire
September 09, 2011 Justin Verlander is having a tremendous season. On Wednesday, he won his MLB best 22nd game, and the Tigers ace also leads all pitchers in innings pitched (229.0), strikeouts (232), and is the American League leader in ERA (2.44). With Verlander pitching so well, one might wonder what types and [...]
Who are the MVP Candidates?
August 30, 2011 With the season winding down, it’s time to start evaluating baseball’s MVP candidates. Let’s use Total Runs as a guideline. Total Runs was introduced in my book, The Fielding Bible–Volume II, and attempts to paint as complete a statistical picture of a player’s ability as possible. It produces one number that [...]
First Baseman Scoops
August 22, 2011 Time and time again, announcers refer to a first baseman's ability to save errant throws by scooping them out of the dirt, but the baseball community has had no way of objectively confirming commentators' observations. Bill James devised an answer to this problem and related questions with the Good Fielding Plays and Defensive Misplays [...]
Who are the Top Baserunning Teams?
August 12, 2011 One of the more popular sections in the annual Bill James Handbook is the analysis of baserunning. The Baserunning section reports how often teams go first to third, second to home, how often players are thrown out on the bases, among other data. We evaluate a team’s baserunning prowess in two parts: Baserunning [...]
Catchers Blocking the Ball in the Dirt
July 22, 2011 In the fifth inning of last Friday's game against the Blue Jays, Yankees broadcaster Ken Singleton asked aloud, "Does somebody keep track of how many times a catcher blocks a ball in the dirt to keep the runners from advancing?" Commentator David Cone responded, "I'm sure someone does somewhere. [...]
The Dreaded Leadoff Walk
July 13, 2011 How often does the dreaded leadoff walk score? Hawk Harrelson and Steve Stone are the announcers for the White Sox television broadcasts here in Chicago. They are excellent together. One of my favorite moments happens regularly. It's Hawk lamenting, "Oh boy...it's the dreaded leadoff walk." How dreaded is the leadoff walk? [...]
The Surging Yankees
July 06, 2011 The New York Yankees have won 18 of their last 24 to retake first place in baseball's toughest division, the American League East. Their offense has been fairly consistent, as their league-leading offense has scored 5.4 runs per game since June 1 compared to 5.3 runs per game before that. The combination of pitching [...]