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John Dewan's Stat of the Week
The Mariner and the Tiger
December 18, 2009 I recently had a chance to sit down with The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010 and was completely captivated by the quality writing and analysis it contains. I cannot recommend a book more highly than this year’s THT annual. I was honored to contribute a piece on two interesting defensive developments from the [...]
Do #1 starters face tougher opposing starters?
December 08, 2009 Teams traditionally line up their ace starters to pitch on Opening Day in order to get the season started off right. If team schedules aligned perfectly, we’d see the aces square off against each other every fifth day; but injuries, off days, trades, and general ineffectiveness often jumble up the rotation and fans [...]
Who are baseball’s best and worst baserunners?
November 25, 2009 In The Bill James Handbook 2010 we analyze a player’s baserunning ability. For each player, we measure his ability to move first to third, second to home, and first to home in addition to the number of outs he records on the bases and how he fares in double plays. While this [...]
Did Adam Jones and Torii Hunter deserve Gold Gloves?
November 20, 2009 Last week the Gold Gloves awards came out and American League center fielders Adam Jones and Torii Hunter were both honored. Hunter won his eighth Gold Glove and Jones won his first. However, neither did well in the Fielding Bible Awards. Hunter finished ninth in the voting among all MLB center fielders. [...]
Who are the Fielding Bible Award winners for 2009?
November 02, 2009 THE 2009 FIELDING BIBLE AWARDS have been officially announced after one of the closest races in the history of the award centered around the keystone sack. Second basemen Aaron Hill, Dustin Pedroia and Chase Utley finished with 76, 76 and 73 points respectively, forcing a tie-breaking procedure that awarded Hill his second [...]
Predicting the Unpredictable No-Hitter
October 21, 2009 A few years ago, Bill James designed a system to predict the likelihood of a particular pitcher throwing a no-hitter at some point, taking into account his career strikeout and double-play rates. In The Bill James Handbook 2009, we listed the ten pitchers most likely to achieve this rare feat during their career, [...]
Which players have performed the best in the postseason?
October 06, 2009 Performing well during the regular season is one thing, but producing in October wins championships. As we await the Twins-Tigers playoff and the Division Series, let's take a look at the best playoff performers among active players. Most Productive Hitters by On-Base Plus Slugging (minimum 50 Plate Appearances) [...]
Who are the MVP leaders based on Total Runs?
September 28, 2009 Teams are clinching playoff spots almost daily now that we're in the last week of the season, but has anyone sewn up the MVP award? As we did last week for the Rookie of the Year candidates, let's use the Total Runs metric first introduced in The Fielding Bible—Volume II to see who [...]
Who are the Rookie of the Year leaders based on Total Runs?
September 17, 2009 With just over two weeks left in the 2009 season, let's take a look at the top rookie hitters in all of baseball, using the version of Runs Created used in The Fielding Bible—Volume II: 2009 Top Rookie Hitters, MLB Player Runs Created [...]
Catcher Pickoff Leaders
September 11, 2009 Over the last several seasons, no one compares. Yadier Molina has nabbed more baserunners who fell asleep on the bases than any other catcher by a wide margin. Here are the leaders in catcher pickoffs since 2003: Most Catcher Pickoffs (Since 2003) Player Pickoffs [...]