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John Dewan's Stat of the Week
Whose batting slot is the best in baseball thus far?
April 08, 2008 Well, it certainly can't be the number nine slot for any National League team, now can it? Well, actually, it is. Or almost. The number nine slot for the Milwaukee Brewers, normally a slot reserved for the pitcher to hit, is one of the best in baseball this season. Thus far this [...]
Who are this year's possible breakout players based on spring training numbers?
March 26, 2008 Before I do my Stat of the Week™, let me suggest something. Watch 60 Minutes this Sunday night (March 30). Morley Safer and the 60 Minutes crew interviewed Bill James over the course of three days at spring training a couple of weeks ago, and the segment is airing this Sunday. I think [...]
Who were baseball's best bunters in 2007?
March 20, 2008 Each year we award baseball's best bunter with the Flat Bat Award. It's another one of those cyberspace awards—no real trophy or anything. Nevertheless, it does recognize a skill that seems to have become a lost art. First, we look at bunters who are most prolific and most effective at sacrificing for [...]
Who are the projected batting and pitching leaders for 2008?
March 12, 2008 Based on hitting and pitching projections from The Bill James Handbook: Projections Update 2008, here are 2008’s projected year-end leaderboards: Batting Average American League National League Miguel Cabrera .335 Albert Pujols .331 [...]
Who would you rather have—Hunter, Rowand or Swisher?
March 06, 2008 During this past offseason, the Chicago White Sox were strongly pursuing free agent center fielders Torii Hunter and Aaron Rowand. They started with Hunter, and couldn't sign him. They then tried for Rowand and that didn't work either. They had to "settle" for Nick Swisher by dealing for him from Oakland. However, when [...]
A Zone of His Own?
February 21, 2008 About one-half of the pitches thrown in the major leagues are in the strike zone; a little more than half for some hitters, a little less than half for others. With the exception of one hitter, the "in the zone percentage" for every major league hitter seeing 500 or more pitches was between [...]
Who will win Super Bowl XLII?
January 30, 2008 The system that I’ve used to predict the Super Bowl winner has worked in 14 of the last 17 years. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for my Bears last year (Who will win Super Bowl XLI?), but I’m not giving up on it. It involves 12 predictors; based on regular season stats, [...]
Does velocity count in the playoffs?
October 04, 2006 Does velocity count in the playoffs? John Dewan's Stat of the Week™ October 4, 2006 In a recent Stat of the Week, we compared fastball velocity and ERA and found there was a strong correlation. Pitchers who throw harder (based on their average fastball) perform better. Is [...]
Which starting pitchers have turned their season around most dramatically?
September 22, 2006 Which starting pitchers have turned their season around most dramatically? John Dewan's Stat of the Week™ September 22, 2006 We all know a pitcher can have one great game or one blowout from time to time. However, pitching well over the course of five consecutive games started [...]
Was the 2004 American League All-Star team selected well by the fans?
December 01, 2004 OPS is an acronym for On-base Plus Slugging. Two of the best individual statistics for measuring offensive performance are on-base percentage and slugging average. On-base percentage measures how often a player gets on base. Slugging average measures how often a hitter turns his hits into extra bases. Each of these two statistics taken [...]