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John Dewan's Stat of the Week
Who are the best young hitters in baseball?
February 09, 2006 To answer this question, here's one simple way that we use in the Bill James Handbook. We take all players who were both under age 25 and full-time players in 2005. To determine full-time status we use batting title qualifiers (502 plate appearances for the season). Add their on-base percentage and slugging percentage to [...]
Who has the best infield defense?
January 27, 2006 Last week we did a preview on outfielders from our new book about defense in baseball, The Fielding Bible. Let's do infield this week. The new Plus/Minus System to evaluate defense has a plus/minus number associated with each player to indicate how many plays he made above or below the number of plays an [...]
Who had the best outfield defense last year?
January 18, 2006 Our new book about defense in baseball, The Fielding Bible, will be out next month, but here's a preview. A new system to evaluate defense has a plus/minus number associated with each player to indicate how many plays he made above or below the number of plays an average fielder would be expected [...]
Who threw the most 100+ MPH pitches?
January 06, 2006 One guy stood well above the rest when it came to pitches thrown 100 miles per hour or better in 2005. Daniel Cabrera of the Baltimore Orioles threw twice as many 100+ MPH pitches (37) as the number two guy, Philadelphia's Billy Wagner (18). Honorable mention goes to Bobby Jenks with 10 blazers [...]
What excuses do the Bears (and me) have for losing the Super Bowl?
February 07, 2007 OK -- I have no excuses. My prediction system didn't work in the game that I, as a Bears fan, wanted most. I'd happily trade in my 14 correct predictions in the last (now) 17 years for one this past Sunday. However, I will say that if any other team was in the [...]
How many teams have won 90 games but allowed more runs than they scored?
October 02, 2007 The 2007 Arizona Diamondbacks became just the third team in Major League Baseball history to win 90 games and be outscored during the regular season. Here are all three teams: 1984 New York Mets allowed 24 more runs than they scored 1997 San Francisco Giants [...]
Should Derek Jeter win his fourth consecutive Gold Glove?
September 27, 2007 Short answer: Are you kidding me? Fact: Derek Jeter had the fourth worst plus/minus figure at shortstop in 2004 at -16. Fact: Derek Jeter had the second worst plus/minus figure at shortstop in 2005 at -34. Fact: Derek Jeter had the second worst plus/minus figure at shortstop in 2006 at [...]
What's Corey Patterson's place in Cub history?
September 29, 2005 During his first three years with the Cubs, outfielder and solid prospect Corey Patterson was being compared to another prospect the Cubs once had, Hall-of-Fame outfielder Lou Brock. Here are their statistics through age 24. (Interestingly, both players were born in September, within seven calendar days, so their ages during the comparable seasons [...]
Who will win the NFL Conference Championships?
January 17, 2007 There's a system that I've been using for the past 16 years that has correctly predicted the Super Bowl winner 14 times. It involves 12 predictors that each succesfully predict the Super Bowl winner roughly 55 to 70 percent of the time, but taken together they work even better. I explained the system [...]
How did each team’s catchers bat in 2006?
December 21, 2006 A favorite offseason activity for a GM might be to find the weakest point of their team and attempt to strengthen it. Replacing a good player with a good player doesn’t move the team forward. Analyzing a team’s weak spots and turning them around can make their offseason. Over the past weekend, [...]