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John Dewan's Stat of the Week
How significant is the impact of run support on win-loss records?
December 15, 2006 It’s straight-forward that a pitcher’s win-loss record depends on his own performance. How many hits and walks he allows, home runs allowed, number of strikeouts, all come into play. However, while it’s also fairly well known that the offense provided by his teammates matters as well, the extent of it is not well [...]
Which teams run the bases best?
December 06, 2006 In the newest edition of The Bill James Handbook, Bill James developed a new system for evaluating baserunning. It’s a plus/minus system that, in essence, tells you how many extra bases (above expected) each player has gained. For example, on average, baserunners go from first to third on a single 28% of [...]
What does the Win Share system say about this year's Hall of Fame nominees?
January 10, 2007 The Hall of Fame ballot listed 32 players this year. One way to examine this list is to use a tool Bill James created in his 2002 book of the same name, Win Shares. Bill examines pitching, hitting and defensive contributions as shares of a win (actually a third of a win). His [...]
Where should your best hitters bat?
November 22, 2006 Lineup construction is one of the most scrutinized areas in baseball. Who should bat leadoff? Who's in the cleanup spot? However, when it comes down to it, several people (including me) have done studies that have shown that lineup construction is, for the most part, immaterial. As long as you generally have your [...]
Who are the projected batting and pitching leaders for 2007?
November 09, 2006 Based on hitting and pitching projections from The Bill James Handbook 2007, here are 2007’s projected year-end leaderboards: Batting Average American League National League 1. Joe Mauer .331 1. Albert Pujols .333 [...]
What is preventing Derrek Lee from leading all the Triple Crown categories at the All-Star break?
July 14, 2005 HR and RBI normally go hand-in-hand, but not batting average (BA). One reason no one has won the Triple Crown since 1967 is guys with good BA were not HR hitters (Rod Carew, Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, George Brett, Pete Rose, Bill Madlock, and Willie McGee). This makes Derrek Lee's 2005 season [...]
Has this ever happened before?
September 06, 2007 Click here to listen to John Dewan on WSCR Chicago In a game against the Kansas City Royals a couple of weeks ago (August 21, 2007), Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen "accomplished" something that appears to have never been done before. Starting with the last batter in the seventh inning and [...]
What are they feeding Joel Zumaya?
October 27, 2006 Baseball Info Solutions has been tracking pitch velocity over the last five years, recording pitch speed on about 75% of over 3.5 million pitches thrown since the start of the 2002 season. Out of those 3.5 million pitches, less than 1,000 have been recorded at speeds of 100 miles per hour or better. [...]
Which pitchers are getting support from their offense this year?
August 22, 2007 The second-most important factor for a starting pitcher's win-loss record is run support. His own effectiveness is most important, of course, but how many runs his teams scores for him is a close second. Historically, this has been an overlooked statistic. Win totals count heavily in Cy Young Award voting, even [...]
Who are the 2007 defensive All-Stars (thus far?)
July 18, 2007 In The Fielding Bible I introduced a new way to quantify defensive contributions called the Plus/Minus System. The book covered every 2005 defensive player other than pitchers and catchers using Plus/Minus and a variety of other defensive metrics. The Bill James Handbook 2007 published the Plus/Minus leaderboards for the 2006 season [...]