I’ve dedicated a few past articles to explaining basic sabermetric concepts like run expectancy, linear weights, FIP and BABIP.  Halfway through the second week of the season, there are still some very strange stats out there which will regress to more reasonable levels over the course of the next few weeks. Stats like weighted on base… Continue reading Early Season Returns Make Sabermetrics Look Crazy

Baseball has embraced data and analytics in its decision making, This approach is often referred to as Moneyball, largely in reference to what Billy Beane was doing with the 2002 Oakland Athletics. Beane’s Moneyball was not exactly the core of much of his personnel decision-making process. He chose to look at the margins of the game… Continue reading Analytics and Roster Construction: The Case of the Phillies and the Indians

A long winter of change has finally come to an end and many teams look entirely unrecognizable from last September. Perhaps the most talked about teams during the offseason have been the San Diego Padres, Chicago White Sox, and the Seattle Mariners. The Marlins and Padres undertook almost complete roster overhauls. The Mariners and the White Sox did enough… Continue reading Mariners, White Sox, Padres Take Different Paths to Contending Now

In the first installment, we discussed two core sabermetric principles that are key to looking at the game differently Run Expectancy and Linear Weights. RE24 and linear weights are not stats in themselves, but they are the building blocks to a lot of what sabermetric thought entails. The idea that the game of baseball can be… Continue reading Sabermetrics 101: Understanding FIP and BABIP

Much like doing their math homework or learning a foreign language, a lot of people can find that understanding and getting into sabermetrics is a daunting prospect.  It’s full of acronyms, long complicated words, deep concepts, and even a little bit of statistical theory.  Learning sabermetrics and advanced analytics doesn’t have to be that hard. Ultimately,… Continue reading Sabermetrics 101: Understanding Context and Value

Sabermetrics often get a bad rap among baseball fans and the media. The population at large seems to think that sabermetricians are a bunch of nerds who like to obsess about a series of alphabet soup-like stats. In a conversation with Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Brandon Phillips went on a lengthy rant against on-base percentage. Some of… Continue reading Thinking Sabermetrically: WAR what is it good for?

The Marlins and the Nationals are amongst the most exciting teams in the Majors, but what about the other teams in the NL East? The Mets have also generated a lot of conversation around baseball with many believing that they too can make a run at playoff baseball in 2015. There is cause for optimism in… Continue reading 2015 New York Mets Preview

It is safe to say that the Nationals come into 2015 as the most complete team in the division. The Nationals go from strength to strength in the rotation, the bullpen, and their position players. Embed from Getty Images Position Players Anthony Rendon might one of the best players in all of baseball and no… Continue reading 2015 Washington Nationals Preview