I initially created Baseball Graphs to develop new and better ways of presenting baseball statistics. The 2003 season was my first full-season attempt, and it turned out pretty well. I now spend a lot of my time creating and formatting the baseball stats at The Hardball Times.

Along the way, I've also picked up the writing bug. I spend most of my energy writing for THT, but sometimes I like to write about more geeky stuff, baseball research and things like that. That's what this blog is for.

I'm very interested in graphics and other information display, so I'll probably post links to creative stuff like that. I also plan to write historical articles that complement the historical graphs. And I have inexplicably developed an interest in baseball win-related stats, such as Bill James's Win Shares and something called Win Probability Added. So you can expect a few posts about that stuff too.

If you're interested, I've created a complex spreadsheet full of WPA logic, which you can download at ftp.baseballgraphs.com/wpa. If you'd like to read more about Win Shares, try these links:

Win Shares Intro
What They're Good For
Mathematical Details
Archives
December, 2008
April, 2008
March, 2008
January, 2008
January, 2007
December, 2006
November, 2006
October, 2006
September, 2006
August, 2006
July, 2006
June, 2006
May, 2006
April, 2006
March, 2006
February, 2006
January, 2006
October, 2005
September, 2005
July, 2005
May, 2005
April, 2005
March, 2005
February, 2005
January, 2005
December, 2004
November, 2004
October, 2004
September, 2004
August, 2004
July, 2004
June, 2004
May, 2004
March, 2004
February, 2004
January, 2004
December, 2003
November, 2003
October, 2003


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If there is any aspect of WPA, Win Shares or baseball graphics you're interested in, drop me an e-mail and I'll look into it. Syndicate Baseball Graphs:

Bullpens

March 01, 2005

I’ve got an e-book for sale at The Hardball Times.  It’s called The Bullpen Book of 2002-2004, and it consists of several background articles and a bunch of stats regarding bullpens over the last three years.

I’ve spent some time this offseason writing about bullpens.  To my mind, there are two big issues regarding the bullpen these days.  First, saves and holds are just not adequate to the task of tracking relievers.  We have such great stats for hitters and starting pitchers— if you just stick with ERA and OPS, you’ll be fine—but saves and holds don’t really tell us who the best relievers have been.

Second, managers do not appear to be using their relievers in the most optimal manner.  They show a high willingness to bring in their aces in the ninth with a three-run lead, but not when the score is tied.  This is just backwards thinking.

So I’ve posted a series of articles about this:

The One About Win Probability
Team Bullpens
Ranking the Relievers
Closer

And if you’re interested in some more history about the subject, you can try A Graphical History of Relief Pitching

So the Bullpen Book is about 110 pages long, mostly taken up with statistics —every reliever, every year and every team for the past three years— that make far more sense than saves or holds.  Want to see who the best reliever was for a given year or given team the last three years?  The book will tell you, and you can read more about it here.

You can order it by clicking on this button and paying with a credit card.

And if you’d rather not pay by credit card, drop me an email and we’ll work something else out.

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