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
Another site with some great graphics
I continue to comb the Internet for great examples of the ways data is presented. Here’s one: The Baby Name Wizard.
This blows me away. It’s designed in Java, I believe, and it’s an incredible and imaginative way of presenting the relative frequency of baby’s names over the years. Think of how powerful something like this might be with baseball stats—makes me wish I had learned Java somewhere along the way.
As a reminder, you can find baseball graphs, with many of the same interactive features, at the Major League Charts site.
Meanwhile, the Twins signed Johan Santana to a four-year deal worth $10 million a year today, which is just a good deal for the Twins. I believe there’s an option for a fifth year, as well.
Santana was going to be a free agent in two years, so the Twins get two years of arbitration-eligible Santana at a relatively high price (at least in the fifth year), but free agent Santana at a relatively low price.
The Twins do take on some risk signing a pitcher to a four-year contract. Presumably, that is why Santana signed at such a low salary. Compare his deal to Roy Oswalt’s recent deal with the Astros—Oswalt has three years to go before free agency, and he signed a two-year deal for $8.5 million a year.
Multi-year contracts during arbitration years probably bears some discussion. About half of all five-year arbitration players had multi-year contracts this past year, so it’s a common strategy. By signing Oswalt to a two-year deal, the Astros don’t give up a lot because arbitration-eligible players have a limited downside (their salary can only decrease 20% in one year, I believe) and they now have a limited upside as well, if Oswalt has another great year.
Whether this sort of deal typically plays out to the team’s or player’s advantage would make for an interesting study.
That is spectacular! How about a chart for, say league era (blue) and standard deviation of same (pink)? Or of team or player stat and league average or average by position? Even if you assume that the example expresses the limitaions of the form, the possibilities for quick convenient reference are staggering.
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