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
A quick look from Fangraphs
If everything goes as expected tomorrow, Tony Gwynn will be voted into the Hall of Fame. There is really no doubt about his baseball credentials; he is tied for 49th most career Win Shares (398), he was one of the greatest pure hitters in the history of the game and a very, very good fielder to boot.
While looking through his graphs at Fangraphs, I stumbled upon this beauty: Gwynn’s strikeout rate compared to the major league average:
Gwynn had a tremendously low strikeout rate throughout his career. Just as interesting, however, is what happened to the major league rate at the same time. It trended steadily up. As I’m sure you remember, these were the days of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Everyone was swinging harder, trying to hit the ball over the fence. But not Tony Gwynn. He resisted the trend and still wound up in the Hall of Fame.
It’s easy to see why those who vilify McGwire and Sosa today would root for Gwynn. He was his own type of player. While I sometimes scratch my head at the Hall of Fame voting results, there’s no denying that Gwynn belongs. Congratulations, in advance.
My book, “Baseball’s All-Time Best Sluggers” rates players throughout baseball history on 9 offensive categories, including strikeouts. With the comparative approach used therein, Tony Gwynn is the all-time best for low career strikout rate (19.7 adjusted strikoeuts per 550 AB+W+HBP)—72.6 for an average “regular player”. Nellie Fox is second at 22.0/550 and Joe Sewell is third at 25.0/550.
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