Runner's Worth: A New Way to Evaluate Pitchers
Modern baserunning stats, at least the ones that are used, rely too heavily on game impact. So let's create an alternative.
PitchingBaserunningMetricsModeling
Research posts, models, and deep dives.
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A New Approach to Pitcher Similarity Scores
Comparing baseball players is as old as baseball itself. So why not create a modern formula?
PitchingModeling
Is the American League Harder?
Evidence suggests that AL teams have harder schedules on average than NL teams. Is this true? And if so, why?
ScheduleLeague
How Does Schedule Difficulty Vary by Team?
No two teams have the same schedule. How much can they vary, and how much does this matter?
ScheduleResearch
How Important is Power to a Team's Success?
Power hitting is an admirable trait in a baseball player, but does a team really need it to win a lot of games?
HittingPower
Was the 2023 MLB Schedule Actually Fairer?
This season, MLB introduced a new "well-balanced" schedule in which every team plays every other team at least once. But is this actually fairer than the schedule it replaced?
ScheduleResearch
Settling the Debate: What is the Hardest Pitch to Hit in Baseball?
Not all pitches are created equal. Many pitchers dedicate their careers to specializing in one or another–but across the whole league, which pitches take the cake when it comes to hitting difficulty?
PitchingHitting
Batting Average as a Contact Metric
Batting average is far from a perfect stat, but according to the data, it could be more useful than you think. So does batting average deserve as much grief as it gets?
HittingMetrics
Offensive Performance by Fielding Position
Commonly-held beliefs about some positions hitting better than others did hold true for years. But how accurate are they in today's league?
HittingDefense
Introducing Defense-Aware ERA
Defense-independent pitching statistics (DIPS), though revolutionary when they were introduced, have long overstayed their welcome in the sabermetrics community. Can there be a modern-day replacement that doesn't just ignore batted balls?
PitchingDefenseMetricsModeling
How Much Does April Performance Really Matter?
It was commonly said (until recently) that how a team does in April has little sway over the rest of their season. But how true actually is this? And how does April's importance compare to that of other months?
Season TrendsResearch
What if Pitchers Actually Pitched to Barry Bonds?
Barry Bonds has more intentional walks than any other player in MLB history. But what if he actually got a chance to bat?
PitchingPlayer Spotlight
A Seismic Shift: What the New Rule Change Means for Baseball
The 2023 MLB season will see a number of new changes, but one of them stands out.
RulesResearch
Who Deserves the NL Cy Young Award?
This year's NL Cy Young race is shaping up to be one of baseball's most interesting award races in recent memory. Who, if anyone, is most deserving?
AwardsLeague
The Little Bird That Could: Analyzing the Orioles
In less than a year, the Orioles have gone from basement dwellers to legitimate contenders in the toughest division in baseball. How?
Team SpotlightResearch
Not All Runs are Created Equal, Part 3
How can the formula for weighted run differential, a metric designed for comparing teams across different environments, be improved upon?
MetricsModelingSequencing
2022 Midseason Review
The first half of the 2022 Major League Baseball season is now over. How do players and teams stack up?
Season ReviewResearch
Different Orders, Different Outcomes
Scoring by simply racking up hits is one thing, but what about the effect of sequencing on runs?
SequencingResearch
Is FIP Overrated?
The Pittsburgh Pirates have been something of a hapless franchise for decades now, but their fans fondly remember that stretch of time in the mid-2010s when they were legitimate contenders. They made …
PitchingMetrics
Park Factors and the Air
Unlike most other professional sports, there is very little standardization when it comes to baseball fields. While sports like football, basketball, and soccer all have perfectly standardized areas o…
Park FactorsResearch
2021: A Season in Review
It
Season ReviewResearch
Not All Runs are Created Equal, Part 2
One of the major appeals of well-known "should have been" metrics for measuring teams, like Pythagorean win-loss record, is that they tend to be better at predicting the number of wins a team will get…
MetricsSequencing
Not All Runs are Created Equal
When it comes to measuring the performance of teams, there are a couple options. The first and most obvious would be win-loss record, as it determines which teams make the postseason (and therefore wh…
SequencingResearch
Good Pitching or Bad Hitting?
The number of no-hitters thrown in a given season is inconsistent, but the closer you look, the more clear patterns become. If you look at the early-mid 2010s, when pitchers generally had the upper ha…
PitchingHitting
WHIP is Overrated
If you go to any current pitcher
PitchingMetrics
The Past, Present, and Future of Sabermetrics
Much like the sport itself, the first baseball statistics were heavily influenced by a similar popular sport across the pond: cricket. Henry Chadwick , sometimes called the "Father of Baseball" for hi…
MetricsResearch