Sabermetrics
Encyclopedia
Sabermetrics is the specialized analysis of baseball
through objective, empirical evidence, specifically baseball statistics
that measure in-game activity. The term is derived from the acronym SABR, which stands for the Society for American Baseball Research
. It was coined by Bill James
, who is one of its pioneers and is often considered its most prominent advocate and public face.
It may, however, attempt to settle questions such as "Was Willie Mays
faster than Mickey Mantle
?" by establishing several possible parameters for examining speed in objective studies (how many triples each man hit, how many bases each man stole, how many times he was caught stealing) and then reaching a tentative conclusion on the basis of these individual studies.
Sabermetricians frequently question traditional measures of baseball skill. For instance, they doubt that batting average
is as useful as conventional wisdom says it is because team batting average provides a relatively poor fit for team runs scored. Sabermetric reasoning would say that runs win ballgames, and that a good measure of a player's worth is his ability to help his team score more runs than the opposing team. This may imply that the traditional RBI is an effective metric; however, sabermetricians also reject RBI, for a number of reasons. Rather, sabermetric measures are usually phrased in terms of either runs or team wins. For example, a player might be described as being worth 54 runs more than a replacement-level player at the same position over the course of a full season, as the sabermetric statistic VORP can indicate.
Sabermetrics is concerned both with determining the value of a player or team in current or past seasons and with attempting to predict the value of a player or team in the future. Many areas of study are still in development, specifically in the area of performance measurement.
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
through objective, empirical evidence, specifically baseball statistics
Baseball statistics
Statistics play an important role in summarizing baseball performance and evaluating players in the sport.Since the flow of a baseball game has natural breaks to it, and normally players act individually rather than performing in clusters, the sport lends itself to easy record-keeping and statistics...
that measure in-game activity. The term is derived from the acronym SABR, which stands for the Society for American Baseball Research
Society for American Baseball Research
The Society for American Baseball Research was established in Cooperstown, New York, in August 1971 by Bob Davids of Washington, D.C. The Society's mission is to foster the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball, while generating interest in the game...
. It was coined by Bill James
Bill James
George William “Bill” James is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics...
, who is one of its pioneers and is often considered its most prominent advocate and public face.
General principles
The Sabermetric Manifesto by David Grabiner (1994) begins:Bill James defined sabermetrics as "the search for objective knowledge about baseball." Thus, sabermetrics attempts to answer objective questions about baseball, such as "which player on the Red Sox contributed the most to the team's offense?" or "How many home runs will Ken GriffeyKen Griffey, Jr.George Kenneth "Ken" Griffey, Jr. , nicknamed "Junior" and "The Kid", is a former Major League Baseball outfielder and during his final years, designated hitter...
hit next year?" It cannot deal with the subjective judgments which are also important to the game, such as "Who is your favorite player?" or "That was a great game."
It may, however, attempt to settle questions such as "Was Willie Mays
Willie Mays
Willie Howard Mays, Jr. is a retired American professional baseball player who played the majority of his major league career with the New York and San Francisco Giants before finishing with the New York Mets. Nicknamed The Say Hey Kid, Mays was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, his...
faster than Mickey Mantle
Mickey Mantle
Mickey Charles Mantle was an American professional baseball player. Mantle is regarded by many to be the greatest switch hitter of all time, and one of the greatest players in baseball history. Mantle was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.Mantle was noted for his hitting...
?" by establishing several possible parameters for examining speed in objective studies (how many triples each man hit, how many bases each man stole, how many times he was caught stealing) and then reaching a tentative conclusion on the basis of these individual studies.
Sabermetricians frequently question traditional measures of baseball skill. For instance, they doubt that batting average
Batting average
Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...
is as useful as conventional wisdom says it is because team batting average provides a relatively poor fit for team runs scored. Sabermetric reasoning would say that runs win ballgames, and that a good measure of a player's worth is his ability to help his team score more runs than the opposing team. This may imply that the traditional RBI is an effective metric; however, sabermetricians also reject RBI, for a number of reasons. Rather, sabermetric measures are usually phrased in terms of either runs or team wins. For example, a player might be described as being worth 54 runs more than a replacement-level player at the same position over the course of a full season, as the sabermetric statistic VORP can indicate.
Sabermetrics is concerned both with determining the value of a player or team in current or past seasons and with attempting to predict the value of a player or team in the future. Many areas of study are still in development, specifically in the area of performance measurement.
Examples of sabermetric measurements
- Base runsBase RunsBase runs is a baseball statistic invented by sabermetrician David Smyth to estimate the number of runs a team "should" have scored given their component offensive statistics, as well as the number of runs a hitter/pitcher creates/allows. It measures essentially the same thing as Bill James' Runs...
(BsR) - Batting average on balls in playBatting average on balls in playIn baseball statistics, Batting average on balls in play is a statistic measuring the percentage of plate appearances ending with a batted ball in play for which the batter is credited with a hit...
(BABIP) - Defense independent pitching statisticsDefense independent pitching statisticsIn baseball, defense-independent pitching statistics measure a pitcher's effectiveness based only on plays that do not involve fielders: home runs allowed, strikeouts, hit batters, walks, and, more recently, fly ball percentage, ground ball percentage, and line drive percentage...
(DIPS)- Defense-Independent ERADefense-Independent ERAIn baseball statistics,Defense-Independent ERA , created by Voros McCracken, projects what a pitcher's earned run average would have been, if not for the effects of defense and luck on the actual games in which he pitched.-Method:...
- Defense-Independent Component ERADefense-Independent Component ERAAbbreviated 'DICE', Defense-Independent Component ERA is a recent variation on Component ERA, one of an increasing number of baseball sabermetrics that fall under the umbrella of defense independent pitching statistics...
- Fielding independent pitching (FIP)
- Expected FIP (xFIP)
- Defense-Independent ERA
- Equivalent average (EQA)
- Fantasy batter value (FBV)
- Late-inning pressure situations (LIPS)
- On-base plus sluggingOn-base plus sluggingOn-base plus slugging is a sabermetric baseball statistic calculated as the sum of a player's on-base percentage and slugging percentage. The ability of a player to both get on base and to hit for power, two important hitting skills, are represented. An OPS of .900 or higher in Major League...
(OPS) - PECOTAPECOTAPECOTA, an acronym for Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm, is a sabermetric system for forecasting Major League Baseball player performance. The word is a backronym based on the name of journeyman major league player Bill Pecota, who with a lifetime batting average of .249...
(Player empirical comparison and optimization test algorithm) - Peripheral ERAPeripheral ERAPeripheral ERA is a pitching statistic created by the Baseball Prospectus team. It is the expected earned run average taking into account park-adjusted hits, walks, strikeouts, and home runs allowed. Unlike Voros McCracken's DIPS, hits allowed are included...
(PERA) - Pythagorean expectationPythagorean expectationPythagorean expectation is a formula invented by Bill James to estimate how many games a baseball team "should" have won based on the number of runs they scored and allowed. Comparing a team's actual and Pythagorean winning percentage can be used to evaluate how lucky that team was...
- NERDNERD (sabermetrics)In baseball statistics, NERD is a quantitative measure of expected aesthetical value. NERD was originally created by Carson Cistulli and is part of his project of exploring the "art" of sabermetric research...
- Range factorRange FactorRange Factor is a baseball statistic developed by Bill James. It is calculated by dividing putouts and assists by number of innings or games played at a given defense position...
- Runs createdRuns createdRuns created is a baseball statistic invented by Bill James to estimate the number of runs a hitter contributes to his team.-Purpose:James explains in his book, The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, why he believes runs created is an essential thing to measure:With regard to an offensive...
- Secondary averageSecondary averageSecondary average, or SecA, is a baseball statistic - more precisely, a sabermetric measurement of hitting performance. It is a complement to batting average, which is a simple ratio of base hits to at bats. Secondary average is a ratio of bases gained from other sources to at bats...
- Similarity scoreSimilarity scoreIn Sabermetrics and APBRmetrics, similarity scores are a method of comparing baseball and basketball players to other players, with the intent of discovering who the most similar historical players are to a certain player....
- Speed ScoreSpeed ScoreSpeed Score is a statistic used in Sabermetric studies to evaluate a baseball player's speed. It was invented by Bill James, and first appeared in the 1987 edition of the Bill James Baseball Abstract....
- Super linear weightsSuper linear weightsSuper Linear Weights is a method for evaluating the contributions of a baseball player towards his team. It was designed by Mitchel Lichtman and it calculates the total value that a baseball player contributes towards his team in terms of runs, where 0 represents the number of runs the average...
- Total player ratingTotal player ratingTotal player rating , also known as Batter-Fielder/Pitcher Wins is a metric for measuring the value of baseball players, and to enable players to be compared against each other even when they played for different teams, at different positions, and in different eras...
, or Batter-Fielder Wins (TPR, BFW); Total Pitcher Index, or Pitcher Wins (TPI, PW) - Ultimate zone ratingUltimate zone ratingUltimate zone rating is a sabermetric statistic used to measure fielding. It compares the event that actually happened to data on similarly hit balls in the past to determine how much better or worse the fielder did than the "average" player...
(UZR) - Value over replacement playerValue over replacement playerIn baseball, value over replacement player is a statistic popularized by Keith Woolner that demonstrates how much a hitter contributes offensively or how much a pitcher contributes to his team in comparison to a fictitious "replacement player," who is an average fielder at his position and a below...
(VORP) - Win sharesWin SharesWin shares is the name of the metric Bill James describes in his 2002 book Win Shares.It considers statistics for baseball and basketball players, in the context of their team and in a sabermetric way, and assigns a single number to each player for his contributions for the year. A win share...
- wOBAWOBAIn baseball, wOBA is a statistic, based on linear weights, designed to measure a player's overall offensive contributions per plate appearance. It is formed from taking the observed run values of various offensive events, dividing by a player's plate appearances, and scaling the result to be on...
- Wins above replacement (WAR)
Notable proponents
- Sandy AldersonSandy AldersonRichard Lynn "Sandy" Alderson is the general manager of the New York Mets. He previously served as an executive with the Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres and the commissioner's office of Major League Baseball....
- Former General ManagerGeneral manager (baseball)In Major League Baseball, the general manager of a team typically controls player transactions and bears the primary responsibility on behalf of the ballclub during contract discussions with players....
of the Oakland AthleticsOakland AthleticsThe Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....
, Alderson began focusing on sabermetric principles toward obtaining relatively undervalued players in 1995. He became GM of the New York MetsNew York MetsThe New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
in late 2010. - Billy BeaneBilly BeaneWilliam Lamar "Billy" Beane III is a former Major League Baseball player and the current general manager and minority owner of the Oakland Athletics...
- Athletics' General Manager since 1997. Although not a public proponent of sabermetrics, it has been widely noted that Beane has steered the team during his tenure according to sabermetric principles. In 2003, Michael LewisMichael Lewis (author)Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic and Home Game: An...
published MoneyballMoneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair GameMoneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game is a book by Michael Lewis, published in 2003, about the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its general manager Billy Beane. Its focus is the team's modernized, analytical, sabermetric approach to assembling a competitive baseball team, despite...
about Billy Beane's use of a more quantitative approach. In 2011, a film based on Lewis's bookMoneyball (film)Moneyball is a 2011 biographical sports drama film directed by Bennett Miller and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film is based on Michael Lewis' 2003 book of the same name, an account of the Oakland Athletics baseball team's 2002 season and their general manager Billy Beane's attempts to...
which dramatised Beane's use of sabermetrics was released, starring Brad PittBrad PittWilliam Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
in the role of Beane. - Carson CistulliCarson CistulliCarson Cistulli is an American poet, essayist and English professor. His works of poetry include Some Common Weaknesses Illustrated, Assorted Fictions, and A Century of Enthusiasm.- Early Years :...
- Senior editor of FanGraphsFangraphsFanGraphs.com is a website run by Fangraphs Inc., located in Arlington, Virginia, and created and owned by David Appelman that provides statistics for every player in Major League Baseball history....
, Cistulli is the founder of statistics such as SCOUT and NERD, and one of the first poets to include sabermetrics in his poetic oeuvre. - Earnshaw CookEarnshaw CookEarnshaw Cook was an early researcher and proponent of sabermetrics, the analysis of baseball through statistical means.-Engineering:...
- Early researcher and proponent of statistical baseball research. His 1964 book Percentage Baseball was the first book of baseball statistics studies to gain national media attention. - Paul DePodestaPaul DePodestaPaul DePodesta is the Vice President of player development and scouting for the New York Mets. He was formerly a Front Office assistant for the San Diego Padres...
- A key figure in Michael Lewis' book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair GameMoneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair GameMoneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game is a book by Michael Lewis, published in 2003, about the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its general manager Billy Beane. Its focus is the team's modernized, analytical, sabermetric approach to assembling a competitive baseball team, despite...
as Beane's assistant in Oakland. - Theo EpsteinTheo EpsteinTheo Nathan Epstein is the President of Baseball Operations for the Chicago Cubs.On November 25, 2002, he became the youngest GM in the history of Major League Baseball when the Boston Red Sox hired him at the age of 28...
- President of Baseball Operations for the Chicago CubsChicago CubsThe Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
. As GM of the Red Sox, Epstein hired sabermetricians Bill JamesBill JamesGeorge William “Bill” James is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics...
and Eric Van. - Bill JamesBill JamesGeorge William “Bill” James is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics...
- Widely considered the father of sabermetrics due to his extensive series of books, although a number of less well known SABR researchers in the early 1970s provided a foundation for his work. He began publishing his Baseball Abstracts in 1977 to study some questions about baseball he found interesting, and their eclectic mix of essays based on new kinds of statistics soon became popular with a generation of thinking baseball fans. He discontinued the Abstracts after the 1988 edition, but continued to be active in the field. His two Historical Baseball AbstractThe Bill James Historical Baseball AbstractThe Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract is a reference-type book written by Bill James featuring an overview of baseball decade by decade, along with rankings of the top 100 players at each position. The original edition was published in 1985 by Villard Books, followed by The New Bill James...
editions and Win SharesWin SharesWin shares is the name of the metric Bill James describes in his 2002 book Win Shares.It considers statistics for baseball and basketball players, in the context of their team and in a sabermetric way, and assigns a single number to each player for his contributions for the year. A win share...
book have continued to advance the field of sabermetrics, 25 years after he began. In 2002 James was hired as a special advisor to the Boston Red SoxBoston Red SoxThe Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
. - Christina KahrlChristina KahrlChristina Kahrl is one of the co-founders of Baseball Prospectus. She is the former executive editor of the think tank's website, , the former managing editor for their annual publication, and is currently writing and editing for ESPN.com. She is a member of the Baseball Writers Association of...
- Co-founder of Baseball ProspectusBaseball ProspectusBaseball Prospectus is an organization that publishes a website, BaseballProspectus.com, devoted to the sabermetric analysis of baseball. BP has a staff of regular columnists and provides advanced statistics as well player and team performance projections on the site...
and current ESPNESPNEntertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
columnist, Kahrl puts an emphasis on advanced baseball analytics. - Sean LahmanSean LahmanSean Lahman is an award-winning author and journalist.-Sports Research:He is most noted for the Lahman Baseball Database, a collection of baseball statistics for every team and player in Major League history...
- Created a database of baseball statistics from existing sources and in the mid-1990s made it available for free download on the Internet, providing access to statistical data in electronic form for the first time. - Voros McCrackenVoros McCrackenRobert "Vörös" McCracken is a prominent sabermetrician. Vörös is a nickname from his Hungarian heritage, meaning "red," specifically "blood red." He is most widely recognized for his pioneering work on Defense Independent Pitching Statistics .-DIPS published:McCracken first publicly disclosed his...
- Developed a system called Defense Independent Pitching StatisticsDefense independent pitching statisticsIn baseball, defense-independent pitching statistics measure a pitcher's effectiveness based only on plays that do not involve fielders: home runs allowed, strikeouts, hit batters, walks, and, more recently, fly ball percentage, ground ball percentage, and line drive percentage...
(DIPS) to evaluate a pitcher based purely on his ability. - Rob NeyerRob NeyerRob Neyer is a baseball author and writer for SB Nation. He started his career working for Bill James and STATS, and then joined ESPN.com as a columnist from 1996 to January 2011 before becoming SB Nation's National Baseball Editor...
- National baseball editor of SBNation and former assistant to Bill JamesBill JamesGeorge William “Bill” James is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics...
, he has worked to popularize sabermetrics since the mid-1980s. Neyer has authored or co-authored several books about baseball, and his journalistic writing focuses on sabermetric methods for looking at baseball players' and teams' performance. - Joe PosnanskiJoe PosnanskiJoe Posnanski is an American journalist and senior columnist for Sports Illustrated and former columnist for the The Kansas City Star. He writes extensively on his personal site, Joe Blogs and his SI blog Curiously Long Posts.-Journalism:Posnanski began his journalism career as a multi-use...
- A popular baseball writer and a proponent of sabermetrics. - Nate SilverNate SilverNathaniel Read "Nate" Silver is an American statistician, psephologist, and writer. Silver first gained public recognition for developing PECOTA, a system for forecasting the performance and career development of Major League Baseball players, which he sold to and then managed for Baseball...
- Writer and former managing partner of Baseball Prospectus, inventor of PECOTAPECOTAPECOTA, an acronym for Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm, is a sabermetric system for forecasting Major League Baseball player performance. The word is a backronym based on the name of journeyman major league player Bill Pecota, who with a lifetime batting average of .249...
. Later reapplied his sabermetric statistical models to the study of politicsPoliticsPolitics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, particularly elections, and publishing the results on his blog FiveThirtyEight (later absorbed by The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
). - David SmithDavid Smith (baseball historian)David W. Smith is a baseball researcher and historian. He is best known as the founder of Retrosheet, an organization whose mission is to collect, digitized, and distribute play-by-play accounts from every game in Major League Baseball history...
- Founded RetrosheetRetrosheetRetrosheet is a non-profit organization whose website features major league baseball box scores and play-by-play narratives for almost every contest from 1871–1872, 1874, 1911 NL, and 1918–2010...
in 1989, with the objective of computerizing the box scoreBox scoreA box score is a structured summary of the results from a sport competition. The box score lists the game score as well as individual and team achievements in the game....
of every major league baseball game ever played, in order to more accurately collect and compare the statistics of the game. - Tom TangoTom TangoTom Tango and "TangoTiger" are aliases used online by a well-respected expert in baseball sabermetrics and ice hockey statistical analysis. He runs the Tango on Baseball sabermetrics website and is also a contributor to ESPN's baseball blog TMI .In 2006, Tango's book The Book: Playing the...
- Runs the Tango on Baseball sabermetrics website. In particular, he has worked in the area of defense independent pitching statisticsDefense independent pitching statisticsIn baseball, defense-independent pitching statistics measure a pitcher's effectiveness based only on plays that do not involve fielders: home runs allowed, strikeouts, hit batters, walks, and, more recently, fly ball percentage, ground ball percentage, and line drive percentage...
. - Eric Walker - Former aerospace engineer turned baseball writer, who played an important part in the early acceptance of sabremetrics within the Oakland Athletics organization. GM Sandy AldersonSandy AldersonRichard Lynn "Sandy" Alderson is the general manager of the New York Mets. He previously served as an executive with the Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres and the commissioner's office of Major League Baseball....
hired Walker in order to get "some Bill James-like stuff that was proprietary to us." - Keith WoolnerKeith WoolnerKeith Woolner is an author for Baseball Prospectus and is the creator of the runs-based statistic VORP or Value Over Replacement Player. VORP is acknowledged by the sabermetrics community as one of the key concepts in the analysis of a player's performance and market valuation.-Education and early...
- Creator of VORP, or Value over Replacement Player, is a former writer for sabermetric group/website Baseball Prospectus. He was hired in 2007 by the Cleveland IndiansCleveland IndiansThe Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Since , they have played in Progressive Field. The team's spring training facility is in Goodyear, Arizona...
as their Manager of Baseball Research & Analytics. - Craig R. WrightCraig R. WrightCraig R. Wright is a major proponent of sabermetrics, a baseball writer and historian.He was a very early pioneer in integrating science into major league baseball and first began working under that premise for the Texas Rangers, after the strike of 1981...
- A statistician for the Texas RangersTexas Rangers (baseball)The Texas Rangers are a professional baseball team in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, based in Arlington, Texas. The Rangers are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League, and are the reigning A.L. Western Division and A.L. Champions. Since , the Rangers have...
, was the first front office employee in Major League Baseball to work under the title "Sabermetrician."
Sabermetric groups
- Baseball ProspectusBaseball ProspectusBaseball Prospectus is an organization that publishes a website, BaseballProspectus.com, devoted to the sabermetric analysis of baseball. BP has a staff of regular columnists and provides advanced statistics as well player and team performance projections on the site...
is an annual publication and web site are produced by a group of sabermetricians who originally met over the InternetInternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. Several Baseball Prospectus authors have invented or improved upon widely relied upon sabermetric measures and techniques. The website publishes analytical articles as well as advanced statistics and projections for individuals and teams. This group also publishes other books that use and seek to popularize sabermetric techniques, including Baseball Between the Numbers and It Ain't Over 'til It's Over. - The Hardball TimesThe Hardball Timesis a website which publishes news, original comments and statistical analysis of baseball each week Monday through Friday, in addition to the Hardball Times Annual book which features essays by leading sabermetric personalities. The website features the slogan "Baseball. Insight...
is a website as well as an annual volume that evaluates the preceding major league season and presents original research articles on various sabermetric topics. The website also publishes original research on baseball. It demonstrates and promotes the use of graphs and charts. - FanGraphsFangraphsFanGraphs.com is a website run by Fangraphs Inc., located in Arlington, Virginia, and created and owned by David Appelman that provides statistics for every player in Major League Baseball history....
is a website that publishes advanced baseball statistics as well as graphics that evaluate and track the performance of players and teams. The site also favors the analysis of play-by-play data and Pitch f/xPitch f/xPITCHf/x, created and maintained by Sportvision, is a system that tracks the trajectories of pitched baseballs. This system, which made its debut in the 2006 MLB playoffs, is installed in every MLB stadium.- Usage :...
. It draws on some of the advanced baseball metrics developed by well-known sabermetricians such as Tom TangoTom TangoTom Tango and "TangoTiger" are aliases used online by a well-respected expert in baseball sabermetrics and ice hockey statistical analysis. He runs the Tango on Baseball sabermetrics website and is also a contributor to ESPN's baseball blog TMI .In 2006, Tango's book The Book: Playing the...
and Mitchel Lichtman. - SABRSociety for American Baseball ResearchThe Society for American Baseball Research was established in Cooperstown, New York, in August 1971 by Bob Davids of Washington, D.C. The Society's mission is to foster the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball, while generating interest in the game...
is the Society for American Baseball Research, founded in 1971, and the root of the term sabermetrics. Statistical study, however, is only a small component of SABR members' research, which also focuses on diverse issues including ballparks, the Negro Leagues, rules changes, and the desegregation of baseball as a mirror of American culture. - Fielding Bible Awards are voted on by a panel of sabermetically inclined writers to recognize the best defensive player for each fielding position. It provides an alternative to the Gold Glove AwardsRawlings Gold Glove AwardThe Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position in both the National League and the American League , as voted by the...
, the traditional measurement of fielding excellence. - Baseball Think FactoryBaseball Think FactoryBaseball Think Factory, abbreviated as BTF or BBTF, is a sabermetrically-oriented baseball web site that features the day's prominent news stories in baseball, with original content contributed by SABR members such as Dan Szymborski. The site was previously branded as Baseball Primer, and was...
is a web forum that includes extensive coverage of and commentary on baseball, usually from the perspective of sabermetrics.
In popular culture
- MoneyballMoneyball (film)Moneyball is a 2011 biographical sports drama film directed by Bennett Miller and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film is based on Michael Lewis' 2003 book of the same name, an account of the Oakland Athletics baseball team's 2002 season and their general manager Billy Beane's attempts to...
, the 2011 film about Billy BeaneBilly BeaneWilliam Lamar "Billy" Beane III is a former Major League Baseball player and the current general manager and minority owner of the Oakland Athletics...
's use of sabermetrics to build the Oakland AthleticsOakland AthleticsThe Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....
. - The season 3 Numb3rsNUMB3RSNumb3rs is an American television drama which premiered on CBS on January 23, 2005, and concluded on March 12, 2010. The series was created by Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton, and follows FBI Special Agent Don Eppes and his mathematical genius brother, Charlie Eppes , who helps Don solve crimes...
episode "Hardball" focuses on sabermetrics, and the season 1 episode "Sacrifice" also covers the subject. - "MoneyBARTMoneyBART"MoneyBART" is the third episode of The Simpsons twenty-second season that premiered in the United States on October 10, 2010, on the Fox network. In this episode, Lisa coaches Bart's Little League baseball team to a record winning streak by using her book smarts in statistics and probability...
", the third episode of The Simpsons'The SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
22nd seasonThe Simpsons (season 22)The Simpsons twenty-second season began airing on Fox on September 26, 2010 and ended on May 22, 2011. The Simpsons was renewed for at least two additional seasons during the twentieth season leading up to this season. The cast is currently signed through the 25th season. On November 11, 2010, the...
, in which LisaLisa SimpsonLisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
utilizes sabermetrics to coach Bart'sBart SimpsonBartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
Little League Baseball team.
See also
- Fielding Bible AwardFielding Bible AwardA Fielding Bible Award recognizes the best defensive player for each fielding position in Major League Baseball based on statistical analysis. John Dewan and Baseball Info Solutions conduct the annual selection process...
- Win SharesWin Shares (book)Win Shares is a book about baseball written by Bill James and Jim Henzler, published by STATS, Inc. in 2002.As ESPNs Jim Baker put it, "we've been talking about Win Shares, the baseball metric Bill James introduced in .... a book titled, oddly enough, Win Shares. It explains the concepts of win...
by Bill JamesBill JamesGeorge William “Bill” James is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics... - Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?: Baseball, Cooperstown, and the Politics of Glory is a book by famed baseball sabermetrician and author Bill James...
by Bill James - Total BaseballTotal BaseballTotal Baseball is a baseball encyclopedia first compiled by John Thorn and Pete Palmer in 1989. The latest edition, published in 2004, is its eighth...
by John ThornJohn ThornJohn Thorn is a noted sports historian, and the Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball.-Early life:Thorn was born in Stuttgart, West Germany. His Polish Jewish parents had come there as refugees. He immigrated to the United States in 1949...
and Pete PalmerPete PalmerPete Palmer is a major contributor to the applied mathematical field referred to as sabermetrics. Along with the Bill James Baseball Abstracts, Palmer's book The Hidden Game of Baseball is often referred to as providing the foundation upon which the field of sabermetrics was built.Palmer began his... - The Bill James Historical Baseball AbstractThe Bill James Historical Baseball AbstractThe Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract is a reference-type book written by Bill James featuring an overview of baseball decade by decade, along with rankings of the top 100 players at each position. The original edition was published in 1985 by Villard Books, followed by The New Bill James...
- Moneyball, by Michael LewisMichael Lewis (author)Michael Lewis is an American non-fiction author and financial journalist. His bestselling books include The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Panic and Home Game: An...
- APBRmetricsAPBRmetricsAPBRmetrics is a term sometimes used to refer to the analysis of basketball through objective evidence, especially basketball statistics. APBRmetrics is a cousin to the study of baseball statistics, known as Sabermetrics, and similarly takes its name from the acronym APBR, which stands for the...
, the basketballBasketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
equivalent - TheorycraftTheorycraftTheorycraft is the scientific analysis of games to discover the best strategies and tactics to win. It uses tools such as statistics and case studies...