Big Data Baseball

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Big Data Baseball

Author : Travis Sawchik
Publisher : Flatiron Books
ISBN 13 : 9781250094254
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (942 download)

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Book Synopsis Big Data Baseball by : Travis Sawchik

Download or read book Big Data Baseball written by Travis Sawchik and published by Flatiron Books. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Big Data Baseball provides a behind-the-scenes look at how the Pittsburgh Pirates used big data strategies to end the longest losing streak in North American pro sports history. New York Times Bestseller After twenty consecutive losing seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates, team morale was low, the club’s payroll ranked near the bottom of the sport, game attendance was down, and the city was becoming increasingly disenchanted with its team. Big Data Baseball is the story of how the 2013 Pirates, mired in the longest losing streak in North American pro sports history, adopted drastic big-data strategies to end the drought, make the playoffs, and turn around the franchise’s fortunes. Big Data Baseball is Moneyball for a new generation. Award-winning journalist Travis Sawchik takes you behind the scenes to expertly weave together the stories of the key figures who changed the way the Pirates played the game, revealing how a culture of collaboration and creativity flourished as whiz-kid analysts worked alongside graybeard coaches to revolutionize the sport and uncover groundbreaking insights for how to win more games without spending a dime. From pitch framing to on-field shifts, this entertaining and enlightening underdog story closely examines baseball’s burgeoning big data movement and demonstrates how the millions of data points which aren’t immediately visible to players and spectators, are the bit of magic that led the Pirates to finish the 2013 season in second place and brought an end to a twenty-year losing streak.

Big Data Baseball

Author : Travis Sawchik
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 1250063515
Total Pages : 235 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis Big Data Baseball by : Travis Sawchik

Download or read book Big Data Baseball written by Travis Sawchik and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2015-05-19 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Big Data Baseball provides a behind-the-scenes look at how the Pittsburgh Pirates used big data strategies to end the longest losing streak in North American pro sports history. New York Times Bestseller After twenty consecutive losing seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates, team morale was low, the club’s payroll ranked near the bottom of the sport, game attendance was down, and the city was becoming increasingly disenchanted with its team. Big Data Baseball is the story of how the 2013 Pirates, mired in the longest losing streak in North American pro sports history, adopted drastic big-data strategies to end the drought, make the playoffs, and turn around the franchise’s fortunes. Big Data Baseball is Moneyball for a new generation. Award-winning journalist Travis Sawchik takes you behind the scenes to expertly weave together the stories of the key figures who changed the way the Pirates played the game, revealing how a culture of collaboration and creativity flourished as whiz-kid analysts worked alongside graybeard coaches to revolutionize the sport and uncover groundbreaking insights for how to win more games without spending a dime. From pitch framing to on-field shifts, this entertaining and enlightening underdog story closely examines baseball’s burgeoning big data movement and demonstrates how the millions of data points which aren’t immediately visible to players and spectators, are the bit of magic that led the Pirates to finish the 2013 season in second place and brought an end to a twenty-year losing streak.

The MVP Machine

Author : Ben Lindbergh
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 1541698959
Total Pages : 428 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (416 download)

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Book Synopsis The MVP Machine by : Ben Lindbergh

Download or read book The MVP Machine written by Ben Lindbergh and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Move over, Moneyball -- this New York Times bestseller examines major league baseball's next cutting-edge revolution: the high-tech quest to build better players. As bestselling authors Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik reveal in The MVP Machine, the Moneyball era is over. Fifteen years after Michael Lewis brought the Oakland Athletics' groundbreaking team-building strategies to light, every front office takes a data-driven approach to evaluating players, and the league's smarter teams no longer have a huge advantage in valuing past performance. Lindbergh and Sawchik's behind-the-scenes reporting reveals: How undersized afterthoughts José Altuve and Mookie Betts became big sluggers and MVPs How polarizing pitcher Trevor Bauer made himself a Cy Young contender How new analytical tools have overturned traditional pitching and hitting techniques How a wave of young talent is making MLB both better than ever and arguably worse to watch Instead of out-drafting, out-signing, and out-trading their rivals, baseball's best minds have turned to out-developing opponents, gaining greater edges than ever by perfecting prospects and eking extra runs out of older athletes who were once written off. Lindbergh and Sawchik take us inside the transformation of former fringe hitters into home-run kings, show how washed-up pitchers have emerged as aces, and document how coaching and scouting are being turned upside down. The MVP Machine charts the future of a sport and offers a lesson that goes beyond baseball: Success stems not from focusing on finished products, but from making the most of untapped potential.

Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders

Author : Rob Neyer
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1416592148
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (165 download)

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Book Synopsis Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders by : Rob Neyer

Download or read book Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders written by Rob Neyer and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BLOOPER: BALL SQUIRTS THROUGH BILLY BUCKNER'S LEGS. BLUNDER: BILLY BUCKNER'S MANAGER LEFT HIM IN THE GAME. Baseball bloopers are fun; they're funny, even. A pitcher slips on the mound and his pitch sails over the backstop. An infielder camps under a pop-up...and the ball lands ten feet away. An outfielder tosses a souvenir to a fan...but that was just the second out, and runners are circling the bases (and laughing). Without these moments, the highlight reels wouldn't be nearly as entertaining. Baseball blunders, however, can be tragic, and they will leave diehard fans asking why...why...why? Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders does its best to answer all those whys, exploring the worst decisions and stupidest moments of managers, general managers, owners, and even commissioners. As he did in his Big Book of Baseball Lineups, Rob Neyer provides readers with a fascinating examination of baseball's rich history, this time through the lens of the game's sometimes hilarious, often depressing, and always perplexing blunders. · Which ill-fated move cost the Chicago White Sox a great hitter and the 1919 World Series? · What was Babe Ruth thinking when he became the first (and still the only) player to end a World Series by getting caught trying to steal? · Did playing one-armed Pete Gray in 1945 cost the Browns a pennant? · How did winning a coin toss lead to the Dodgers losing the National League pennant on Bobby Thomson's "Shot Heard 'round the World"? · How damaging was the Frank Robinson-for-Milt Pappas deal, really? · Which of Red Sox manager Don Zimmer's mistakes in 1978 was the worst? · Which Yankees trade was even worse than swapping Jay Buhner for Ken Phelps? · What non-move cost Buck Showalter a job and gave Joe Torre the opportunity of a lifetime? · Game 7, 2003 ALCS: Pedro winds up to throw his 123rd pitch...what were you thinking? These are just a few of the legendary (and not-so-legendary) blunders that Neyer analyzes, always with an eye on what happened, why it happened, and how it changed the fickle course of history. And in separate chapters, Neyer also reviews some of the game's worst trades and draft picks and closely examines all the teams that fell just short of first place. Another in the series of Neyer's Big Books of baseball history, Baseball Blunders should win a place in every devoted fan's library.

Analyzing Baseball Data with R, Second Edition

Author : Max Marchi
Publisher : CRC Press
ISBN 13 : 1351107070
Total Pages : 318 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (511 download)

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Book Synopsis Analyzing Baseball Data with R, Second Edition by : Max Marchi

Download or read book Analyzing Baseball Data with R, Second Edition written by Max Marchi and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2018-11-19 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Analyzing Baseball Data with R Second Edition introduces R to sabermetricians, baseball enthusiasts, and students interested in exploring the richness of baseball data. It equips you with the necessary skills and software tools to perform all the analysis steps, from importing the data to transforming them into an appropriate format to visualizing the data via graphs to performing a statistical analysis. The authors first present an overview of publicly available baseball datasets and a gentle introduction to the type of data structures and exploratory and data management capabilities of R. They also cover the ggplot2 graphics functions and employ a tidyverse-friendly workflow throughout. Much of the book illustrates the use of R through popular sabermetrics topics, including the Pythagorean formula, runs expectancy, catcher framing, career trajectories, simulation of games and seasons, patterns of streaky behavior of players, and launch angles and exit velocities. All the datasets and R code used in the text are available online. New to the second edition are a systematic adoption of the tidyverse and incorporation of Statcast player tracking data (made available by Baseball Savant). All code from the first edition has been revised according to the principles of the tidyverse. Tidyverse packages, including dplyr, ggplot2, tidyr, purrr, and broom are emphasized throughout the book. Two entirely new chapters are made possible by the availability of Statcast data: one explores the notion of catcher framing ability, and the other uses launch angle and exit velocity to estimate the probability of a home run. Through the book’s various examples, you will learn about modern sabermetrics and how to conduct your own baseball analyses. Max Marchi is a Baseball Analytics Analyst for the Cleveland Indians. He was a regular contributor to The Hardball Times and Baseball Prospectus websites and previously consulted for other MLB clubs. Jim Albert is a Distinguished University Professor of statistics at Bowling Green State University. He has authored or coauthored several books including Curve Ball and Visualizing Baseball and was the editor of the Journal of Quantitative Analysis of Sports. Ben Baumer is an assistant professor of statistical & data sciences at Smith College. Previously a statistical analyst for the New York Mets, he is a co-author of The Sabermetric Revolution and Modern Data Science with R.

When Big Data Was Small

Author : Richard D. Cramer
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 1496212053
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (962 download)

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Book Synopsis When Big Data Was Small by : Richard D. Cramer

Download or read book When Big Data Was Small written by Richard D. Cramer and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2019-05-01 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richard D. Cramer has been doing baseball analytics for just about as long as anyone alive, even before the term “sabermetrics” existed. He started analyzing baseball statistics as a hobby in the mid-1960s, not long after graduating from Harvard and MIT. He was a research scientist for SmithKline and in his spare time used his work computer to test his theories about baseball statistics. One of his earliest discoveries was that clutch hitting—then one of the most sacred pieces of received wisdom in the game—didn’t really exist. In When Big Data Was Small Cramer recounts his life and remarkable contributions to baseball knowledge. In 1971 Cramer learned about the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and began working with Pete Palmer, whose statistical work is credited with providing the foundation on which SABR is built. Cramer cofounded STATS Inc. and began working with the Houston Astros, Oakland A’s, Yankees, and White Sox, with the help of his new Apple II computer. Yet for Cramer baseball was always a side interest, even if a very intense one for most of the last forty years. His main occupation, which involved other “big data” activities, was that of a chemist who pioneered the use of specialized analytics, often known as computer-aided drug discovery, to help guide the development of pharmaceutical drugs. After a decade-long hiatus, Cramer returned to baseball analytics in 2004 and has done important work with Retrosheet since then. When Big Data Was Small is the story of the earliest days of baseball analytics and computer-aided drug discovery.

Full Count

Author : Brad Herzog
Publisher : Sleeping Bear Press
ISBN 13 : 1585365971
Total Pages : 40 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (853 download)

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Book Synopsis Full Count by : Brad Herzog

Download or read book Full Count written by Brad Herzog and published by Sleeping Bear Press. This book was released on 2011-03-04 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following his H is for Home Run: A Baseball Alphabet, Brad Herzog once again steps to the plate to bring the game of baseball to fans of every age. Using numbers as its backdrop, Full Count: A Baseball Number Book goes behind the batter's box and into the dugout to explain game basics and showcase historic moments. Starting with the signal for a fastball (1), to the miles-per-hour speed on some of the fastest pitches ever thrown (100+), Full Count counts out the players, the plays, and pulse-stopping moments in America's favorite sport. Brad Herzog has won several awards from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. He has published more than two dozen books, including his sports alphabet books, H is for Home Run: A Baseball Alphabet and K is for Kick: A Soccer Alphabet. Brad lives on California's Monterey Peninsula. Following successful careers as a commercial illustrator and a wildlife artist, Bruce Langton started illustrating children's books. His books include P is for Putt: A Golf Alphabet and Win One for the Gipper: America's Football Hero. Bruce lives in Granger, Indiana.

The Major League Baseball Ultimate Book of Records

Author : Major League Baseball
Publisher : Fenn-M&S
ISBN 13 : 9780771057342
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (573 download)

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Book Synopsis The Major League Baseball Ultimate Book of Records by : Major League Baseball

Download or read book The Major League Baseball Ultimate Book of Records written by Major League Baseball and published by Fenn-M&S. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collects such baseball records as most grand slams in a season, highest attendance in a single season, most strikeouts in a rookie season, and most World Series hits.

Analyzing Baseball Data with R

Author : Max Marchi
Publisher : CRC Press
ISBN 13 : 1466570237
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (665 download)

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Book Synopsis Analyzing Baseball Data with R by : Max Marchi

Download or read book Analyzing Baseball Data with R written by Max Marchi and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2016-04-05 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With its flexible capabilities and open-source platform, R has become a major tool for analyzing detailed, high-quality baseball data. Analyzing Baseball Data with R provides an introduction to R for sabermetricians, baseball enthusiasts, and students interested in exploring the rich sources of baseball data. It equips readers with the necessary skills and software tools to perform all of the analysis steps, from gathering the datasets and entering them in a convenient format to visualizing the data via graphs to performing a statistical analysis. The authors first present an overview of publicly available baseball datasets and a gentle introduction to the type of data structures and exploratory and data management capabilities of R. They also cover the traditional graphics functions in the base package and introduce more sophisticated graphical displays available through the lattice and ggplot2 packages. Much of the book illustrates the use of R through popular sabermetrics topics, including the Pythagorean formula, runs expectancy, career trajectories, simulation of games and seasons, patterns of streaky behavior of players, and fielding measures. Each chapter contains exercises that encourage readers to perform their own analyses using R. All of the datasets and R code used in the text are available online. This book helps readers answer questions about baseball teams, players, and strategy using large, publically available datasets. It offers detailed instructions on downloading the datasets and putting them into formats that simplify data exploration and analysis. Through the book’s various examples, readers will learn about modern sabermetrics and be able to conduct their own baseball analyses.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

Author : Michael Lewis
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393066231
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by : Michael Lewis

Download or read book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game written by Michael Lewis and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2004-03-17 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This delightfully written, lesson-laden book deserves a place of its own in the Baseball Hall of Fame." —Forbes Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball. In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Michael Lewis follows the low-budget Oakland A's, visionary general manager Billy Beane, and the strange brotherhood of amateur baseball theorists. They are all in search of new baseball knowledge—insights that will give the little guy who is willing to discard old wisdom the edge over big money.

A Big Day for Baseball

Author : Mary Pope Osborne
Publisher : Random House Books for Young Readers
ISBN 13 : 1524713112
Total Pages : 98 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (247 download)

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Book Synopsis A Big Day for Baseball by : Mary Pope Osborne

Download or read book A Big Day for Baseball written by Mary Pope Osborne and published by Random House Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meet Jackie Robinson and solve a mystery in the #1 bestselling Magic Tree House chapter book series! PLAY BALL! Jack and Annie aren’t great baseball players . . . yet! Then Morgan the librarian gives them magical baseball caps that will make them experts. They just need to wear the caps to a special ballgame in Brooklyn, New York. The magic tree house whisks them back to 1947! When they arrive, Jack and Annie find out that they will be batboys in the game—not ballplayers. What exactly does Morgan want them to learn? And what’s so special about this game? They only have nine innings to find out! Discover history, mystery, humor, and baseball in this one-of-a-kind adventure in Mary Pope Osborne’s New York Times bestselling Magic Tree House series lauded by parents and teachers as books that encourage reading. Magic Tree House books, with fiction and nonfiction titles, are perfect for parents and teachers using the Core Curriculum. With a blend of magic, adventure, history, science, danger, and cuteness, the topics range from kid pleasers (pirates, the Titanic, pandas) to curriculum perfect (rain forest, American Revolution, Abraham Lincoln) to seasonal shoo-ins (Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving). There is truly something for everyone here!

Sports Illustrated: Almanac 2007

Author : Editors of Sports Illustrated
Publisher : Sports Illustrated
ISBN 13 : 9781933405469
Total Pages : 868 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (54 download)

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Book Synopsis Sports Illustrated: Almanac 2007 by : Editors of Sports Illustrated

Download or read book Sports Illustrated: Almanac 2007 written by Editors of Sports Illustrated and published by Sports Illustrated. This book was released on 2006-11-28 with total page 868 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America's No. 1 sports almanac since its introduction 16 years ago, the Sports Illustrated Almanac has got it all covered, from football to fencing, hockey to handball, and everything in between. Spanning 864 pages, the Sports Illustrated Almanac features essays by top Sports Illustrated writers, all-time stats and records, and ticketing and venue information for pro baseball, basketball, football and hockey.

The Church of Baseball

Author : Ron Shelton
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0593313968
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (933 download)

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Book Synopsis The Church of Baseball by : Ron Shelton

Download or read book The Church of Baseball written by Ron Shelton and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2023-06-20 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LA TIMES BESTSELLER • From the award-winning screenwriter and director of cult classic Bull Durham, the extremely entertaining behind-the-scenes story of the making of the film, and an insightful primer on the art and business of moviemaking. "This book tells you how to make a movie—the whole nine innings of it—out of nothing but sheer will.” —Tony Gilroy, writer/director of Michael Clayton and The Bourne Legacy "The only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the church of baseball."—Annie in Bull Durham Bull Durham, the breakthrough 1988 film about a minor league baseball team, is widely revered as the best sports movie of all time. But back in 1987, Ron Shelton was a first-time director and no one was willing to finance a movie about baseball—especially a story set in the minors. The jury was still out on Kevin Costner’s leading-man potential, while Susan Sarandon was already a has-been. There were doubts. But something miraculous happened, and The Church of Baseball attempts to capture why. From organizing a baseball camp for the actors and rewriting key scenes while on set, to dealing with a short production schedule and overcoming the challenge of filming the sport, Shelton brings to life the making of this beloved American movie. Shelton explains the rarely revealed ins and outs of moviemaking, from a film’s inception and financing, screenwriting, casting, the nuts and bolts of directing, the postproduction process, and even through its release. But this is also a book about baseball and its singular romance in the world of sports. Shelton spent six years in the minor leagues before making this film, and his experiences resonate throughout this book. Full of wry humor and insight, The Church of Baseball tells the remarkable story behind an iconic film.

Big Red

Author : Ken Griffey
Publisher : Triumph Books
ISBN 13 : 1623688132
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (236 download)

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Book Synopsis Big Red by : Ken Griffey

Download or read book Big Red written by Ken Griffey and published by Triumph Books. This book was released on 2014-03-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reflecting on an outstanding 19-year major-league career, this autobiography chronicles baseball great Ken Griffey, beginning with his days just out of high school. The account relates Griffey's decision to venture into the baseball business, documenting his time as a scout, coach, and manager along with his accomplishments as a father, raising two other major league ballplayers: Craig, who played briefly for the Seattle Mariners, and future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. Capturing the subject's time with the Big Red Machine, this record details his days playing alongside Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Pete Rose, highlighting the Reds' two consecutive world championships in 1975 and 1976. Finally, the ultimate thrill of Griffey's career is featured: playing in the same outfield in 1990 with his son, Ken Griffey Jr., during the game where they hit back-to-back home runs—the only father-son combination to do so in the history of Major League Baseball. Filled with amusing anecdotes and behind-the-scenes glimpses of what it's like when baseball really does run in the family, this is a sports memoir unlike any other.

Big Data Baseball

Author : Travis Sawchik
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1250063507
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis Big Data Baseball by : Travis Sawchik

Download or read book Big Data Baseball written by Travis Sawchik and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-05-19 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle was old school and stubborn. But after twenty straight losing seasons, his job on the line, and knowing the small-market Pirates had few resources to spend on quick fixes, he was ready to try anything. So when he met with GM Neal Huntington in October 2012, they decided to discard much of what they knew about the game and instead adopt drastic "big data" strategies. Going well beyond the infancy of number-crunching that was featured in Moneyball, the data the Pirates employed was not easily observable and it was not found on the back of baseball cards. They collected millions of data points on pitches and balls in play, creating a tome of reports that revealed key insights for how to win more games without spending a dime. They discovered that pitchers could dramatically improve by adding a new pitch, that an aggressive adoption of defensive shifts could turn more batted balls into outs, and that a catcher's most valuable skill was hidden. But maximizing this data also required a human element. The old school and new school camps had to work together, not against each other. Hurdle had to convince the Pirates' clubhouse to embrace these unconventional, yet groundbreaking methods. Under his leadership a culture of collaboration and creativity flourished as he successfully blended whiz kid analysts with graybeard coaches. This symbiotic teamwork was unique to the sport, and it helped the Pirates reveal hidden value from the avalanche of data pouring into the game. All this led to the end of the longest consecutive run of losing seasons in North American pro sports history. The Pirates' 2013 season is the perfect lens for examining baseball's burgeoning big-data movement. InBig Data Baseball award-winning journalist Travis Sawchik uses flawless reporting to take you behind-the-scenes to reveal a game-changing book of miracles and math.

The Extra 2%

Author : Jonah Keri
Publisher : ESPN
ISBN 13 : 0345517652
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (455 download)

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Book Synopsis The Extra 2% by : Jonah Keri

Download or read book The Extra 2% written by Jonah Keri and published by ESPN. This book was released on 2011-03-08 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What happens when three financial industry whiz kids and certified baseball nuts take over an ailing major league franchise and implement the same strategies that fueled their success on Wall Street? In the case of the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, an American League championship happens—the culmination of one of the greatest turnarounds in baseball history. In The Extra 2%, financial journalist and sportswriter Jonah Keri chronicles the remarkable story of one team’s Cinderella journey from divisional doormat to World Series contender. When former Goldman Sachs colleagues Stuart Sternberg and Matthew Silverman assumed control of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2005, it looked as if they were buying the baseball equivalent of a penny stock. But the incoming regime came armed with a master plan: to leverage their skill at trading, valuation, and management to build a model twenty-first-century franchise that could compete with their bigger, stronger, richer rivals—and prevail. Together with “boy genius” general manager Andrew Friedman, the new Rays owners jettisoned the old ways of doing things, substituting their own innovative ideas about employee development, marketing and public relations, and personnel management. They exorcized the “devil” from the team’s nickname, developed metrics that let them take advantage of undervalued aspects of the game, like defense, and hired a forward-thinking field manager as dedicated to unconventional strategy as they were. By quantifying the game’s intangibles—that extra 2% that separates a winning organization from a losing one—they were able to deliver to Tampa Bay something that Billy Beane’s “Moneyball” had never brought to Oakland: an American League pennant. A book about what happens when you apply your business skills to your life’s passion, The Extra 2% is an informative and entertaining case study for any organization that wants to go from worst to first.

Smart Baseball

Author : Keith Law
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062490257
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (624 download)

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Book Synopsis Smart Baseball by : Keith Law

Download or read book Smart Baseball written by Keith Law and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Predictably Irrational meets Moneyball in ESPN veteran writer and statistical analyst Keith Law’s iconoclastic look at the numbers game of baseball, proving why some of the most trusted stats are surprisingly wrong, explaining what numbers actually work, and exploring what the rise of Big Data means for the future of the sport. For decades, statistics such as batting average, saves recorded, and pitching won-lost records have been used to measure individual players’ and teams’ potential and success. But in the past fifteen years, a revolutionary new standard of measurement—sabermetrics—has been embraced by front offices in Major League Baseball and among fantasy baseball enthusiasts. But while sabermetrics is recognized as being smarter and more accurate, traditionalists, including journalists, fans, and managers, stubbornly believe that the "old" way—a combination of outdated numbers and "gut" instinct—is still the best way. Baseball, they argue, should be run by people, not by numbers.? In this informative and provocative book, teh renowned ESPN analyst and senior baseball writer demolishes a century’s worth of accepted wisdom, making the definitive case against the long-established view. Armed with concrete examples from different eras of baseball history, logic, a little math, and lively commentary, he shows how the allegiance to these numbers—dating back to the beginning of the professional game—is firmly rooted not in accuracy or success, but in baseball’s irrational adherence to tradition. While Law gores sacred cows, from clutch performers to RBIs to the infamous save rule, he also demystifies sabermetrics, explaining what these "new" numbers really are and why they’re vital. He also considers the game’s future, examining how teams are using Data—from PhDs to sophisticated statistical databases—to build future rosters; changes that will transform baseball and all of professional sports.