Friday, September 25, 2009
I need your feedback!
Posted by Dave StudemanI'm working away on the Hardball Times Annual 2010 (have I mentioned that lately?) and I'd appreciate your feedback on something. Past Annuals have included a graph of each team's runs scored and allowed, as well as games won, on an average ten-game basis. It's supposed to be an easy way to visualize the season. I don't know if many people actually like it, but I think it works pretty well (particularly when we add the big events of each year on the bottom).
The graph is kind of complex, but I'm thinking of adding something to it. In addition to all the runs and wins lines, I'd like to add a line that references each team's Drama Index during the year. The Drama Index tells you how dramatic each game was along the way and adds context to the runs scored and allowed info.
By the way, the Annual will also include Championship WPA for all players. Championship WPA is basically a combination of WPA and the Drama Index, though the version will be publishing was created by Sky Andrecheck.
So I want to put this extra info on a black and white graph (got to be black and white for the book). Here's what it looks like for Minnesota, the only team providing any drama at this time of year:
What do you think? Good info to see on the graph? Too confusing? Don't care about it?
Dave was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Comments about this article can be sent to him through the miracle of e-mail.
I want to see it on the graph, but I can’t make heads or tails of anything past the solid black line. I would recommend making the dotted gray line reflected in the key instead of just one tiny slash. Make it CLEAR what the dotted line is, then you are OK.