Tuesday, August 03, 2010
THT Graphical Report—with more graphs!
Posted by Dave StudemanTime for the latest Hardball Times Graphical Report, which you can download for free. In this latest Graphical Report, we capture some of the dynamics that have recently been fueling teams like the Rays, Twins, Giants and (gulp) Astros. And it also raises the vital question: what has happened to the Kansas City gloves?
I've also added a couple of graphs. Several years ago, in an article called How Teams Score: A Picturebook, I rolled out some graphs that highlighted the offensive strengths and weaknesses of each team. I've always liked those graphs, but never managed to put them into production.
Now they're included in the Graphical Report. For a sneak preview, take a gander at the American League:
Considering the Yankees, see how they've managed to get runners into scoring position more often than any team except Tampa Bay? That's the result of some mighty good hitting (and walking), but not necessarily home runs. They've also batted well with runners in scoring position—about as well as you'd expect given their prowess at getting runners in scoring position (that's the dotted gray line). And the Yankees hit home runs, which drives the size of the circle around their triangle.
Only the circles of the Red Sox and Blue Jays are larger (because they've hit more home runs) but those two teams haven't gotten runners into scoring position nearly as often as the Yankees have. In fact, the Blue Jays are last in the league at plate appearances with runners in scoring position.
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.
Thanks, Dave.
I’m still hoping to see occasionally the HBT report that showed to what extent good or bad performance on balls in play were due to defense and to what extent it was due to a harder or easier distribution of balls in play (i.e. the pitcher / batter combinations). I liked using those numbers in years past and don’t know where else to find them.