So while bored today, not being clever enough to do my own analysis, I created sort of a sabermetric almanac, or whatever you'd like to call it, on a Word document and decided to post it here for everyone's perusal. Either way it covers a whole host of concepts through links to various articles I've found enjoyable and instructive over the years on Tom Tango's blog, Fangraphs, The Hardball Times, etc. I've organized it thematically, and I'll be the first to admit that its not exhaustive by any means and that perhaps it should be structured differently, or different articles should be under different headings, etc. Some of the articles are redundant in areas but they are each unique. Either way I think it's a good primer for the uninitiated and a good set of references and maybe some new information for everyone else. Enjoy:
· Statistics/Sabermetrics
o When samples become reliable
o Regression
§ Groups of players and regression towards the mean
§ Example: stimating hitter platoon skill
o General Statistics
§ Ball in Play (BIP) statistics
· Voros McCracken’s Introduction to Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP)
o Defense Independent Pitching (1999)
o Much Control to Hurlers Have? (2001)
· Digging deeper: luck, fielding, and park factors
· Baseball Prospectus roundtable on BABIP
· BIP run values and frequencies, 2009
· BIP slash lines and wOBA values 2002-2009
§ Linear Weights
· Empirical linear weight values, 1999-2002
· Offense
o Concepts
o Statistics
§ wOBA
§ More
· wRC+?
o Hit f/x
· Pitching
o Concepts
§ How can we tell if a pitcher is any good?
o Statistics
§ tRA
§ Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP)
o Miscellaneous
§ The importance of fastball velocity
§ Swinging strikes and strikeout rates
§ Linear weights and curveball movement
§ Pitch type linear weights explained
§ Pitchers, homeruns, and flyballs
§ The League Average Pitcher
· Part I
· Part II
§ Pitchers, homeruns, and flyballs
o Pitch f/x
§ Command and the catcher’s target
§ Understanding pitch f/x graphs: location vs. movement
· Defense
o Concepts
§ Defense and inferential statistics
§ Sabermetrics 101: Evaluating Fielding
§ How much is a great fielder worth?
§ Excellent fielding presentation
§ What do you regress defensive metrics to?
o Statistics
§ Everything you need to know in one presentation
§ Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR)
· Creator Mitchel Lichtman’s explanation (advanced)
o Part I
o Part II
· Correlation and sample size, 2008 to 2009
§ Probabilistic Model of Range (PMR)
· PMR charts (through 2008)
§ John Dewan’s +/-: See The Fielding Bible Website
o Miscellaneous
§ Do fielders with good range commit more errors? No.
· Win Probability Added (WPA)
o What WPA can tell us about players
o Leverage Index (LI)
§ Crucial Situations (Tango)
· Part I
· Part II
· Part III
§ Unleveraging win probability (WPA/LI)
§ LI, relievers, and the Hall of Fame
· Wins Above Replacement (WAR)
§ Pitcher win values
· Part I
· Part II
· Part III
· Part IV
· Part V
· Part VI
· Part VII
§ Hitter win values
· Part I
· Part II
· Part III
· Part IV
· Part V
· Part VI
· Part VII
o Tom Tango addresses WAR misconceptions
§ Win values correlation to wins & Pythagorean record
o WAR and Salary
§ Offense by position group by decade
§ Historical positional adjustments
o 2009 replacement level position players
· Game Theory
o Bunting
· Miscellaneous
o "Clutch"
o Chemistry
§ Measuring clubhouse chemistry
o Plate discipline
§ Plate discipline year-to-year correlations
§ Plate discipline to event correlations
o Everything you wanted to know about the Pythagorean method
o Evaluating umpires with pitch f/x
o WAR by age for the Hall of Fame
o Every single one of Dave Allen’s Fangraph’s posts because he makes incredible charts like this and this and this
· Data & Analysis Sources
o General
§ Run Expectancy, Run Frequency, Runs Created & Linear Weights Generator (using Markov chains)
§ How to build a pitch database
§ wOBA to WAR conversion spreadsheet
o Pitch f/x tools
§ Joe Leftkowitz’s Pitch F/x Tool
§ Brooks Baseball’s individual game analyzer
§ Josh Kalk’s pitch f/x tool (2008 only)
§ How to create a pitch f/x database
§ Pitch f/x database for a Mac
·Websites to know