- Baseball Hacks
- A Note Regarding Supplemental Files
- Credits
- Preface
- 1. Basics of Baseball
- Hacks 1–7: Introduction
- Score a Baseball Game
- Make a Box Score from a Score Sheet
- Keep Score, Project Scoresheet–Style
- Follow Pitches During a Game
- Follow the Game Online
- Add Baseball Searches to Firefox
- Find Images of Stadiums
- 2. Baseball Games from Past Years
- Hacks 8–23: Introduction
- Get and Install MySQL
- Get an Access Database of Player and Team Statistics
- Get a MySQL Database of Player and Team Statistics
- Make Your Own Stats Book
- Get Perl
- Learn Perl
- Get Historical Play-by-Play Data
- Make Box Scores or Database Tables from Play-by-Play Data with Retrosheet Tools
- Use SQL to Explore Game Data
- Use Microsoft Access to Run SQL Queries
- Get a GUI for MySQL
- Move Data from a Database to Excel
- Load Baseball Data into MySQL
- Load Retrosheet Game Logs
- Make a Historical Play-by-Play Database
- Use Regular Expressions to Identify Events
- 3. Stats from the Current Season
- 4. Visualize Baseball Statistics
- Hacks 30–39: Introduction
- Plot Histograms in Excel
- Get R and R Packages
- Analyze Baseball with R
- Access Databases Directly from Excel or R
- Load Text Files into R
- Compare Teams and Players with Lattices
- Compare Teams Using Chernoff Faces
- Plot Spray Charts
- Chart Team Stats in Real Time
- Slice and Dice Teams with Cubes
- 5. Formulas
- Measure Batting with SLG
- Measure Batting with OPS
- Measure Power with ISO
- Measure Batting with Runs Created
- Measure Pitching with ERA
- Measure Pitching with WHIP
- Measure Pitching with Linear Weights
- Measure Defense with Defensive Efficiency
- Measure Pitching with DIPS
- Measure Base Running Through EqBR
- Measure Fielding with Fielding Percentage
- Measure Fielding with Linear Weights
- Measure Park Effects
- Calculate Fan Save Value
- Calculate Save Value
- 6. Sabermetric Thinking
- Hacks 60–71: Introduction
- Calculate Expected Runs
- Calculate an Expected Hits Matrix
- Look for Evidence of Platoon Effects
- Significant Number of At Bats
- Find “Clutch” Players
- Calculate Expected Number of Wins
- Measure Hits by Pitch Count
- OBP, SLG, and Scoring Runs
- Measure Skill Versus Luck
- Odds of the Best Team Winning the World Series
- Top 10 Bargain Outfielders
- The Code
- Running the Hack
- Identify common attributes.
- Look at correlations.
- Identify possible explanations for correlations.
- Assign attribute scores.
- Group players based on similarity.
- Attach group membership to data set.
- Transform salary variable.
- Create linear regression model.
- Compare predicted versus actual salaries.
- Identify most-underpaid players.
- Identify most-overpaid players.
- Hacking the Hack
- Fitting Game Scores to a Strength Model
- 7. The Bullpen
- A. Where to Learn More Stuff
- B. Abbreviations
- Index
- About the Author
- Colophon
- Copyright
Colophon
The image on the cover of Baseball Hacks is an umpire’s indicator. The umpire’s indicator is a handheld device that umpires use to track the progress of baseball games by recording strikes, balls, outs, and innings. Different varieties have either three or four dials and are made of plastic, aluminum, or stainless steel. Prices vary depending on make and model, but most sell for about $3 at sporting goods stores. In the early 1900s, umpire’s indicators were made of celluloid and had two dials to track strikes and balls. The National Baseball Hall of Fame exhibits an umpire’s indicator from 1887 with a five-ball, four-strike count (in the 19th century, the rules for walks and strikeouts varied from season to season). Antique umpire’s indicators are prized by sports memorabilia collectors and can sell for as much as $5,000.
The cover image is an original photograph by Hanna Dyer. The cover font is Adobe ITC Garamond. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Helvetica Neue Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont’s TheSans Mono Condensed.
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