Baseball's All-Time Best Sluggers : Adjusted Batting Performance from Strikeouts to Home Runs / Michael J. Schell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schell, Michael J., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Baseball players--United States--Statistics.

Baseball players.

Baseball players--Rating of--United States.

Batting (Baseball)--United States--Statistics.

Batting (Baseball).

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (407 p.)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2016]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Over baseball history, which park has been the best for run scoring?1 Which player would lose the most home runs after adjustments for ballpark effect?2 Which player claims four of the top five places for best individual seasons ever played, based on all-around offensive performance.3 (See answers, below). These are only three of the intriguing questions Michael Schell addresses in Baseball's All-Time Best Sluggers, a lively examination of the game of baseball using the most sophisticated statistical tools available. The book provides an in-depth evaluation of every major offensive event in baseball history, and identifies the players with the 100 best seasons and most productive careers. For the first time ever, ballpark effects across baseball history are presented for doubles, triples, right- and left-handed home-run hitting, and strikeouts. The book culminates with a ranking of the game's best all-around batters. Using a brisk conversational style, Schell brings to the plate the two most important credentials essential to producing a book of this kind: an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball and a professional background in statistics. Building on the traditions of renowned baseball historians Pete Palmer and Bill James, he has analyzed the most important factors impacting the sport, including the relative difficulty of hitting in different ballparks, the length of hitters' careers, the talent pool from which players are drawn, player aging, and changes in the game that have raised or lowered major-league batting averages. Schell's book finally levels the playing field, giving new credit to hitters who played in adverse conditions, and downgrading others who faced fewer obstacles. It also provides rankings based on players' positions. For example, Derek Jeter ranks 295th out of 1,140 on the best batters list, but jumps to 103rd in the position-adjusted list, reflecting his offensive prowess among shortstops. Replete with dozens of never-before reported stories and statistics, Baseball's All-Time Best Sluggers will forever shape the way baseball fans view the greatest heroes of America's national pastime. Answers: 1. Coors Field 2. Mel Ott 3. Barry Bonds, 2001-2004 seasons

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

PREFACE

ABBREVIATIONS

CHAPTER 1. Fair Ball!

PART ONE. The Methods

CHAPTER 2. Manager's Game Plan

CHAPTER 3. New Ball!

CHAPTER 4. Calling It a Career

CHAPTER 5. Talent Search

CHAPTER 6. Home Park Advantage

PART TWO. The Findings

CHAPTER 7. Swing, Batter!

CHAPTER 8. Hit . . . and Run

CHAPTER 9. This One's Outta Here!

CHAPTER 10. Changing the Score

CHAPTER 11. The Count

CHAPTER 12. Stealing the Show

CHAPTER 13. Putting It All Together

CHAPTER 14. Fantasy League

CHAPTER 15. The Players Take the Field

CHAPTER 16. Final Score

CHAPTER 17. Post-Game Report

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A. The Piecewise Linear Regression Method

APPENDIX B. Moving Average Smoothing of Data

APPENDIX C. The Multiple Changepoint Regression Procedure

APPENDIX D. How to Estimate Ballpark Effects

APPENDIX E. Transformations of Offensive Event Averages

APPENDIX F. How to Adjust for Doubles and Triples

APPENDIX G. Predicting Runs and RBIs from the Batting Record

APPENDIX H. Regular Player Event Averages

APPENDIX I. Event Performance Spreads

APPENDIX J. Event Park Effects

APPENDIX K. Home Run Park Effects

APPENDIX L. Best Individual Seasons

APPENDIX M. Best Careers

APPENDIX N. Adjusted Career Offensive Averages

GLOSSARY

REFERENCES

PLAYER INDEX

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 387-388) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

1-4008-8135-8

OCLC:

966883588