Wizardry: Baseball's All-Time Greatest Fielders Revealed
The systematic analysis of baseball statistics, often called "sabermetrics," has evolved in recent years to resemble something of a science, attracting fans from diverse professional and educational backgrounds, all fascinated by the analysis itself and its insights into the game. But one problem has defied solution: estimating runs saved by fielders throughout history. Traditional statistics include errors and plays made, but not hits that could or should have been prevented. The latter can now be estimated using records of the location of every batted ball, but the underlying data exists only for recent seasons and has generally been withheld from the public. Now, in Wizardry, comes the long-awaited breakthrough. Drawing solely on freely available baseball statistics, Michael A. Humphreys shows how to apply classic statistical methods to estimate runs saved by fielders going back to 1893. Humphreys tests his results against other fielding measures, including published ratings based on proprietary batted ball location data, and explains their respective strengths and limitations. He also introduces a method for adjusting historical player ratings for increased competition due to population growth, integration, and international recruitment. Position by position, Humphreys identifies and profiles the greatest fielders of all time with anecdote-rich essays. Sabermetrics changed baseball and introduced a generation to the art of statistical inference. Wizardry makes the case for the most significant changes in historical player valuation in decades, while opening up new approaches for further exploration.
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Wizardry: Baseball's All-Time Greatest Fielders Revealed
The systematic analysis of baseball statistics, often called "sabermetrics," has evolved in recent years to resemble something of a science, attracting fans from diverse professional and educational backgrounds, all fascinated by the analysis itself and its insights into the game. But one problem has defied solution: estimating runs saved by fielders throughout history. Traditional statistics include errors and plays made, but not hits that could or should have been prevented. The latter can now be estimated using records of the location of every batted ball, but the underlying data exists only for recent seasons and has generally been withheld from the public. Now, in Wizardry, comes the long-awaited breakthrough. Drawing solely on freely available baseball statistics, Michael A. Humphreys shows how to apply classic statistical methods to estimate runs saved by fielders going back to 1893. Humphreys tests his results against other fielding measures, including published ratings based on proprietary batted ball location data, and explains their respective strengths and limitations. He also introduces a method for adjusting historical player ratings for increased competition due to population growth, integration, and international recruitment. Position by position, Humphreys identifies and profiles the greatest fielders of all time with anecdote-rich essays. Sabermetrics changed baseball and introduced a generation to the art of statistical inference. Wizardry makes the case for the most significant changes in historical player valuation in decades, while opening up new approaches for further exploration.
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Wizardry: Baseball's All-Time Greatest Fielders Revealed

Wizardry: Baseball's All-Time Greatest Fielders Revealed

by Michael Humphreys
Wizardry: Baseball's All-Time Greatest Fielders Revealed

Wizardry: Baseball's All-Time Greatest Fielders Revealed

by Michael Humphreys

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Overview

The systematic analysis of baseball statistics, often called "sabermetrics," has evolved in recent years to resemble something of a science, attracting fans from diverse professional and educational backgrounds, all fascinated by the analysis itself and its insights into the game. But one problem has defied solution: estimating runs saved by fielders throughout history. Traditional statistics include errors and plays made, but not hits that could or should have been prevented. The latter can now be estimated using records of the location of every batted ball, but the underlying data exists only for recent seasons and has generally been withheld from the public. Now, in Wizardry, comes the long-awaited breakthrough. Drawing solely on freely available baseball statistics, Michael A. Humphreys shows how to apply classic statistical methods to estimate runs saved by fielders going back to 1893. Humphreys tests his results against other fielding measures, including published ratings based on proprietary batted ball location data, and explains their respective strengths and limitations. He also introduces a method for adjusting historical player ratings for increased competition due to population growth, integration, and international recruitment. Position by position, Humphreys identifies and profiles the greatest fielders of all time with anecdote-rich essays. Sabermetrics changed baseball and introduced a generation to the art of statistical inference. Wizardry makes the case for the most significant changes in historical player valuation in decades, while opening up new approaches for further exploration.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780199793020
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 03/30/2011
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 17 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Michael A. Humphreys advises on tax aspects of international capital markets transactions at Ernst&Young LLP.

Table of Contents

Preface Part One: Motivations and Methods 1. The Big Picture 2. One Way to Measure Fielding 3. Measuring the Many Measures of Fielding 4. Summing Up Fielding Careers in One Number . . . and Attaching Asterisks Thereto 5. Putting Top Players from Different Eras on 'Equal' Footing Part Two: The Greatest Fielders of All-Time 6. Shortstop 7. Second Base 8. Center Field 9. Third Base 10. Right Field 11. Left Field 12. First Base 13. Catcher Part Three: Fielding in the Context of Pitching, Hitting and Base Running 14. (A Select Few of) Baseball's All-Time Greatest Pitchers 15. Incorporating Fielding Ratings into Overall Player Ratings 16. Conclusion Appendices A. Defensive Regression Analysis (“DRA”) B. Notes on the history of fielding analysis C. Chart of alternative fielding systems D. Career DRA ratings for all fielders with 3,000 innings or estimated innings at one position E. Single-season DRA ratings for all fielders since 1893 (Available book's website) F. Certain data used to develop DRA (Available book's website) Endnotes Glossary
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