11/21/24
May 10, 2007
New Ways of Seeing the Same Game:: Until recently, baseball games produced two perspectives on last night's event, the game story and the box score. Every 5 games, Red Sox fans get an inside perspective to go along with a daily dose of raw statistical goodness. No editorialist necessary, FanGraphs.com will show you the heroes and goats for a game. What other perspectives are now (or soon to be) available?
Previous Schilling blog discussion
Nice stuff, fatty. I've not read Schilling's blog on purpose, expecting things on the order of his Bonds comments rather than the dissection of his pitching performance. I think I might have to look at it from time to time now. he has some interesting things in there. I particularly liked his comments about Tim Tschida. As an umpire, at any level of the game, give effort, honesty, and consistency, and you will not have a bad time of it. Thanks for the post.
posted by Howard_T at 05:25 PM on May 10, 2007
Welcome to SportsFilter, yerfatma. I'd like to point you toward our guidelines about posting game recaps. Seriously, this is good stuff. I need to digest some of the graphical stuff further to figure out how I feel about it, but there is no doubt that game reporting is evolving in ways that make this the absolute best time to be a baseball fan: Satellite TV and radio (as well as broadband) broadcasts Up-to-the-second internet news and game updates (including subscription cell phone updates) Emormous leaps in statistical analyses (for those who are, you know, into that sort of thing) Insider game analysis and one-on-one player-fan contact via player blogs With so many ways to enjoy the game, how is anybody supposed to get any work done? Fortunately, I hear baseball is pretty near dead, so this won't be an issue for much longer.
posted by The Crafty Sousepaw at 06:41 PM on May 10, 2007
I think I might have to look at it from time to time now. In no way am I recommending regular doses, but I pay attention to the feed in bloglines the day after he pitches. holden, thanks for that link, I will have to check it out fully tomorrow (y'know, at work, like Crafty suggests). It only reinforces my belief the next leaps in information technology won't be news ways of creating data, but better ways to visualize it and find meaning (big insight, I know). The BP charts are usable/ readable, but think of what Edward Tuft, or any reasonably competent visual designer might do with the data. FanGraphs is a little rough looking, design-wise, but the meaning is immediately obvious. The Phil Hughes charts require me to remember shape = pitch result, color = speed, etc. And at least use shades of red to indicate speed. Hasn't a decade of baseball on Fox taught us anything? Where's the Fox baseball mascot to explain things? It pains me I've forgotten his lame-ass name (hint: It's not "McCarver").
posted by yerfatma at 07:25 PM on May 10, 2007
Scooter!!!!! Agreed on the usefulness of the BP charts; the design has a way to go.
posted by holden at 08:23 PM on May 10, 2007
The more ways of seeing the game, the better as far as I'm concerned. MLB is making more and more types of data available through MLB Advanced Media. There is a free content article at Baseball Prospectus today using some of that data to chart Phil Hughes' pitches in his last start for thew Yankees (the one in which his no-hit bid was derailed by injury).