Practicing Sabermetrics

The past 30 years have seen an explosion in the number and variety of baseball books and articles. Following the lead of pioneers Bill James, John Thorn, and Pete Palmer, researchers have steadily challenged the ways we think about player and team performance—and along the way revised what we thought we knew of baseball history.
This book by the authors of Understanding Sabermetrics (2008) goes beyond the explanation of new statistics to demonstrate their use in solving some of the more familiar problems of baseball research, such as how to compare players across generations; how to account for the effects of ballparks and rules changes; and how to measure the effectiveness of the sacrifice bunt or the range of the Gold Glove–winning shortstop.
Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Gabriel B. Costa is professor of mathematical sciences at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he is also an associate chaplain.
Michael R. Huber is the dean of academic life and a professor of mathematics at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
John T. Saccoman is a professor and the chairman of the department of mathematics and computer science at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey.

Gabriel B. Costa, Michael R. Huber and John T. Saccoman
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 240
Bibliographic Info: appendices, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2009
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4177-8
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5446-4
Imprint: McFarland

Preface      1

1. What Is Sabermetrics and What Does It Do?      5
2. Traditional Offensive Statistics: Hitting and Base-Stealing      11
3. Traditional Defensive Statistics: Pitching and Fielding      20
4. Relativity and Normalization      29
5. Park Factors      37
6. Runs Created      46
7. Win Shares      54
8. Linear Weights Batting Runs      64
9. Linear Weights Pitching Runs      75
10. Linear Weights Fielding and Base-Stealing Runs      85
11. WHIP and Similar Statistics      94
12. Weighted Pitcher’s Rating      101
13. Base-Out Percentage and Total Average      110
14. OPS, POP and the SLOB      119
15. Total Power Quotient      128
16. Isolated Power, Power Factor and Power Average      137
17. Power-Speed Number      146
18. Range Factor      154
19. Hoban Effectiveness Quotient      163
20. Equivalence Coefficient      172
21. Predicting with the Use of Regression      179
22. Higher Mathematics Used in Sabermetrics      189
23. Potpourri      197

Appendix A: Abbreviations and Formulas      203
Appendix B: League Traditional Statistics and ABF Values      208
Appendix C: Technological Notes      214
Appendix D: Sabermetrics in the Classroom      223
Sources      225
About the Authors      227
Index      229