Upon Further Analysis — Archives
-
Mays’s Moneyball Season
Sabermetrics or moneyball relies less on traditional triple crown metrics and more on advanced statistical measures to assess a baseball player’s value. While some of these advanced measures, like WAR, have their own limitations, they can identify cases where a player contributes more to his team’s success than might appear at first glance. Some players…
-
Was Bob Welch’s 1990 Cy Young Award a Travesty?
Baseball fans love to engage in retrospective arguments. Who really deserved the MVP or Cy Young Award (CYA) twenty, thirty, or fifty years ago? These arguments often pit old school statistics against sabermetrics. One especially controversial choice was Bob Welch winning the 1990 AL Cy Young Award over Roger Clemens. But was Welch’s selection really…
-
Ernie Banks’ Paradoxical 1969 Season
Even great players see their skills and production decline as they approach the end of their careers. How much of a decline is more open to debate and may depend on how productivity is measured. Ernie Banks’ 1969 season provides a good case in point. Traditional stats, especially RBIs suggested he was still quite productive.…
-
Baseball’s Black Swans
A black swan refers to highly improbable but impactful events. While the term is most frequently used in a financial context, it can apply to other fields as well. Baseball is a good example, especially given its long history and emphasis on individual statistics. What were baseball’s greatest black swans? I’ll look at some notable…
-
A Forgotten Pitcher’s Extraordinary Year
Dick Selma played for five teams over a largely undistinguished ten-year Major League career. The 1970 Philadelphia Phillies finished fifth in their division, only a half game out of last place. That was also the third in a string of seven straight losing seasons for the Phils. Somehow though, this journeyman pitcher on a mediocre…
-
How a Bank Examiner Might Analyze a Baseball Statistic
Baseball enthusiasts may be the nerdiest of sports fans. From the development of the box score in 1858, there has long been an obsession with statistics. These statistics have grown increasingly complex with the advent of sabermetrics, aka Moneyball. OPS, WHIP, and FIP have replaced old school stats like batting average, RBIs, and won-loss records.…
-
Gil Hodges’s Long Road to Cooperstown
Gil Hodges was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022. More than 20,000 have played major league baseball, but only 271 reached the Hall of Fame as a player. While making the Hall is certainly a big deal, his road to Cooperstown was a long one, especially considering the strong early support for…