2020 SABR Analytics Awards: Voting Now Open!
Here’s your chance to vote for the 2020 SABR Analytics Conference Research Award winners.
The SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards will recognize baseball researchers who have completed the best work of original analysis or commentary during the preceding calendar year. Nominations were solicited by representatives from SABR, Baseball Prospectus, FanGraphs, The Hardball Times, and Beyond the Box Score.
To read any of the finalists, click on the link below. Scroll down to cast your vote.
Contemporary Baseball Analysis
- Robert Arthur, “The Baseball is Juiced (Again),” Baseball Prospectus, April 5, 2019.
- Craig Edwards, “Baseball’s Competitive Balance Problem,” FanGraphs, November 18, 2019.
- Sam Miller, “How is WAR Calculated, Really? Breaking Down a Single Play to Find Out,” ESPN.com, December 5, 2019.
- Jason Themanson, “Psychology of Walks and Singles,” The Hardball Times, June 19, 2019.
- Meredith Wills, “Yes, the Baseball is Different — Again. An Astrophysicist Examines This Year’s Baseballs and Breaks Down the Changes,” The Athletic, June 25, 2019.
Contemporary Baseball Commentary
- Daniel R. Epstein, “Don’t Let MLB Insult You,” Beyond the Box Score, December 23, 2019.
- Craig Goldstein, “Deep, But Playable: The Moral Hazard of Playing it Safe,” Baseball Prospectus, August 6, 2019.
- David Roth, “The Smartest Guys in the Clubhouse,” The New Republic, December 3, 2019.
- Shakeia Taylor, “Loss, For Words,” Baseball Prospectus, April 24, 2019.
- Emily Waldon, “I Can’t Afford to Play This Game: Minor Leaguers Open Up About the Realities of Their Pay and the Impact on Their Lives,” The Athletic, March 15, 2019.
Historical Baseball Analysis/Commentary
- R.J. Anderson, “The Business Behind MLB Expansion: Portland, Montreal and Raleigh Taking Different Approaches to Landing a Team,” CBS Sports, July 17, 2019.
- Jay Jaffe, “Pitcher, Author, Everyman, Hero: Jim Bouton (1939-2019),” FanGraphs, July 11, 2019.
- Herm Krabbenhoft, “How Many Hits Did Ty Cobb Make in His Major League Career? What Is His Lifetime Batting Average?” SABR Baseball Research Journal, Spring 2019.
- Rachael McDaniel, “The Meaning of Ichiro,” FanGraphs, March 21, 2019.
- Marc Normandin, “MLB’s Luxury Tax Became A Salary Cap Because Of Decades Of Failures,” Deadspin, January 31, 2019.
Voting will be open through 11:59 p.m. MST on Monday, February 10, 2020. Details and criteria for each category can be found here. Only one work per author was considered as a finalist.
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Results will be announced and presented at the ninth annual SABR Analytics Conference, March 13-15, 2020, at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown in Phoenix, Arizona. Learn more or register for the conference at SABR.org/analytics.
Meg is the editor-in-chief of FanGraphs and the co-host of Effectively Wild. Prior to joining FanGraphs, her work appeared at Baseball Prospectus, Lookout Landing, and Just A Bit Outside. You can follow her on Bluesky @megrowler.fangraphs.com.
Help me out with the morality here. Is it okay to vote if I haven’t read all the articles?
You don’t have to vote until February 10.
That was one of the things bothering me. I want to vote, but I don’t want to have to read 15 articles before doing so.
But then, this is a sports where people voted Harold Baines into the HoF and a couple of writers left Verlander off a Cy Young ballot in 2016.
So vote.
Vote in good conscience knowing that whatever your vote is, it is far from the worst one.
Of course you won’t b the WORST voter, but that’s quite the low standard to have for oneself.
I mean, It’s only 15 pieces. And I would hope you would, at the very least, peruse each of them. Check out the opening and closing paragraphs, look at the graphs and charts, etc. There’s a reason these got picked, so give each piece a couple minutes. There’s no downside.
I may be misremembering but I thought a requisite for the nomination was that the article were available (freely) to the public. The one regarding “How Many Hits Did Ty Cobb” have is behind a paywall. That’s disappointing.
I missed the “Psychology of walks vs. singles” article the first time around. Reading it, I feel like I’m living in Bizarro World. I remember so clearly arguing endlessly (and futilely) against exactly the opposite prejudice, for most of my baseball life. Singles were active and manly and could lead to errors or miscues, be part of a hit-and-run, etc. Walks were passive and unmanly and clogged the bases. A .300 batting average (and .320 OBP) was greatly to be preferred over a .270 batting average (and .350 OBP). Besides, instead of taking all those pitches, players should be trying to do something to help the team. Leaving it to the next guy is cowardly and lazy.
What’s next? An article on how errors really are worse than simply failing to make a play?
“I got a fever, and there’s only one cure: More Melchior.”