I’ve received a few reports today that there are some ads covering up content. If you see an ad in a place where it shouldn’t be, or if it’s playing unprompted audio, don’t worry, we’re not trying to destroy FanGraphs with ads. These types of ads annoy us as much as they annoy you (we use the site too) and they are not allowed on FanGraphs.

If we see one of these ads ourselves, we take the steps to remove it from the site immediately. If we only get reports of an ad and can not see it ourselves, it can be difficult to track down and the more information we can get about the ad the better.

The best thing you can do is to take a screenshot of the ad, or send us a description of the ad (what is the product?) and send an e-mail to ads+feedback@fangraphs.com and we will remove the offending ad as soon as we can track it down.

Update: It currently appears to be an issue with Internet Explorer only and ads in general. This should be fixed shortly.

Second Update: This should be corrected now. If you are still seeing issues, please let us know. For those interested, this was actually the result of a change in Google’s ad serving system and apparently it ended up breaking a number of website layouts in Internet Explorer that use third party ads in conjunction with DoubleClick for Publishers.

The Oakland Athletics are currently seeking a Full-Time Programmer, Baseball Systems. This position reports to the senior Baseball Operations staff and will assist in the development and operation of an aggregated player information and evaluation system. This position requires strong statistical, database management, and software development skills and experience, as well as a demonstrated ability for independent thought and for working within a team framework.

Read the rest of this entry »

The 2012 Bill James Handbook Projections are now available in the player pages. Big thanks to Baseball Info Solutions for allowing us to publish these for the fourth straight year.

Want to work for the Pirates? They have two full time openings:

Data Architect

Department: Baseball Operations

Job Summary: This position is responsible for multiple aspects related to the data assets used within the Baseball Operations department. Under the direction of the Director of baseball Systems Development, is responsible for the design, daily operations, performance, maintenance, and extension of the data architecture. This position will also act as a team member in software development efforts.

Full Job Listing

Quantitative Analyst

Division: Baseball Operations

Job Summary: This position will focus on creating and analyzing baseball sets through the use of advances statistical analysis with the tasks of creating, implementing, and maintaining predictive models to aid in the decision making process. This position will report to the Director of Baseball Systems development and act as a resource to other staff on the proper use and implementation of statistical techniques and their suitability for baseball analysis.

Full Job Listing

The Win Probability Graphs on the site were updated last night. They’ve been made interactive, so you can scroll over any point to find out the play, score, and win probability of the situation.

If you’re a blogger, you can now easily embed the charts into posts when you click on the little arrow button in the right hand corner of the graph:

Source: FanGraphs

The “Embed Code (Static)” will give you a non-changing version of the chart, but if you use the non static version, the graph will be updated automatically as the game progresses.

The WAR Graphs section has received an update that now makes it possible to create graphs for as many players as you like, instead of the previous limit of four.

Source: FanGraphs — Jeff Bagwell, Albert Pujols, Mark Teixeira

In addition, the graphs are now interactive, allowing you to see the numbers behind the graph if you want to scroll over them.

And finally, if you’re a blogger and you’re interested in using WAR Graphs on your site, they can be easily embedded:

The difference between “Embed” and “Embed (Static)” is that if you choose the static option, the data behind the chart will not change. If you choose “Embed”, it will always be updated with the latest data from FanGraphs.

This past weekend the leaderboards got a slight overhaul in appearance and bunch of new features. Look below the stats table in the leaderboards for the customization options.

– Custom Stat Lists: Choose which stats you want to see in the leaderboards, just like you can in the player pages dashboard.

– Custom Players Lists: Choose only the players you want to see and easily compare any stat between a select group of players.

– Custom Reports: Save your current leaderboard as a report for quick access to your custom stats lists and stat lists.

– League Stats: Easily see league/season totals for every single year in baseball.

– Streamlined Leaderboards & Team Pages: The functionality in the team pages is now available to you in the leaderboards section. Filter by team or see team totals by season. Soon the team sections will just take you to the appropriate leaderboard.

– Split Teams: Breakout players who played on multiple teams by giving them two (or more) entries instead of grouping their stats together for a single season.

Be sure to take a moment and fill out a ballot for this year’s Fans Scouting Report!

You have Player X that went 13-4 with a 2.00 ERA in 153 IP.

You have a bunch of other pitchers who pitched 216 innings and performed at various levels (see poll).

For the Cy Young voting, you would place Player X right below which pitcher?

Note: Presume the league average starting pitcher is a .500 pitcher, with a 4.00 ERA.

You have a player that created 105 runs in 105 games.

You have a bunch of other players who played in 162 games, and they created 150, 140, 130, 120, 110, and 100 runs.

After which guy in the list would you slot the 105 game player, with respect to MVP.

Note: Presume the league average player would create 81 runs in 162 games.