Archive for Site News

Pitcher Pace (Time Between Pitches)

I’ve added a new stat to the PitchF/x section, “Pace”, inspired by this post over at Beyond the Box Score, which shows how much time each pitcher takes in between his pitches.

The way I calculate Pace, is by taking the difference between the start time of the first pitch in the plate appearance, and the end time of the last pitch in the plate appearance. I then divide by the number of pitches in that plate appearance (minus 1). Pickoff attempts are considered just another pitch, since they don’t have time stamps of their own. Anything that looks like a game delay between pitches is thrown out. The average pace is about 21.5 seconds.

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2011 Bill James Handbook Projections!

Kicking off projection season, as usual, are the 2011 Bill James Handbook Projections, courtesy of Baseball Info Solutions.

They’re available right now in the player pages!


Leaderboard Upgrades!

The leaderboards and team pages now have a bunch of new features!

– There’s a new Dashboard tab which mimics the stats shown the player dashboard area.

– wRC+, tERA, FSR, and TZL (Total Zone w/ Location Data) have been added.

– The Fans Scouting Report has been given its own section.

– WAR data for both batters and pitchers can now be filtered on a monthly basis. This is done by pro-rating UZR and Positional adjustments based on playing time.

– You can now go back as far as 1871 in both the leaderboards and team sections.

Here are some additional notes:

– All positional filtering is done on a qualified player basis. If a player played in 25% or more of his games at a particular position than he’s qualified.

– Reliever/Starter filtering pre-1974 right now will filter only on pure starters/relievers and any dual-role pitchers will be left out. This will be fixed in a future update.

If you notice any problems or spot any bugs, please let us know!


Fans Scouting Report on FanGraphs!

I’m pleased to announce that FanGraphs is now carrying the results of the Fans Scouting Report, conducted each year by Tangotiger. We currently have 2009 and 2010, but plan to eventually get all the years going back to 2003.

Right now it’s available in each of the player pages in both the “Advanced Fielding” section and its own section. It will soon make it’s way to the leaderboards and team pages.

The one thing that you probably need to know is:

FSR – Runs above average for fans scouting report.

Other than that, everything is on a 0 – 100 scale, with 50 being the average.


Player Pages Update

I’ve made some changes to the player pages:

– The change to the header allowed us to remove the sidebar and increase the width of the stat boxes. I personally think they look less cramped and now there’s room to add more.

MLB Trade Rumors links specific to that player are now available on each page.

– Facebook like and a universal “share” button is now available on all the player pages.

– We’re now getting all the latest RotoWire news for every player and no longer just a small sampling of players.

I think that’s about it, for now. There may be some future changes depending on how these are received.


Park Factors Updated

For all our Wins Above Replacement metrics (WAR) we use five year regressed park factors. These are now updated to include 2010 data.

Our final 2010 UZR update will be later this week, but as of now UZR has been updated through September 30th and is only missing the last three days of the season.


Fans Scouting Report 2010

It’s that time of year again! Tangotiger is running his annual Fans Scouting Report. Please take a moment and fill out scouting reports for the team of your choice!


Minor League Stats – Back for Good!

Good news everyone!

Minor league stats are updated for 2010 and will continue to be updated throughout whatever’s left of the season. We also have added the 2010 Mexican League, Venezuelan Summer League, and Dominican Summer League and plan to have the the winter leagues as well.

There’s still a little bit of cleanup that needs to be done in terms of player matching (Strasburg for instance has 2 pages still), but that should be completed this weekend.


FanGraphs Live, NYC – Full Details

For those of you who are still making up your minds about whether or not to come to the very first FanGraphs live event in NYC this Saturday, August 7th at 9am, here are the full details:

Location: Florence Gould Hall (55 East 59th Street)

Tickets: $15 online (+$1.36 surcharge). $20 cash only at the door.

NY Baseball (9:00am – 9:40am)

Joe Pawlikowski, Mike Axisa, Benjamin Kabak (All RiverAveBlues.com), Matthew Cerrone (MetsBlog.com), and Mark Simon (ESPN) will be discussing all things baseball in NY. Moderated by Carson Cistulli.

Baseball Media (9:45am – 10:30am)

Jonah Keri (Bloomberg Sports) will host a panel comprised of Will Leitch (Deadspin, New York Magazine), Michael Silverman (Boston Herald), Matthew Cerrone (MetsBlog.com), Alex Speier (WEEI.com), and David Biderman (WSJ) to discuss how baseball media coverage has changed in recent years and will continue to evolve.

Baseball Stats (10:40am – 11:15am)

Jon Sciambi (ESPN), Mitchel Lichtman, Sky Kalkman (Beyond the Boxscore), Dave Cameron, and David Appelman will discuss where advanced baseball stats are right now and where they’ll be headed. Moderated by Carson Cistulli.

Bloomberg Sports Presentation (11:20 – 11:35)

Bloomberg Sports will make a presentation of a brand new product.

FanGraphs Q&A (11:40 – End)

Dave Cameron, Carson Cistulli, Bryan Smith, Joe Pawlikowski, Mike Axisa, and David Appelman will take questions until we’re officially kicked out (a little after 12:00).

Afterparty (3:30pm – Game Over)

Additionally, we’re going to host a game-watching party for attendees to gather at a local watering hole and view that afternoon’s Boston-New York match-up together. Those who make it to the event will be invited to join us for several more hours of fun later in the afternoon. Details and directions will be given at the event.


Total Zone with Location Data

A couple weeks ago Sean Smith released a revamped Total Zone system which included Gameday location data. You can read all about it on baseballprojection.com.

On FanGraphs you can now find the new Total Zone numbers for the 2005-2009 season in the player pages under the heading TZL in the Advanced Fielding sections. Here’s what Carl Crawford’s numbers look like: