Sunday, March 2, 2008

It's Here... Part II




The other day that I spend all winter waiting for is the arrival of my Baseball-Prospectus. It's an awesome book, but for those who aren't into baseball, you'll just think it's stupid... It's mostly translated statistics, meaning they're put into complex formulas to try and level the playing field. Example: Player A hits .300 playing for the Rockies - 81 games at Coors Field (notorious hitter's park). Player B hits.290 for the Padres at PETCO park (strong pitcher's park). Who's the better hitter? Well, if these batting averages were put into the translation formulas, you'd get an EqA (Equivalent Average), and would know what they did in a neutral hitting environment. For the record, Player B would have a higher EqA. Again, for most of you, you don't care...