Faulty Radar, and Performance by Position

Wednesday, September 24, 2008
by Geoff Young
I've got a few things on my mind this morning. First off, I'm reorganizing the categories of this here blog, trying to put some of those information architecture skills I learned at my last job to use. Among other things, I'm discovering that it's a lot harder to organize your own stuff than someone else's. Anyway, in the process of doing this, I've rediscovered a few ancient posts. One of them (pardon the ugly tables) discusses the limitations in using statistics to evaluate prospects. I'm thinking of Matt Antonelli and the fact that he's fallen off a few radar screens because of his poor showing at Portland this year. Not that Antonelli is the same type of player, but I wonder how many folks had given ...
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Posted in Research | 4 Comments »

Putting ‘Em On, Letting ‘Em In

Wednesday, June 11, 2008
by Geoff Young
One area where Padres pitchers have struggled so far in 2008 is with runners in scoring position. Opponents are hitting .270/.371/.434 against them in those situations. Only four teams -- the Marlins (823), Tigers (837), Rockies (859), and Rangers (916) -- have allowed a higher OPS. Unfortunately, Padres pitchers also rank seventh in MLB in plate appearances with RISP. Bad combination, that. Last year, opponents hit .266/.343/.391 against Padres pitchers with RISP. The OPS of 733 (rounding error) was good for sixth best in MLB. Here's a more detailed look: Opponent OPS with RISP  MLB YearPadresTotalLowHigh Statistics are courtesy of Baseball-Reference and are through games of June 10, 2008. 2007733780711874 2008805756654916 We're not concluding anything here, just observing... * * * Quick programming ...
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Posted in Baseball | 15 Comments »

Padres tickets  Chargers tickets  Sports tickets

Three Pitchers and a Former GM

Wednesday, May 14, 2008
by Geoff Young
I'm kinda winging it today. We'll see what happens... This has been floating around for a few days now, but Paul DePodesta has a blog. I've added it to the ol' blogroll as well as to PadreBlogs.com. One of DePo's first posts concerns the effects of Petco Park. The entire post is well worth reading, but here's one passage that stands out to me: In each of the past 4+ seasons, the Padres have had a higher OPS than our opponents while playing in Petco. The total line since the opening: .246/.321/.379 for the Padres and .243/.303/.376 for the opposition. Over 342 ...
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Posted in Notes and Links | 109 Comments »

Hacking on a 2-1 Count

Thursday, October 20, 2005
by Geoff Young
Yesterday we talked about the Padres' inability to hit on a 2-1 count. We speculated on reasons why this might be so. Reader Anthony suggested that some hard hit balls may have died on the warning track at Petco or that some players might be thinking walk first when they get ahead in the count. Dex suspects there might be an organizational philosophy that leads to an overly aggressive approach in certain situations. The Padres numbers seemed pretty anemic to me, but it's difficult to know for sure without any context. I thought it might prove instructive to run numbers on all 30 MLB teams and see how the Padres stack up against ...
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Posted in Baseball | 10 Comments »

Padres Batting by Count, 2004-2005

Wednesday, October 19, 2005
by Geoff Young
I've alluded to this before, and I don't know what to make of it, but the Padres really struggled hitting in 2-1 counts this year: Padres Batting by Count, 2005 CountABBAOBPSLGOPSISOXBH/HAB/HR Stats courtesy ESPN. 0-0666.309.309.459.768.150.31139.18 0-1559.351.358.483.841.132.22446.58 0-2420.150.167.198.365.048.206140.00 1-0476.315.317.508.825.193.34726.44 1-1536.313.319.502.821.188.39335.73 1-2784.144.150.231.381.087.28352.27...
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Posted in Baseball | 11 Comments »

A Few Quick Thoughts

Friday, October 15, 2004
by Geoff Young
Oh boy, Baseball Reference has added 2004 stats. Check out the Padres page. You can see that Sean Burroughs compares well to Edgardo Alfonzo and Brooks Robinson at the same age, among others. You can also find weird pieces of information. For example, you probably know that Ryan Klesko hit just 9 homers this year, the fewest he's hit in a full season. But did you know that his OPS+ (OPS relative to league) of 127 was identical to his OPS+ in 1995, when he hit a career-high 34 home runs? Well, now you ...
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Posted in Notes and Links | No Comments »