Fuck Zorp You Stathead Turds

[BH]

Pedro also pitched in the American League, with 9 professional hitters in the lineup on a daily basis.

This has led me way down the rabbithole, after marveling at Pedro and then Maddux's 95 season I'm now just marveling at Walter Johnson. Deadball Era be damned, the man averaged 330+ IP from 1908-1919 and put up a 173 ERA+ during that time.

Stats. I love em.

Your Walter Johnson mention has sent me deep down the rabbithole as well.  Jeebus, Cy Young averaged 350 innings a season over a 21 year career.

Which reminds me, I need to read "Crazy '08" again, and highly recommend the book to anyone with an interest in old timey baseball things.

I always hear people reject those incredible IP feats because "pitchers didn't throw as hard back then" but the thing is I guarantee you that sonofabitch threw as hard as he was capable of throwing. I can probably manage a 40 MPH fastball but if you asked me to throw 120+ of them for 350 innings a year my shoulder would still fall off and I would cry a lot. That's an impressive feat no matter what he has clockin'.

I'd formally like to make this request.

[Quality Start Machine]

Pedro also pitched in the American League, with 9 professional hitters in the lineup on a daily basis.

This has led me way down the rabbithole, after marveling at Pedro and then Maddux's 95 season I'm now just marveling at Walter Johnson. Deadball Era be damned, the man averaged 330+ IP from 1908-1919 and put up a 173 ERA+ during that time.

Stats. I love em.

Your Walter Johnson mention has sent me deep down the rabbithole as well.  Jeebus, Cy Young averaged 350 innings a season over a 21 year career.

Which reminds me, I need to read "Crazy '08" again, and highly recommend the book to anyone with an interest in old timey baseball things.

I always hear people reject those incredible IP feats because "pitchers didn't throw as hard back then" but the thing is I guarantee you that sonofabitch threw as hard as he was capable of throwing. I can probably manage a 40 MPH fastball but if you asked me to throw 120+ of them for 350 innings a year my shoulder would still fall off and I would cry a lot. That's an impressive feat no matter what he has clockin'.

There's enough film of guys like Johnson, Young and Mathewson - holy shit, he looked like Seaver - to draw context. Hitters were swinging (esp. with Johnson) very late. Sure, some of it had to do with the idea that a heavier bat would give you better contact, as the notion of bat head speed through the hitting zone didn't come until the 40s.
But these guys could fucking bring it. Considering they were bringing it in ballparks without lights, and full of shadows, it's a miracle there was only one in-game fatality.

[SKO]

question that came up from re-reading the Milton thread and seeing the popular Adam Dunn nickname "VORP Donkey" that I hope maybe ChuckD or someone can answer....

Does anyone still use VORP or has it been completely supplanted by WAR? What's the difference between the two? I see WAR used constantly, VORP almost never these days.

[Quality Start Machine]

question that came up from re-reading the Milton thread and seeing the popular Adam Dunn nickname "VORP Donkey" that I hope maybe ChuckD or someone can answer....

Does anyone still use VORP or has it been completely supplanted by WAR? What's the difference between the two? I see WAR used constantly, VORP almost never these days.

VORP went out with high-button shoes.

[PenFoe]

question that came up from re-reading the Milton thread and seeing the popular Adam Dunn nickname "VORP Donkey" that I hope maybe ChuckD or someone can answer....

Does anyone still use VORP or has it been completely supplanted by WAR? What's the difference between the two? I see WAR used constantly, VORP almost never these days.

Chuck killed VORP when he invented TORP.

[Yeti]

question that came up from re-reading the Milton thread and seeing the popular Adam Dunn nickname "VORP Donkey" that I hope maybe ChuckD or someone can answer....

Does anyone still use VORP or has it been completely supplanted by WAR? What's the difference between the two? I see WAR used constantly, VORP almost never these days.

I see that you changed the thread title. A homage to BadNewsMike isn't worth it?

[SKO]

question that came up from re-reading the Milton thread and seeing the popular Adam Dunn nickname "VORP Donkey" that I hope maybe ChuckD or someone can answer....

Does anyone still use VORP or has it been completely supplanted by WAR? What's the difference between the two? I see WAR used constantly, VORP almost never these days.

I see that you changed the thread title. A homage to BadNewsMike isn't worth it?

Nowadays I think he's best forgotten. As is 21 year old SKO.

[Eli]

question that came up from re-reading the Milton thread and seeing the popular Adam Dunn nickname "VORP Donkey" that I hope maybe ChuckD or someone can answer....

Does anyone still use VORP or has it been completely supplanted by WAR? What's the difference between the two? I see WAR used constantly, VORP almost never these days.

I see that you changed the thread title. A homage to BadNewsMike isn't worth it?

Nowadays I think he's best forgotten. As is 21 year old SKO.

To answer your question, VORP does still exist, but it looks like BP has shifted to "BWARP" as their primary player valuation (presumably to go along with how everyone else is using wins as their preferred metric). Then again, their glossary of stats hasn't been updated since 2011, so I'm not sure if it's accurate.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/sortable/index.php?cid=1819201

[SKO]

question that came up from re-reading the Milton thread and seeing the popular Adam Dunn nickname "VORP Donkey" that I hope maybe ChuckD or someone can answer....

Does anyone still use VORP or has it been completely supplanted by WAR? What's the difference between the two? I see WAR used constantly, VORP almost never these days.

I see that you changed the thread title. A homage to BadNewsMike isn't worth it?

Nowadays I think he's best forgotten. As is 21 year old SKO.

To answer your question, VORP does still exist, but it looks like BP has shifted to "BWARP" as their primary player valuation (presumably to go along with how everyone else is using wins as their preferred metric). Then again, their glossary of stats hasn't been updated since 2011, so I'm not sure if it's accurate.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/sortable/index.php?cid=1819201

Also looks like VORP was just an offensive stat only, now that I've looked into it, and WAR factors in defense and whatnot, which would make sense why VORPDonkey was the VORPDonkey and WAR noted him as a mostly average to below average player. Understandable why VORP is obsolete.

[PenFoe]

I'm sure a lot of you have seen this - it came out last week at some point, but I couldn't help but love the new "Deserved Runs Average" stat that Harry Pavlidis and the folks at Baseball Prospectus just rolled out.   

Just one step closer to the Deserved Wins stat we've been coveting. 

[R-V]

Has MLB made Statcast info publicly available yet, or are there plans to soon? I'm sure ChuckD and his fellow cyborgs could come up with all sorts of cool shit based on that datase.

[ChuckD]

Has MLB made Statcast info publicly available yet, or are there plans to soon? I'm sure ChuckD and his fellow cyborgs could come up with all sorts of cool shit based on that datase.

Not that I'm aware of.

[Tonker]

I was just browsing, with my hand down my shorts, through Cubs stats on Fangraphs, when I noticed that BMIaez has a BABIP of just .292.  Considering that he currently leads the team in WAR ahead of give guys who all have a BABIP of over .350, that's pretty remarkable.

However, I then notice that not only is Javy's BABIP .292, but his BA is also .292.  I tried to think about what exactly that means, but it made my brain hurt, so... paging statnherds?

[Tonker]

I was just browsing, with my hand down my shorts, through Cubs stats on Fangraphs, when I noticed that BMIaez has a BABIP of just .292.  Considering that he currently leads the team in WAR ahead of give guys who all have a BABIP of over .350, that's pretty remarkable.

However, I then notice that not only is Javy's BABIP .292, but his BA is also .292.  I tried to think about what exactly that means, but it made my brain hurt, so... paging statnherds?

Even weirder, by the way - 292 is what Javy weighs when he wakes up in the morning.

[Oleg]

I was just browsing, with my hand down my shorts, through Cubs stats on Fangraphs, when I noticed that BMIaez has a BABIP of just .292.  Considering that he currently leads the team in WAR ahead of give guys who all have a BABIP of over .350, that's pretty remarkable.

However, I then notice that not only is Javy's BABIP .292, but his BA is also .292.  I tried to think about what exactly that means, but it made my brain hurt, so... paging statnherds?

IT MEANS HE GET RESULTS, YOU STUPID CHIEF