SABR - BBTF Chapter: Rawlings Gold Glove Award adds new sabermetric component with SABR

Comment in the thread below:

As part of the multi-year collaboration beginning with the 2013 season, SABR will develop an expanded statistical resource guide that will accompany the Rawlings Gold Glove Award ballots sent to major league-level managers and coaches each year. In addition, SABR will immediately establish a new Fielding Research Committee tasked to develop a proprietary new defensive analytic called the SABR Defensive Index™, or SDI™. The SDI will serve as an ...

Sox Therapy: John Farrell and the Shift Defense

The largest change in baseball strategy over the last decade has been the radically increased use of the shift defense in the past two years.  This was pointed out in a Bill James Online article by John Dewan early in 2012.  Farrell’s Blue Jays were among the earliest adopters of the shift, reportedly due to the influence of 3rd base coach Brian Butterfield.  Butterfield has moved to Boston with Farrell, and we can expect the shift to make the trek east as well.  He may be actually taking it ...

SABR - BBTF Chapter: SABR Analytics Conference, March 7-9, 2013 Phoenix, AZ

The 2013 SABR Analytics Conference will be held Thursday, March 7 through Saturday, March 9, 2013, in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.

Thursday’s programming will be held at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, 555 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85004.

Friday and Saturday’s programming will be held at the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown, 340 North 3rd Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004.

Joe Posnanski and Bill James are among the featured speakers, and there ...

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1979 Ballot

For 1979, each voter should rank their top 13 players from both leagues combined.

Balloting is scheduled to close at 4pm EST on 06 March 2013.

Anyone can vote, even if you do not normally participate in Hall of Merit discussions. If have never participated in an MMP election, just post a preliminary ballot in the discussion thread by 04 March 2013.

For detailed rules see one of our previous ballots.

Hall of Merit: Most Meritorious Player: 1978 Ballot

For 1978, each voter should rank their top 13 players from both leagues combined.

Balloting will close at 4pm EST on 06 February 2013.

Anyone can vote, even if you do not normally participate in Hall of Merit discussions. If have never participated in an MMP election, just post a preliminary ballot in the discussion thread by 04 February 2013.

For detailed rules see one of our previous ballots.

SABR - BBTF Chapter: Hotel Reservation Link for SABR43

About time!

Hotel reservation link is also accessible through the convention site.

Newsblog: Nominations for the Greg Spira Award are now open!

The new Greg Spira Baseball Research Award (www.SpiraAward.org) will be given annually in recognition of the best published article or paper containing original baseball research by a person 30 years old or younger.

Working with the Spira family, the creators of the Greg Spira Award include Sean Forman of Baseball- Reference.com, Joe Hamrahi and Dave Pease of Baseball Prospectus, Sean Lahman of Baseball1.com, and Gary Gillette of 24-7 Baseball, L.L.C.

The winner of the Greg Spira Baseball ...

SABR - BBTF Chapter: SABR43 Call for Abstracts

SABR invites all members to present their research findings to their colleagues attending SABR43.  Oral presentations are expected to last 20 minutes, followed by a five minute question-and-answer period.  Posters will be presented, with the author on-hand to discuss the work, during a poster session of 90 or so minutes, and will probably remain on display throughout the convention.

Through on-site judging, the most highly-regarded presentations will receive the Doug Pappas Award for best oral ...

Jim's Lab Notes: Join My Sim League

By the end of the week, I want to complete the membership in my fantasy baseball simulation league.

The Whalehead League successfully completed twenty years before disbanding a few years ago. We currently have thirteen members and are looking to add three more. Quite a few people have expressed interest. We are a dependable, competitive, and funny bunch. If you are dependable, knowledgeable, and competitive, I encourage you to contact me. If you are funny as well, you will find yourself on ...

Hall of Merit: 2013 Results: Bonds, Clemens, Piazza and Biggio are elected to the Hall of Merit!

Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mike Piazza and Craig Biggio have been elected to the Hall of Merit!

The timing for our first year electing 4 candidates could not have worked out better, since class of 2013 is the strongest in terms of electees that we’ve ever had. The top of the 1934 ballot included Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Eddie Collins, Pop Lloyd, Smokey Joe Williams and Cristobal Torriente, but only 2 were elected.

Bonds and Clemens were each unanimous at 1 and 2. I believe that’s the first ...