“Game Score” is a Bill James invention that assigns a formula-based number to every start by a starting pitcher, based on his innings pitched, runs and hits and walks allowed, and strikeouts racked up, during that particular game. For more detail on the Game Score formula you can check here: Game Score – Wikipedia .

The idea behind Game Score is to have a single number that summarizes the level of “dominance” a starter achieved during his appearance. A Game Score of 100 might be achieved with, say, a complete-game one-hitter with two walks and 17 Ks. In contrast, a zero Game Score might be a one-inning start giving up nine runs on seven hits and three walks with no Ks. After the jump, the highest Opening Day Game Scores achieved for each franchise since 1916. Continue reading →

In an announcement on fangraphs.com, it’s been revealed that they and Baseball-Reference.com have unified the replacement level used for WAR calculations, meaning that bWAR and fWAR will now be the same.

I just chatted with our old friend @Neil_Paine about this and got some info:

• Previously, B-R used a win level of 51-52 per 162 games as the replacement basis.
• The new level is 47-48 wins per 162 games, which will be used by both sites.
• Thus fWAR levels for all players are going down, and bWAR levels for all players are going up.
• Previously, the longer a player’s career was, the larger the discrepancy existed between the two values.
• This means that players with long careers (like Jack Morris….sigh) will get larger bumps up in rWAR or bumps down in fWAR.

In response to a question I was asked on Twitter, I figured out the age at death for all of MLB’s Hall of Famers. Click through for the info.

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This post is for voting and discussion in the thirteenth round of balloting for the Circle of Greats. This round adds those players born in 1957 (and a couple of special guests). Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading →

Wade Boggs chickened out before every game, but not COG voters, who boldly voted Boggs into the Circle of Greats by a wide majority.  Boggs becomes the twelfth COG inductee. More on Wade and the voting after the jump. Continue reading →

Larry Walker, courtesy of iccsports on Flickr.

This post was inspired by a comment by a HHS reader a few weeks back. Artie Z, talking about Larry Walker, said:

Walker wasn’t just posting a .300/.370/.500 line in Coors – it was a .381/.462/.710 line in Coors. That’s a higher batting average than Cobb and a higher slugging percentage than Ruth. I think the numbers are so disorienting that it makes people think that Rbat isn’t doing its job, but then when you (1) look at how Rbat adjusts other Coors hitters and (2) look at how much better Walker was than those other hitters (other than Helton) it makes a little more sense.

Now, when Rally’s WAR (which was the basis for Baseball-Reference’s WAR) originally was published, I was a bit surprised by Walker’s ranking. I knew he was great, but I think I just did what everybody else did and dismissed him as a legitimate Hall of Fame candidate based on his home park.

The more I’ve looked into his case, the more I realized he’s a Hall of Famer—and not just by a little bit. We now have the ability to adjust offensive numbers based on thier context (era, park, etc.). Even after adjusting Walker’s numbers, he’s Hall-worthy. Actually, if we didn’t adjust his numbers, he’d basically be Stan Musial. People are dismissing his numbers as being more like Dale Murphy. The truth, of course, lies somewhere in between.

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Lou Gehrig’s tragically ironic consecutive-games-played-record was broken by the certainly great, but happily less biographicallly dramatic, Cal Ripken. The famous season and career home run records were broken in the steroids era. With those records now less hallowed, the single most memorable remaining baseball record is surely Joe DiMaggio’s streak of 56 consecutive games with at least one base hit, from mid-May to mid-July, 1941. Lots more on hitting streaks after the jump. Continue reading →

One of the most prominent annual signs that baseball season is almost at hand is the onset of the NCAA college basketball tournament. If you would like to submit a bracket in a High Heat Stats group, I’ve set one up at Yahoo’s “Tourney Pick ‘Em” website.   Choose “Join a Group” and then enter Group ID# 79192 and password highheatstatspck.

(Click here if you missed Part 1.)

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“Justify my WAR”

How can we reconcile John Hiller‘s high WAR value — 4th among career relievers, #2 on the 3-year and 6-year lists — with his 125 career saves, the fewest by far of the top 16 in reliever WAR? Saves don’t factor into WAR, of course, but there is a correlation for the top closers. Out of 9 RPs with 15+ WAR who can match his WAR-to-IP ratio, 8 had more than twice his saves.

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This post is for voting and discussion in the twelfth round of balloting for the Circle of Greats. This round adds those players born in 1958 who were not included in the first 1958 round. Rules and lists are after the jump. Continue reading →