Hacking Baseball

Baseball is perhaps the most boring thing in the world to watch. The leisurely rate of play, the lack of constant action, and the pauses players take for impromptu meetings, spitting, and crotch-grabbing are torture for my ADD-riddled brain. Reading about baseball is every bit as bad, and reading about baseball-stats geeks …

[MarkieMark1]

ceci n'est pas un titre

As the highest-paid sportsmen are Baseball stars, it must provide deep stimulation to someone :-)

[danolds]

Are they?

I don't know - I thought that soccer stars made more in terms of salary, but I could be wrong about that. It also depends on how you measure it. Baseball players are somewhat fat at times, so they might be better price/performers on a pound for pound basis.

[MarkieMark1]

it seems to have changed this year

Last year though ISTR several baseball players in the $50M region, must be the recession

it's mostly golf, basketball, motorsports, tennis, both kinds of football; a mere 11 baseball players in the top 50 athletes list now

[Duncan Budd 1]

Read Moneyball by Michael Lewis

Anyone interested in this subject should read Moneyball by Michael Lewis. Cracking good read.

Duncan

[yeahyeahno]

Cricket anyone?

"Baseball is perhaps the most boring thing in the world to watch. The leisurely rate of play, the lack of constant action, and the pauses players take for impromptu meetings..."

I take it this author has not seen cricket then.

[Anomalous Cowturd]

@yeahyeahno Re: Cricket anyone?

Cricket is a wonderful and exciting game, let down by poor governance, and a few bad apples. Much like many other "professional" sports.

Baseball IS the MOST boring game on the planet. Bar Monopoly!

Lemon entry, my dear Watson.

[Sorry that handle is already taken.]

I'd have said cycling, myself

Or lawn bowls

Or darts

Or soccer

Troll icon for that last one.

[Anonymous Coward]

Boring

"Baseball is perhaps the most boring thing in the world to watch."

I will only accept that criticism if you are also not a cricket fan.

[fishman]

Boring

Baseball is as exciting as.....Cricket.

Of course, here in the states, we have a way of punishing parents for having kids - It's called T-Ball.

[Disco-Legend-Zeke]

No Mention Of...

...sports betting.

Big money in that game.

[danolds]

I've seen cricket..

...but only with an Australian friend playing it back on a DVR - so we could fast forward through a huge amount of it. Plus we were a bit drunk. But I learned all about the legend of Andy F**king Bickel and why he was a God-like figure to Aussie cricket fans. Then I lapsed into unconsciousness....

[Anonymous Coward]

R

Is that data (data - not video) streamed? If so expect I could write something with R to crunch play by play...

[jake]

Boring? Only if you don't understand the nuances of the game.

Baseball's no more boring than cricket or soccer or hockey or American football.

You want boring viewing? Try golf. Or basketball. Or NASCAR, or Monster Truck racing.

And as a side note, and back on topic, if you DON'T understand the nuances of the game, chances are good that access to all the data in the world won't improve your odds at Ladbrokes, or Vegas or Atlantic City.

[Anonymous Coward]

Comparing sports is like ...

... complaining that analogies are pointless. It's pointless..

I love sports. (Baseball's my 2nd favorite after soccer*^H^H^H^H^H^Hfootball). I like games too. But I understand the inherent pointlessness of it all, so I just wish people who don't like sports would stop complaining about them. I don't complain about people spending lots of their time reading made-up stuff for fun. (Actually, you can complain about college and high school sports, but only if you live in the USA and plan to do something about it).

* When in Rome** speak like the Romans.

** Actually not in Rome***, but it isn't too far from here.

*** No, not that Rome.

[Hungry Sean]

bad assumption?

Seems like the notion that someone who doesn't have to run to catch a ball is "slack jawed"/lucky and therefore less valuable than a player who has to run and make an amazing play is off the mark. Could well be that the guy who isn't running just happens to have read the situation better and positioned themselves well. Much like strikers who don't run fast and aren't really eye catching, but score lots of goals anyway.

[Marvin the Martian]

Slackjawed or hard-working?

I'd stick with the consistently "lucky" player though, every time.

As you say, the legs have to pay for what the head doesn't succeed in doing --- "look busy" is just not the aim.

[Charles 9]

I think it's safe to assume...

...that the odds of any hit ball going in a predictable direction aren't really all that great. Too many factors involved, including chance. Therefore, the odds of predicting just where to be to catch the ball is pretty remote. Much more likely is that the ball flies somewhere between fielders, one of them signals they'll get it, runs into position, and make the catch. And line drives require VERY fast reflexes if you don't want that ball shooting through the gap for extra bases.

Cricket has similar considerations. Field positioning is one of the trickier things for a fielding captain to consider. Do you attack and try to take the catches or defend and keep the run rate down? And many a fielder can be forgiven for that sharp chance that just slips past their diving fingertips.

[Decius]

Ass of you and me...

The exact location of a hit might not be predictable, but a good fielder can know roughly where the ball might go by reading the batter and the pitch.

A good home plate umpire will have a good idea of the pitch, if the batter will swing, and if the batter will hit as soon as the ball leaves the pitcher's hand. Fielders have a slightly worse view of the batter, but can see the pitch that the catcher called much better.

[Anonymous Coward]

Need to get into daily fantasy sports

If you can figure out baseball stats get down to somewhere like fanduel.com to make serious money

[Paul Hovnanian]

Deep Analytics

As the capabilities of such powerful computing techniques grow, we may eventually have a system that is capable of explaining Cricket to Americans.

[Anonymous Coward]

If you wonder why Yanks are fat...

..it's because their sports consist of 10 seconds of action and 10 minutes of chatting.....(ok crickets is 1 seond action 10 mins chatting)...

PS add fishing to the list...

[Anonymous Coward]

Baseball eh?

I spent a day at the ball-park once.

Montreal versus some US Team....

Drank plenty of beer.

Ate plenty of (bad) pizza.

Ate Crackerjacks, cause apparently that's what you do.

Drank some more beer.

Apparently someone won (eventually)

Yawn

[C 18]

@AC 08:28

>Apparently someone won (eventually)

Looks like the brewery did 2-to-1, they always do when it comes to sports

As soon as they can't advertise alcohol during sports (TV or sponsorship or otherwise) they'll die a death