Baseball Needs a New Stat
By Brian | April 6, 2007
Yeah, I know – baseball has more stats than any other sport, and I’m suggesting a new one. But the fact is, one of the current stats just isn’t measuring what it’s supposed to measure (at least not in all cases) and rather than looking at a meaningless number, I’d like to see it fixed.
The stat I’m referring to is Earned Run Average (ERA), defined as the average number of earned runs a pitcher gives up per nine innings. For a starting pitcher, this stat is fine. If someone pitches six innings and gives up two earned runs, we can safely assume he gives up roughly three runs per nine inning game (especially if he does this consistently throughout the year). My problem involves using the ERA for relief pitchers.
Take last night’s Yankee game for example. In the fifth inning, Andy Pettitte gave up two infield singles and suffered an error by the first baseman, Doug Mientkiewicz, making it first and third with nobody out. Joe Torre lifted Pettitte for reliever, Scott Proctor. The score at the time was 4-2 in favor of the Yankees.
The runner on first immediately stole second, making it second and third. Proctor struck out the first batter he faced, then gave up a sacrifice fly (bringing a run home and advancing the runner on second to third), and then threw a wild pitch to bring a second run home. Score: 4-4. Then, Derek Jeter made another error, but the runner was caught stealing to end the inning.
At the end of this mess, Pettitte gets charged the two runs (although only one earned run due to the Mientkiewicz error) and Proctor is charged with no runs at all. Now, Pettitte deserves the two runs, because he put the runners on base, so the runs that scored are a result of his actions. No complaints there. But to charge Proctor with no runs is to assume that his job is merely to avoid making the problem worse. That’s not the case. Proctor’s job in this situation is to shut down the Devil Rays and maintain the Yankee lead, much like Pettitte would have been asked to do if they let him keep pitching. So, to call Proctor’s performance “perfect” (i.e., no runs allowed) after giving up the lead strikes me as a mis-statement of what relief pitching is all about.
Relief pitchers are frequently brought into tight spots. The good ones get out of the jams without giving up any runs. The mediocre ones let a few runs in, and then stop the bleeding. The really bad ones start giving up runs of their own, but that’s another topic for another day. My point is this: baseball’s current stats judge the good relief pitchers and the mediocre relief pitchers as the same: no runs allowed. ERA = 0.00.
I suggest a new statistic called Earned Runs While Pitching (ERWP), to be defined as the average number of earned runs scored by the opposing team while a given pitcher is on the mound for nine innings. In the above situation, therefore, Pettitte would accrue one run toward his ERA in the fifth inning, but zero runs toward his ERWP (since no one scored while he was on the mound). Proctor would accrue zero runs toward his ERA, but two runs toward his ERWP.
If Pettitte and Proctor continue to have outings like they did last night all season long, Pettitte’s ERA would rank him (deservedly) as a fairly mediocre pitcher, and Proctor’s ERA would rank him tied for the best pitcher ever (ERA = 0.00). ERWP, on the other hand, would show Pettitte as better than average, and Proctor as having let the team down.
One could argue about which stat is most appropriate at what time (roughly: ERA for starting pitchers, ERWP for relievers), but at least we’d have both to consider.
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The Beatles are Coming! The Beatles are Coming!
By Brian | April 6, 2007
Off the news wires today:
Beatles May Go Online As Apple, EMI Come Together:
Apple Inc. and music label EMI Group Plc plan to announce “an exciting new digital offering,” EMI said Sunday, a move that could involve putting the Beatles music catalog online.
EMI said it plans to hold a news conference Monday at its London headquarters where EMI Chief Executive Eric Nicoli will be joined by Apple Chief Executive and co-founder Steve Jobs, the company said in an e-mail to reporters.
Currently, no Beatles songs can be downloaded via online music services. EMI has been the distributor for the Beatles since the early 1960s.
If that’s really what they’re announcing, I’m willing to bet that the Beatles set yet another music record, becoming the group with the most music downloads in a single day. And you’ll forgive the geek side of me, but it will also be an acid test of ITMS’ network infrastructure, as we see whether or not the servers can handle a huge spike in requests on a single day.
Of course, we’re still not sure that’s what is happening:
A live Webcast of the event, which will feature “a special live performance,” will be available at http://www.emigroup.com beginning at 1 p.m. local time in London (8 a.m. EDT).
That would be a very, very special live performance, eh?
Categories: Words about Music | 2 Comments »
A Congent, Balanced Argument Against “The Surge”
By Brian | April 6, 2007
This guy seems to have it just right:
I do not want–as I believe most Americans do not want–to sell out American interests, to simply withdraw, to raise the white flag of surrender. That would be unacceptable to us as a country and as a people. But I am concerned–as I believe most Americans are concerned–that the course we are following at the present time is deeply wrong…
I am concerned–as I believe most Americans are concerned–that our present course will not bring victory; will not bring peace; will not stop the bloodshed; and will not advance the interests of the United States or the cause of peace in the world. I am concerned that, at the end of it all, there will only be more Americans killed; more of our treasure spilled out; and because of the bitterness and hatred on every side of this war, more hundreds of thousands of [civilians] slaughtered…
Isn’t this exactly what we have always done in the past? If we examine the history of this conflict, we find the dismal story repeated time after time. Every time–at every crisis–we have denied that anything was wrong; sent more troops; and issued more confident communiques. Every time, we have been assured that this one last step would bring victory. And every time, the predictions and promises have failed and been forgotten, and the demand has been made again for just one more step up the ladder. But all the escalations, all the last steps, have brought us no closer to success than we were before…
Let us have no misunderstanding. [They] are a brutal enemy indeed. Time and time again, they have shown their willingness to sacrifice innocent civilians, to engage in torture and murder and despicable terror to achieve their ends. This is a war almost without rules or quarter. There can be no easy moral answer to this war, no one-sided condemnation of American actions. What we must ask ourselves is whether we have a right to bring so much destruction to another land, without clear and convincing evidence that this is what its people want. But that is precisely the evidence we do not have…
But the costs of the war’s present course far outweigh anything we can reasonably hope to gain by it, for ourselves or for the [civilians]. It must be ended, and it can be ended, in a peace of brave men who have fought each other with a terrible fury, each believing he and he alone was in the right. We have prayed to different gods, and the prayers of neither have been answered fully. Now, while there is still time for some of them to be partly answered, now is the time to stop…
Amazing, isn’t it? A critique of the war in Iraq that doesn’t refer to the President as an incompetent, moronic criminal. A rational argument that acknowledges the complexity of the situation, the brutality of the enemy, and the difficulty of ending the war after having fought it for so long. Why, it’s almost like the speaker is from an entirely different era, when politics was more about making your case than destroying the credibility of the other side.
Oh, who was the speaker? Sorry, forgot that detail – it was Robert F. Kennedy, circa 1968, speaking about the Vietnam war. As Glenn likes to say, read the whole thing.
Categories: Political Rantings | Comments Off on A Congent, Balanced Argument Against “The Surge”
Flag Burning Controversy? Not this time…
By Brian | April 5, 2007
Headline : Three Yale Students Arrested for Burning an American Flag
Political scandal? Excuse for various presidential hopefuls to weigh in with the most opinion poll-tested response to such an incident? Front page news for several days? The subject of continuing coverage on MSCNNOX News?
Not this time. You see, the flag they burned happened to be attached to a house when they burned it:
[Police officers] saw that a flag hanging off of 512 Chapel St. was engulfed in flames, [a spokeswoman] said. While one officer removed the burning flag, the other officer stopped the students, who were further down the street.
According to court reports, the charges against the students initially included two counts of reckless burning, which were later changed to two counts of second degree arson at yesterday’s arraignment.
So this one is too much of a slam-dunk even for the story-starved mainstream media. It doesn’t even help that one of the students was born in Pakistan, the son of a former Afghan governor, and once worked as a translator for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
At least, I should say, it hasn’t helped yet. There’s always tomorrow’s paper…
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | Comments Off on Flag Burning Controversy? Not this time…
Some Pictures are Worth 2,000 Words
By Brian | April 3, 2007
If you don’t know who these people are, you probably look at this picture and think, “Boy and his Mom Playing Baseball on a Spring Day.”
If you do know who they are, you think, “Remembering Cory Lidle: Father and Husband.”
It’s hard to imagine a single picture that can convey as much joy and sadness at the same time…
Categories: Sports Talk | Comments Off on Some Pictures are Worth 2,000 Words
Wireless recharging
By Brian | April 1, 2007
Man, talk about solving a problem no one knew they had! Scalzi just pointed this out:
Powercast and its first major partner, electronics giant Philips, are set to launch their first device powered by electricity broadcast through the air.
It may sound futuristic, but Powercast’s platform uses nothing more complex than a radio–and is cheap enough for just about any company to incorporate into a product. A transmitter plugs into the wall, and a dime-size receiver (the real innovation, costing about $5 to make) can be embedded into any low-voltage device. The receiver turns radio waves into DC electricity, recharging the device’s battery at a distance of up to 3 feet.
Picture your cell phone charging up the second you sit down at your desk, and you start to get a sense of the opportunity.
I had just assumed you’d always have to plug something in to recharge it. Apparently not.
I’m picturing public recharging kiosks in coffee shops, airport waiting areas, etc.. The possibilities really are endless…
Categories: Tech Talk, The Future is Now | 1 Comment »
Sometimes plagiarism is the best vehicle…
By Brian | March 29, 2007
Would it be really bad if I just stole this idea outright to tell you about my morning commute?
No? Good.
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | 2 Comments »
Penn Money
By Brian | March 28, 2007
Another post of interest for my University of Pennsylvania readers (that’s two in two days – pretty cool, huh?). Anyway, not much to add here, other than to say, did anyone know that back in the 50’s, the United States minted coins with Ben Franklin’s picture on them?
For everyone else’s benefit, suffice to say that you can’t turn too many corners on Penn’s campus without running into a picture and/or statue of Ben Franklin, the University’s founder. Obviously, back in the 1950’s, this was even moreso the case…
(hat tip: Lileks)
Categories: Money Talk, University of Pennsylvania | 3 Comments »
NY Times: Captain America Shot Dead
By Brian | March 28, 2007
I know there’s an entire population of adults out there who still buy comic books, and follow the plots like they’re soap operas, but I didn’t realize how…well, pedestrian, these plots have become.
For instance, here’s what the New York Times Book section had to say about the recent murder of Captain America:
Captain America, a Marvel Entertainment superhero, is fatally shot by a sniper in the 25th issue of his eponymous comic, which arrived in stores yesterday. The assassination ends the sentinel of liberty’s fight for right, which began in 1941.
The last episode in Captain America’s life comes after the events of “Civil War,” a seven-issue mini-series that has affected nearly the entire line of Marvel’s library of titles. In “Civil War,” the government began requiring superheroes to register their services, and it outlawed vigilantism after supervillains and superheroes fought during a reality show, accidentally killing hundreds of civilians. The public likened the heroes to weapons of mass destruction that must be controlled.
OK, first of all, seriously? Marvel Comics has adopted the basic plot of The Incredibles? Isn’t this a job for Captain Copyright? Also, note the references to Reality TV and WMD’s, which give it that modern, political feel.
We press on:
The registration act polarized the superhero community. Captain America (whose true identity was Steve Rogers) considered the legislation an erosion of civil liberties; Iron Man, on the other side, believed that training heroes as the military, firefighters or the police are trained would only benefit society. When the factions came to blows and caused more destruction, Captain America chose to fight his battle . . .
With his secret ray gun? By using his Red, White and Blue super-shield like a Chinese Star and cutting his enemies to ribbons? By teaming up with his Super Friends to put the bad guys in a giant net and hurtling them towards the sun? Well, no:
When the factions came to blows and caused more destruction, Captain America chose to fight his battle in court.
But in the current issue of his title, Captain America takes bullets in the shoulder and stomach while on the courthouse steps. The assassin is alleged to be Sharon Carter, an intelligence agent romantically involved with Captain America.
[Emphasis mine]
So this is the state of the modern comic book? The superhero goes to court to defend his civil rights, and dies of a gunshot wound amid protest signs calling him a traitor, a victim of a domestic dispute gone bad?
Doesn’t this sound more like the final episode of Super ACLU-Lawyer? I realize I’ve missed 66 years of back issues, but I can’t believe this is how Captain America has always been portrayed…
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | 3 Comments »
Harold and Kumar go to Penn
By Brian | March 26, 2007
Well, Kumar, anyway:
PHILADELPHIA – Kal Penn [a.k.a. Kalpen Modi], known for his role as Kumar Patel in the 2004 cult classic “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,” will be a guest instructor at the University of Pennsylvania during the spring 2008 semester.
Penn, 29, will teach two undergraduate courses, tentatively titled, “Images of Asian Americans in the Media” and “Contemporary American Teen Films,” the school announced Monday.
Grace Kao, director of Penn’s Asian American Studies Program called Modi “one of the leading Asian American actors of his generation.”
I’m sure Mr. Modi is an intelligent man (he’s currently pursuing a graduate degree at Stanford University), and I’m sure that he will have quite a bit to teach Penn students who are interested in these topics. None of this changes the fact that he will absorb endless amounts of ridicule from the student body (heck – I can almost see the Penn Band’s halftime show now – not to mention the Princeton band’s, the Brown band’s, the Yale band’s…)
Also, I think we’ve estabilshed that Grace Kao needs to get out to the movies more often…
Oh, by the way:
[Modi] recently finished shooting “Harold & Kumar 2 with [John] Cho
Maybe he’ll get really lucky and they’ll release it on campus on the first day of classes…
Categories: Movie Talk, University of Pennsylvania | 4 Comments »