The Bill James Gold Mine 2008

"New essays, statistical profiles, and hidden "nuggets" from the man who revolutionized baseball analysis"--Cover

One of the most complete annual baseball references available, this updated guidebook includes informative introductions to its different sections and an extensive glossary that features explanations and a multitude of statistics.

A comprehensive analysis of the entire 2007 baseball season from the first pitch to the last out, including a breakdown of the post season and the World Series. Key features include: ? Reviews of how 2005 played out in each of baseball's six divisions ? An in-depth look at the minor leagues ? Detailed team stats and graphs ? Team-by-team individual hitting and fielding numbers ? A postseason and World Series round up

Focusing on the ten most influential baseball books of all time, this volume explores how these landmark works changed the game itself and made waves in American society at large. Satchel Paige's Pitchin' Man informed the dialog surrounding integration. Ring Lardner's You Know Me Al changed the way Americans viewed their baseball heroes and influenced the work of Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Bill James's Baseball Abstract transformed the way managers--including those in fields other than baseball--analyzed numbers. Pete Rose's My Story and My Prison Without Bars exposed and deepened a cultural divide that paved the way for Donald Trump.

Few players in the history of baseball suffered as many professional setbacks as Roy Sievers (1926-2017). After an award winning rookie season in 1949, he endured a year and a half-long slump, a nearly career-ending injury and a major position change--all from 1950 through 1953. Traded in 1954, he prevailed and became one of the most feared hitters of the decade, the Washington Senators' home run leader and the biggest gate attraction since Walter Johnson. Drawing on original interviews with Sievers and teammates, this first full-length biography covers the life and career of a first baseman who overcame adversity to restore a dispirited franchise.

Data mining is the process of extracting hidden patterns from data, and it’s commonly used in business, bioinformatics, counter-terrorism, and, increasingly, in professional sports. First popularized in Michael Lewis’ best-selling Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game, it is has become an intrinsic part of all professional sports the world over, from baseball to cricket to soccer. While an industry has developed based on statistical analysis services for any given sport, or even for betting behavior analysis on these sports, no research-level book has considered the subject in any detail until now. Sports Data Mining brings together in one place the state of the art as it concerns an international array of sports: baseball, football, basketball, soccer, greyhound racing are all covered, and the authors (including Hsinchun Chen, one of the most esteemed and well-known experts in data mining in the world) present the latest research, developments, software available, and applications for each sport. They even examine the hidden patterns in gaming and wagering, along with the most common systems for wager analysis.

The shutout--a game in which a team prevents its opponent from scoring--remains relatively rare. Of the roughly 200,000 regular season games that have been played since the origins of the major leagues, only about 10 percent have been shutouts. Gold Glove defense, astonishing pitching talent, and the combined efforts of a team working toward baseball artistry must all come together. This work covers every shutout from the beginning of professional baseball through the 2010 World Series, including no-hitters and perfect games. With in-depth statistics and play-by-play descriptions to bring to life the action on the field, it is the definitive history of one of baseball's premier achievements.

How can you help your software team improve? This concise book introduces codermetrics, a clear and objective way to identify, analyze, and discuss the successes and failures of software engineers—not as part of a performance review, but as a way to make the team a more cohesive and productive unit. Experienced team builder Jonathan Alexander explains how codermetrics helps teams understand exactly what occurred during a project, and enables each coder to focus on specific improvements. Alexander presents a variety of simple and complex codermetrics, and teaches you how to create your own. Learn how codermetrics changes long-held assumptions and improves team dynamics Get recommendations for integrating codermetrics into existing processes Ask the right questions to determine the type of data you need to collect Use metrics to measure individual coder skills and a team’s effectiveness over time Identify the contributions each coder makes to the team Analyze the response to your software and its features—and verify that you're meeting team and organizational goals Build better teams, using codermetrics to make personnel adjustments and additions

This book provides a sequel to Robert Ford's comprehensive reference work A Blues Bibliography, the second edition of which was published in 2007. Bringing Ford's bibliography of resources up to date, this volume covers works published since 2005, complementing the first volume by extending coverage through twelve years of new publications. As in the previous volume, this work includes entries on the history and background of the blues, instruments, record labels, reference sources, regional variations, and lyric transcriptions and musical analysis. With extensive listings of print and online articles in scholarly and trade journals, books, and recordings, this bibliography offers the most thorough resource for all researchers studying the blues.

In sports there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. Joe DiMaggio's fifty-six-game hitting streak was magical. The three-point shot is an essential part of NBA basketball. Babe Ruth shouldn't have attempted to steal second base in the ninth inning of the 1926 World Series. Scientist and researcher Sheldon Hirsch has taken a decidedly unorthodox approach to sports history. He looks at myths, legends, conventional wisdom, shibboleths, and firm convictions of all kinds that sports lovers hold to be true, and demonstrates how analysis of facts and figures disproves what tradition - and sportswriters - would have us believe. Divided into three parts, on baseball, basketball, and football, Hot Hands, Draft Hype, and DiMaggio's Streak contains enough clear-sightedness and shocking conclusions to delight any sports lover.