| Baseball Hacks: Tips & Tools for Analyzing and Winning with Statistics |  | Author: Joseph Adler
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
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Seller: mediahaven
Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 284,416
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 480
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0596009429
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.357
EAN: 9780596009427
Publication Date: January 31, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Baseball Hacks isn't your typical baseball book--it's a book about how to watch, research, and understand baseball. It's an instruction manual for the free baseball databases. It's a cookbook for baseball research. Every part of this book is designed to teach baseball fans how to do something. In short, it's a how-to book--one that will increase your enjoyment and knowledge of the game. So much of the way baseball is played today hinges upon interpreting statistical data. Players are acquired based on their performance in statistical categories that ownership deems most important. Managers make in-game decisions based not on instincts, but on probability - how a particular batter might fare against left-handed pitching, for instance. The goal of this unique book is to show fans all the baseball-related stuff that they can do for free (or close to free). Just as open source projects have made great software freely available, collaborative projects such as Retrosheet and Baseball DataBank have made great data freely available. You can use these data sources to research your favorite players, win your fantasy league, or appreciate the game of baseball even more than you do now. Baseball Hacks shows how easy it is to get data, process it, and use it to truly understand baseball. The book lists a number of sources for current and historical baseball data, and explains how to load it into a database for analysis. It then introduces several powerful statistical tools for understanding data and forecasting results. For the uninitiated baseball fan, author Joseph Adler walks readers through the core statistical categories for hitters (batting average, on-base percentage, etc.), pitchers (earned run average, strikeout-to-walk ratio, etc.), and fielders (putouts, errors, etc.). He then extrapolates upon these numbers to examine more advanced data groups like career averages, team stats, season-by-season comparisons, and more. Whether you're a mathematician, scientist, or season-ticket holder to your favorite team, Baseball Hacks is sure to have something for you. Advance praise for Baseball Hacks: " Baseball Hacks is the best book ever written for understanding and practicing baseball analytics. A must-read for baseball professionals and enthusiasts alike." -- Ari Kaplan, database consultant to the Montreal Expos, San Diego Padres, and Baltimore Orioles "The game was born in the 19th century, but the passion for its analysis continues to grow into the 21st. In Baseball Hacks, Joe Adler not only demonstrates that the latest data-mining technologies have useful application to the study of baseball statistics, he also teaches the reader how to do the analysis himself, arming the dedicated baseball fan with tools to take his understanding of the game to a higher level." -- Mark E. Johnson, Ph.D., Founder, SportMetrika, Inc. and Baseball Analyst for the 2004 St. Louis Cardinals
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
 Hacks for Sports Fans April 3, 2006
Warren Kelly (Southern Ohio)
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
If you've ever been involved in a fantasy baseball league and gotten killed by people who seem to have time to do nothing but research obscure baseball players, Baseball Hacks is the book for you. In this book, Joseph Adler takes his love of baseball and combines it with an understanding of databases and data-mining technology to help fantasy-sports fanatics and baseball statistic junkies get their regular fix of the numbers that drive America's Game.
The great thing about this book is that the software used is all open source. Adler includes Access and Excel hacks for those who have Office at home or at work, but the main hacks in the book involve MySQL for database queries and R for graphic statistical analysis. I've used MySQL before, but R was new for me, and I really enjoyed using the program.
Adler also uses Perl. A lot of Perl. But he doesn't expect the reader to be Perl programmers; he shows how the program was written, and what everything does. More importantly, he includes the whole script so that it's a simple matter of copying, and making modifications if needed. He even shows how to modify the scripts.
Downloading a beginning stat database is as easy as 1-2-3. Hack 25 tells you how to spider websites for statistical data - including getting data from MLB.com. Detailed instructions on working with R are included in section 4 (hacks 31-39). Adler even includes formulas for calculating the more arcane statistics (at least to non-sports people like me) such as OPS (on-base plus slugging average) and ISO (isolated power - a measure of how well a player hits the ball).
It's obvious that Baseball Hacks is a book designed for fantasy sports fanatics. I've also pointed the book out to some computer applications teachers and statistics teachers - combining the study of stats and database construction with a subject that so many teenage boys enjoy studying is a great idea. Teaching database structure and analysis is tough, but give them something that they like to do, and they're all over it. This book does exactly that.
Take me (and my laptop) out to the ball game... March 15, 2006
Thomas Duff (Portland, OR United States)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
While I'm not a diehard baseball fan, there is a certain appeal (or perhaps nostalgia) about "America's Pastime". And there isn't another sport around that takes their statistics as seriously as baseball does. So if you're a computer geek who loves baseball and statistics, what do you do? You get Baseball Hacks: Tips & Tools for Analyzing and Winning with Statistics by Joseph Adler. Even I, a non-baseball fanatic, can appreciate the appeal of this book.
Contents: Basics of Baseball; Baseball Games from Past Years; Stats from the Current Season; Visualize Baseball Statistics; Formulas; Sabermetric Thinking; The Bullpen; Where to Learn More Stuff; Abbreviations; Index
The author and his co-contributors have come up with 75 statistical "hacks" all related to baseball. In here, you'll learn how to keep a scoresheet in the traditional fashion as well as how to use a format that is generally used for computer entry and analysis. After showing you where to find downloadable stats and how to get them in a format you can use, they then take you through open source packages like MySQL and R (a statistical software offering) as well as standards like Access and Excel. By loading the data into these formats, you can then slice and dice with the best of them. Some of the hacks show you common statistical generation like batting average or on-base percentage, but there are more esoteric ones you can look into, like Park effect and Fan Save value. If you've always dreamed of combining your love of statistics and baseball into a single passion, this book will push you over the edge. Once you get done here, you should be able to figure out the batting average of Barry Bonds on Tuesday night games against left-handed pitching with two men on base... :)
Seriously, a very well-done book that will appeal to both the baseball fan interested in statistics, as well as the computer geek who loves his (or her!) baseball recordkeeping...
"OFF WE GO TO THE BALL GAME!!" August 16, 2006
John R. Vacca (Pomeroy, Ohio)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Are you a baseball aficionado or fanatic who is interested in statistics and want to know how to load this data into a database for analysis? If you are, then this book is for you! Author Joseph Adler, has done an outstanding job of writing a book about how to watch, research, and understand baseball.
Adler, begins by showing you how to watch and score baseball games, and how to find some simple baseball data on the Web. Then, the author shows you where to get databases of career statistics and introduces some tools that you'll find helpful in working with this data. Next, he shows you how to get data on current baseball games. The author then introduces R and shows you a lot of cool tricks that you can use to analyze baseball data with R. He continues by covering a few of the most popular formulas and a few favorites. Then, the author discusses many baseball problems, some classic and some new. Finally, he comprises a few random topics that didn't fit anywhere else: fantasy baseball, widgets, and other sports.
This most excellent book is an instruction manual for the free baseball databases. More importantly, this book is a cookbook for baseball research.
How to watch, research, and understand baseball January 3, 2007
calvinnme
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
This book's purpose is to show you all the baseball-related stuff that you can do free of charge or close to free. Just as open source projects such as Linux, MySQL, Open Office, and R have made great software freely available, collaborative projects such as Retrosheet and Baseball DataBank have made great data freely available. This book shows you how to take advantage of these data sources to research your favorite players, to win your fantasy league, or just to appreciate the game of baseball even more. Many of the hacks in this book deal with statistics, and others will require that you install a baseball database. The following is the table of contents:
Chapter 1, Basics of Baseball - some easy hacks showing how to watch and score baseball games, and how to find some simple baseball data on the Web.
Hack 1. Score a Baseball Game
Hack 2. Make a Box Score from a Score Sheet
Hack 3. Keep Score, Project Scoresheet-Style
Hack 4. Follow Pitches During a Game
Hack 5. Follow the Game Online
Hack 6. Add Baseball Searches to Firefox
Hack 7. Find Images of Stadiums
Chapter 2, Baseball Games from Past Years - shows you where to get databases of career statistics and introduces some tools that you'll find helpful in working with this data.
Hack 8. Get and Install MySQL
Hack 9. Get an Access Database of Player and Team Statistics
Hack 10. Get a MySQL Database of Player and Team Statistics
Hack 11. Make Your Own Stats Book
Hack 12. Get Perl
Hack 13. Learn Perl
Hack 14. Get Historical Play-by-Play Data
Hack 15. Make Box Scores or Database Tables from Play-by-Play Data with Retrosheet Tools
Hack 16. Use SQL to Explore Game Data
Hack 17. Use Microsoft Access to Run SQL Queries
Hack 18. Get a GUI for MySQL
Hack 19. Move Data from a Database to Excel
Hack 20. Load Baseball Data into MySQL
Hack 21. Load Retrosheet Game Logs
Hack 22. Make a Historical Play-by-Play Database
Hack 23. Use Regular Expressions to Identify Events
Chapter 3, Stats from the Current Season - how to get data on current baseball games. It's easy to get data on old games because they're already in databases. It's hard to get data on this year's games because you have to scrape it off the Web. This chapter shows you how.
Hack 24. Use Microsoft Excel Web Queries to Get Stats
Hack 25. Spider Baseball Sites for Data
Hack 26. Discover How Live Score Applications Work
Hack 27. Keep Your Stats Database Up-to-Date
Hack 28. Get Recent Play-by-Play Data
Hack 29. Find Data on Hit Locations
Chapter 4, Visualize Baseball Statistics - R is a free data analysis and visualization tool. This chapter introduces R and shows you a lot of cool tricks that you can use to analyze baseball data with R.
Hack 30. Plot Histograms in Excel
Hack 31. Get R and R Packages
Hack 32. Analyze Baseball with R
Hack 33. Access Databases Directly from Excel or R
Hack 34. Load Text Files into R
Hack 35. Compare Teams and Players with Lattices
Hack 36. Compare Teams Using Chernoff Faces
Hack 37. Plot Spray Charts
Hack 38. Chart Team Stats in Real Time
Hack 39. Slice and Dice Teams with Cubes
Chapter 5, Formulas - Formulas have a special place in baseball history. Many baseball writers have spent months or years searching for the perfect formula to measure some aspect of the game. This chapter covers a few of the most popular formulas.
Hack 40. Measure Batting with Batting Average
Hack 41. Measure Batting with On-Base Percentage
Hack 42. Measure Batting with SLG
Hack 43. Measure Batting with OPS
Hack 44. Measure Power with ISO
Hack 45. Measure Batting with Runs Created
Hack 46. Measure Batting with Linear Weights
Hack 47. Measure Pitching with ERA
Hack 48. Measure Pitching with WHIP
Hack 49. Measure Pitching with Linear Weights
Hack 50. Measure Defense with Defensive Efficiency
Hack 51. Measure Pitching with DIPS
Hack 52. Measure Base Running Through EqBR
Hack 53. Measure Fielding with Fielding Percentage
Hack 54. Measure Fielding with Range Factor
Hack 55. Measure Fielding with Linear Weights
Hack 56. Measure Park Effects
Hack 57. Calculate Fan Save Value
Hack 58. Calculate Save Value
Chapter 6, Sabermetric Thinking - discusses many baseball problems, some classic and some new.
Hack 60. Calculate Expected Runs
Hack 61. Calculate an Expected Hits Matrix
Hack 62. Look for Evidence of Platoon Effects
Hack 63. Significant Number of At Bats
Hack 64. Find Clutch Players
Hack 65. Calculate Expected Number of Wins
Hack 66. Measure Hits by Pitch Count
Hack 67. OBP, SLG, and Scoring Runs
Hack 68. Measure Skill Versus Luck
Hack 69. Odds of the Best Team Winning the World Series
Hack 70. Top 10 Bargain Outfielders
Hack 71. Fitting Game Scores to a Strength Model
Chapter 7, The Bullpen - comprises a few random topics that didn't fit anywhere else: fantasy baseball, widgets, and other sports.
Hack 72. Start or Join a Fantasy League
Hack 73. Draft Your Fantasy Team
Hack 74. Make a Scoreboard Widget
Hack 75. Analyze Other Sports
Appendix A, Where to Learn More Stuff
Appendix B, Abbreviations
Valuable tool for professional gamblers April 19, 2006
Elihu D. Feustel (South Bend, IN)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Winning sports bettors will spend whatever amount of time is necessary to collect data for analysis. The primary focus of this book is collecting data off the internet and analyzing it. It instructs on this task very well - inexperienced programmers will quickly be gathering the information they need.
In addition to providing actual source code (which is short enough to type in a project in just a few minutes), the author draws conclusions from the data he gathered. It's not exactly a treatise on Sabrmetrics, but it does make an otherwise dry topic more interesting.
If you do your own numerical analyses, this is an invaluable text - quite possibly the most useful book since Wong's "Sharp Sports Betting".
Showing reviews 1-5 of 16
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