Curve Ball: Baseball, Statistics, and the Role of Chance in the Game - Softcover

Albert, Jim; Bennett, Jay

Softcover

ISBN 10: 038700193X ISBN 13: 9780387001937

Publisher: Copernicus, 2003

Synopsis

A look at baseball data from a statistical modeling perspective! There is a fascination among baseball fans and the media to collect data on every imaginable event during a baseball game and this book addresses a number of questions that are of interest to many baseball fans. These include how to rate players, predict the outcome of a game or the attainment of an achievement, making sense of situational data, and deciding the most valuable players in the World Series. Aimed at a general audience, the text does not assume any prior background in probability or statistics, although a knowledge of high school abgebra will be helpful.

About this title

About the Author

Maria Rizzo is professor of statistics at Bowling Green State University. Her recent book publications include Statistical Computing with R, 2e (2019) and Energy Statistics (forthcoming). Jim Albert is professor of mathematics and statistics at Bowling Green State University. His recent book publications include Analyzing Baseball Data with R, 2e (with Max Marchi and Benjamin S. Baumer, 2018), Visualizing Baseball (2017), and Bayesian Computation with R (Springer 2009).

From the Back Cover

In its formative years, from the 1970s through the 1990s, sabermetrics was p- marily an amateur undertaking. Publications were aimed at a relatively small audience of baseball fans. To be sure, this ever-growing group of aficionados brought a lot of sophistication to baseball analysis, and were constantly looking for statistical insights beyond the listings of the top ten batters found in popular newspapers and magazines. But their influence on the baseball profession was very limited. A few consultants like Craig Wright developed temporary relati- ships with various teams, but none were able to stay long enough to create a p- manent sabermetrician staff position. (See Rob Neyer¿s November 11, 2002, arti- 1 cle on ESPN. com. ) All of this changed, however, in 2002 with the hiring of Bill James by the Boston Red Sox. With that move, we have seen the admittance of the foremost proponent of sabermetrics into the top echelon of professional ba- ball management. The art and science of careful statistical analysis, it now seems, had made it into the big leagues. Since the publication of the first edition of Curve Ball in 2001, we have been overwhelmed by the positive responses from readers and critics. We¿re pleased with the reception, of course, but we don¿t want to rest on our laurels. Like a pitcher refining his repertoire, we¿ve revised, expanded, and updated the book for its publication in this paperback edition. Several readers and critics took us 1 http://espn. go. com/mlb/columns/neyer_rob/1456664.

Edition details

• Publisher: Copernicus
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 038700193X
• ISBN 13: 9780387001937
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 410