Baseball has a variety of relatively simple yet accurate measures of player performance. As we report in The Wages of Wins, slugging average explains 81% of a team’s runs scored. On-base-percentage does a bit better, explaining 83% of runs scored. OPS, which adds on-base-percentage and slugging average together, explains 90% of runs scored. Although one […]
Sharon Begley of The Wall Street Journal has authored a column today entitled: “A New Study Shows How Baseball Myths Can Hurt the Game.” The “study” Begley notes is not one study, but a series of studies authored and summarized by JC Bradbury in The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed. This is Bradbury’s first […]
“I ain’t as good as I once was.” This might be the theme song for the aging stars of the Miami Heat in 2006-07. With a record of 26-26 heading into the All-Star game, Miami just doesn’t look like a team that will successfully defend its title. Of course, for a champion, Miami was not […]
Yesterday I noted on our homepage (Wages of Wins) that two more reviews of The Wages of Wins have appeared. Since I am not sure if people are consistently looking at our home page, I thought I would note these reviews in this forum. Allen R. Sanderson of the University of Chicago has reviewed our […]
One of the main stories we tell in The Wages of Wins is that there is a difference between how observers value performance in the NBA and how that performance actually impacts team wins. Perceptions of performance can be captured with metrics dominated by scoring – such as NBA Efficiency and the Player Efficiency Rating […]
In a story widely reported in the New York media, Eddy Curry announced this week that if Isiah Thomas if fired by the New York Knicks, then Curry will want out of the Big Apple. Here is how the story was covered by Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. Isiah Thomas has staked […]
With the first pick in the 2006 NBA Draft the Toronto Raptors selected Andrea Bargnani. The story told at the time was that Bargnani was the “next Nowitzki.” This story was told on draft night and also many times since. Even Nowitzki has voiced this sentiment. “He’s a better player than when I was 19 […]
Previously I reviewed the players the NBA fans selected – and could have selected – to start the NBA All-Star game. I also discussed the players the NBA head coaches selected – and again, could have selected – as reserves in the All-Star game. Now it’s time to look at the players the NBA’s assistant […]
The big Super Bowl story is that Peyton Manning finally led his team to a victory in a big game. Such is the conventional wisdom after the Super Bowl. Unfortunately such conventional wisdom, as is often the case in this forum, falls apart when we look at the data. The Peyton Manning Lessons First of […]
The fans voting for the All-Star game tells us who the fans wish to see start the mid-season classic. Now the coaches have told us who they believe “deserve” to be reserves in the All-Star game. A few days ago I reviewed the starters chosen by the fans. In this discussion I noted that fans […]
Wages of Wins Journal 
February 17, 2007 by dberri
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