What are a few of the baseball Web sites that would receive my vote for MVP?
Baseball-Reference.com keeps improving on a monthly basis. It just keeps getting better and better. Of course, I’ve had a long-term bias toward statistics.
Baseball-Reference.com is a site where a baseball stat geek like myself can immerse himself in the broad richness of data available in our sport. Where else can you find a page like this one? Imagine up-to-date splits — not just on players but on teams. That’s new and terrific.
Baseball Prospectus is probably the MVP for most professionals in baseball. The articles are consistently valuable. And every day you can check your team’s chances of making the playoffs in three different formats — Elo-based, Pecota-based and the original methodology.
Buster Olney’s blog for ESPN.com provides a daily must-read for what is happening around the country in the game. There are links to every worthwhile article in the game of baseball every day in addition to commentary that is insightful and comprehensive.
Then there’s Retrosheet, where you can find box scores for virtually every baseball game ever played, including daily standings of each season.
I first heard of Who Wins in 2004 during the playoffs against the Yankees. When we were down 3-0, the odds were pretty clear. I believe those same odds are currently are up to 1.1 percent now — three out of 271 series in all sports.
According to the site:
“As for the 2004 Boston Red Sox: After surmounting a one-run deficit after eight full innings in series 936 Game 4, and after surmounting a two-run deficit after seven full innings in Game 5, the Red Sox never tasted another deficit during the rest of the 2004 MLB postseason. Not during series 936 Games 6 and 7 in New York; not during series 938 vs. the St. Louis Cardinals (which won the 1946 and 1967 MLB Finals in seven games vs. the Red Sox) in the 2004 MLB Finals.
“So dominant were the Boston Red Sox after series 936 Game 5 that they led New York after 30 of 36 half-innings in Games 6 and 7, and led St. Louis after 64 of the 70 half-innings in the 2004 MLB Finals. The Red Sox both swept and annihilated the Cardinals in the 2004 MLB Finals — it was the first MLB best-of-7 playoff series WhoWins™ annihilation since the 1989 MLB Finals.
“Exiting the 2004 MLB playoffs, the Boston Red Sox hold an active MLB-record streak of 59 consecutive innings without having trailed in a best-of-7 MLB playoff series game; this streak broke the record of the 56 1/2 consecutive deficit-free innings set by the Oakland Athletics in best-of-7 MLB playoff series during 1989 and 1990. [The 59 and 56 1/2 numbers disregard ninth innings in which the Red Sox in Boston and the Athletics in Oakland did not bat; if such innings were considered, those numbers would be 60 and 57 1/2, respectively.] … In terms of following up a comeback series victory in the wake of a 3-games-nil best-of-7 MLB/NBA/NHL playoff series deficit, the 1975 New York Islanders and the 2004 Boston Red Sox are profiles in dissimilar excellence.”
OK, this has to be my favorite baseball site!
