Relocated...

This blog is now located at http://sports-cube.blogspot.com and is called Cube Notes.

I'm Back!

+ The Vacation to Disney World was terrific. The kids had a great time as did the wife and I. I highly recommend visiting Mickey Mouse and friends.

The Vacation was 2 weeks long and only partially explains my long absence from writing the Blog.

+ Truth be told, I have been a little burnt on baseball and have been focusing on a new site, which is another one of those work-in-progresses. The Hockey Cube is now active and should be growing a little bit each week. I realize that there aren't as many hockey fans on the web as there are for baseball but hockey is my first love and I truthfully cannot understand how more Americans don't love the game as well.

Baseball and Hockey used to be neck and neck for me but since the Expos left town, I find ball games too long and the lack of parity among teams unfair. I'm still a fan, i still follow the game but its not what it used to be.

The Baseball Cube is not going anywhere though. The two Cube sites will co-exist but you might find a lot more updates on THC compared to TBC over the next few months.

Indy stats are coming though, for those of you have been asking. I'm a bit slow at this point but hopefully by the end of the year, if not, before Spring Training.

Keep checking in for updates!

The Happiest Place on Earth! We hope.

+ I haven't posted much lately for two reasons. The first is that there really hasn't been any site updates. The second reason is that I have had less time to actually work on TBC since its been a hectic 2-3 weeks of family obligations, day-job obligations and preparation for my upcoming Disney vacation.

Most of my time has been spent compiling hockey data for The Hockey Cube, which should be coming to the web by the end of the year. I know that hockey is nowhere near what baseball is on the web but I am hoping to actually change that by changing how people look at hockey statistics. Baseball has sabr-metrics. I'm hoping to come with something called "ice-o-metrics".

The next two weeks will be spent outside of Canada, at the Happiest Place on Earth. The wife and I will test to see if it can still remain the Happiest Place with a 3-year old and a 4-year old. Especially a 3-year old who uses the bathroom 22 times a day.

+ I realize that The Baseball Cube has mistakes here and there and I wanted to convey the message that the best way to let us know is to send us an email through this channel. I think this is a better method than to broadcast the error to the baseball world.

Groundball% for Major Leaguers

+ Now, there's proof that Roger McDowell was an extreme ground ball pitcher. Every Major Leaguer now has their GB% listed next to their stat records from 1957 to 2006. The calculation is fairly simple:

Every ball put into play was assigned as either a groundball or a non-groundball. Lineouts, popouts, foulouts and flyouts are considered to be non-grounders.

Otis Nixon hit 57% of the balls he put in play on the ground. Imagine how effective he might have been had he aimed for a 65% gb%.

Kirby Puckett started his career as a very good ground-ball hitter but evolved into a flyball hitter once he became a power hitter.

Brady Anderson was a poor man's power hitter until 1996 when he clubbed 50 homers, twice as much as his next best total (24). 37% of his hits were in the air that year. His career average was 45%.

You would think that Bert Blyleven would have an extremely low gb% the season he gave up 50 homers (1986). Strangely enough, his gb% was 53 which suggests that when the ball was hit in the air, it went pretty far a lot of the time.

Just another dimension to the Cube's data.

+ I noticed that Baseball-Reference got into the Minor League Statistics game. I can't say that I am ecstatic about the competition but its a smart move on his part. As always, we'll both coexist and offer the baseball world a slightly different view of the same data. And we'll continue to make baseball the most advanced sport on the Internet.

Asdrubal Cabrera Sponsores

+ Asdrubal Cabrera is a 21-year old shortstops currently playing with the Indians. The page has been sponsored by ItsAlessandro who now gets 25% off his next sponsorship.

Sean Fesh and other Sponsorship Notes

+ Sean Fesh, a career minor leaguer out of Connecticut is the latest player to be sponsored. Fesh's Fan Club Home Page is the generous sponsor for the next year. A perfect fit.

Fesh is a left-handed pitcher who was drafted by the Astros in 1991 in the 61st round and he signed, a feat in itself. As a left-handed reliever for most of his career, he put up good numbers at all levels, reaching AAA in 1995 but never going higher, almost inexplicably. One would have thought a lefty-reliever with a career minor league ERA of 3.32 would have had the luck to have at least once chance but it was not to be.

+ Speaking of sponsorships, there's going to be a big change to the system in the next few days. The enhancement will involve improving exposure for those who sponsor a page by propogating your web sites to other pages on the site that are not sponsored. The feature will only be for those sponsors with a web site listed and there is no extra charge for this exposure. The only downside is that if you sponsor a page, your link will not be propogated until the next site build but lately, that's been about once a week so no need to worry. More information in the coming days.

+ Another new column is coming to the player stats areas for major leaguers. Ground-ball% will be added to major league stats in the coming days.

Northeast Ball Gloves

+ Special thanks to Northeast Ball Gloves for sponsoring the New York Yankees home page. Sponsorships are a great way to show your appreciation for The Baseball Cube and help to support us, especially if you're a frequent visitor and use the data often.

If you would like to sponsor a page but don't want to make the effort of going through the forms and process, just contact us and we'll do all the work and walk you through it.

Some more Player Page Tweaks

+ The player pages have been refreshed and have some small changes:

Lineup Sequence info: I've calculated, for each major leaguer per season, where he batted in the lineup most often for his team. Some players may have several lineup positions listed and if that's the case, the player has had a significant amount of games at each lineup slot. Its fun to watch a player's evolution from one part of the batting order to another. It can also help to explain his stats (RBI totals, SB totals).

Leagues: You can now click on the league to see a brief Year-in-Review where you'll find standings, award winners, league leaders and a player register along with some other goodies, depending on which league you select.

MLB League Display: You'll now see a player's League listed as "AL" or "NL" for major league seasons. Previously, it was listed as "MLB"

NCAA Links: I've now added links for NCAA seasons of 2002 or later which will send you to the team statistics page for the school. The stats have always existed but for some reason, the links weren't there.



iPod Update

She's functional but she can't scroll. In fact, the HOLD button doesn't work anymore either. So can an iPod survive the washing machine. I guess the answer is both YES and NO. My next step is to try to send it back to Apple to get a new one. Somebody mentioned that this was a viable option so its worth a try.