I’m not exactly sure when this happened, but just today I noticed that BallStat / BallScore is now available for free! If you run Windows, it’s definitely worth checking out. Roster files are updated daily here.
Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten it to run well on my Mac using Wine. Their website does claim that the program works using Parallels or VMWare Fusion.
I finally got Retrosheet software running on my Mac today.
Here’s how:
1. Install WineBottler (which includes Wine).
http://winebottler.kronenberg.org
2. Run the Command Prompt
3. Navigate to your Retrosheet directory, just as you would on a Windows machine, and run the software.
As I was re-watching Moneyball this morning, I wanted to check out some data about the 2002 Oakland Athletics. After downloading the 2002 data from Retrosheet, I remembered that I don’t have any way of analyzing the data on my Macbook.
After trying, unsuccessfully, to get Retrosheet’s DiamondWare software running on DosBox, I turned to Chadwick. The installation instructions that come packaged with Chadwick are nearly everything that you need to get the software installed properly. The main piece of missing information is that you need to run the “make install” command as the “root” user.
Here are instructions for installing Chadwick on a Mac.
1. Enable the “root” user in Mac OSX. The directions are posted here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1528
2. Download Chadwick source files: http://sourceforge.net/projects/chadwick/files/. The current version is 0.6.2.
3. Unzip the downloaded file.
4. Open Terminal
5. Navigate to the unzipped directory where the Chadwick files are stored.
cd Downloads/chadwick-0.6.2
6. Run the ./configure command.
./configure
7. Run the make command.
make
8. Switch to root
su root
9. Type in the password that you created in Step 10 above.
10. Run the make install command.
make install
11. You should now have Chadwick installed on your Mac. Type “cwbox” to verify.
12. Navigate to the directory where you have downloaded and extracted Retrosheet files, and run commands from that location.
cd /Downloads/2002eve
cwbox -y 2002 -i OAK200209040 2002OAK.EVA
Sometimes you take a year-and-a-half hiatus from your blog. It just happens. For quite some time, I’ve been meaning to begin updating this site more frequently, and now I’m finally getting started! While there hasn’t been a whole lot of activity on this site, there are several site updates that I would like to mention.
1. Rosters Up-to-Date – Rosters for all MLB and MiLB teams are still being updated on a daily basis. FixedIt roster files require the Manager’s name to be included, and those names are now being updated automatically (so, you will see that Clint Hurdle is finally reflected as the Pirates’ Manager!!). Also, I hadn’t updated the Minor League Teams for about two years, and there had been several name/affiliation changes (for instance the Bradenton Marauders became the Pirates’ Class A Advanced team). Those are now up-to-date. Check out all of the files on the Roster Files page.
2. 6-4-3 Baseball Scorecard – Ryan Blume has created a baseball scoring app for Android called 6-4-3 Baseball Scorecard. I’ve tested it out for a few games, and it’s pretty cool. Even better, the app is capable of importing rosters from PitchByPitch, so users can begin scoring games with very little pre-game setup. I encourage you to check out his app, and I plan to write a more thorough post about 6-4-3.
3. Retrosheet Scorecard – I haven’t made many updates to my Retrosheet Scorecard, mainly because I feel like I’ve hit a wall with the amount of progress that I’m able to make. Still, I think it is a good tool for anybody who wants to do play-based (but not pitch-based) analysis. I also feel limited with the technology on which the scorecard is built. I’m not crazy about the fact that it requires Microsoft Excel to run. I’ve been making a lot of progress on a web-based version of the scorecard. Expect more posts on this as well.
4. Game Logs – This is probably the most significant update that I have. I’ve always enjoyed that MLB makes their “Game Notes” available every day. Essentially, these are mini Media Guides (or Press Passes) containing lots of team statistics, but focused on that day’s particular game and opponent. I love the amount of information that is contained within the Game Notes, but I also think that they lack concise statistical data. For instance, if I want to quickly find how many hits Andrew McCutchen has this season (a reasonable question), that information isn’t easily available.
Also, Bill James e-mails his Daily Match-Up reports that list hitters and pitchers for both teams in a tabular format, along with how each hitter has historically performed against opposing pitchers. This is another report that I enjoy reading every day, but it also has its downfalls. Many of the batter/pitcher match-ups have never occurred, so the only available information is 0-0, .000. Or, perhaps, they have met once, and so the sample size is too small to be meaningful. (To receive these match-up reports for your favorite team, e-mail the name of your favorite team to matchups@actasports.com).
I decided to make the effort to create my own daily report. The reports contain one page for each team, and that page includes: team results broken out by opponent, division standings, wild card standings, last ten game results, and individual stats for each player on the 40-man roster. These reports are generated automatically each morning, and I encourage you to check them out on the Today’s Games page. Soon, I plan to add the capability for these reports to be e-mailed to fans every morning. I would love to hear any and all feedback that you may have!
Like I said earlier, I hope to continue updating this site more frequently. I plan for these updates to be more focused on the niche of this site, and less focused on day-to-day happenings in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ world. Raise the Jolly Roger and Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke do an excellent job of that. However, pictures like this one will never get old.
With the New York Yankees claiming their 27th World Series Championship last night, the 2009 baseball season is in the books. It also means that PitchByPitch is one year old! I started this site one year ago (the day after the Phillies won the 2008 title), as a place to host my baseball scoring projects and as a place to track the Pirates through thick and thin. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed year #1, and I’m looking forward to the year ahead.
Just this week, the Pirates made their Blueprint for Success available to the public. The blueprint talked about their 5 core priorities: Extremely aggressive drafts, Increased focus in our international operations, Aggressively adding talent at all levels, Rebuilind our player development systems, and Significant investment in our core operations.
Days later, the Pirates made good on one of their priorities by acquiring Akinori Iwamura from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for Jesse Chavez. Iwamura is a 30 year-old second-baseman who will make $4.85 million in 2010. Iwamura fills an obvious need for the Pirates at 2B. He’s an exciting player, and I look forward to seeing him in black and gold. With the departure of Chavez, our bullpen is even further depleted. You have to believe that the bullpen is the next thing that management will look to improve.
Finally, I got a good chuckle when I looked at the rewards available on my Pirates’ Bank of America credit card. I was curious when I saw “Pirates Autographed Baseball”. Then, I saw the players that were available.
Hmm… who to choose?
Go Bucs!
Phils @ Yanks – Game 1
I’ll be watching with some Philadelphia die-hards who will be serving cheesesteaks, soft pretzels, and italian ice…. mmm!
I also plan make an attempt at scoring the game, Reisner style. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’ve been meaning for awhile to write a post about the Lahman Database. If you’re not already familiar with this database, I encourage you to take a look because it’s a great baseball statistics resource. The current version of the database (5.6) contains MLB pitching, hitting, and fielding statistics from 1871 through 2008. An annual update is usually released not long after the conclusion of the World Series.
To give a brief history of the database, Sean Lahman started this project in 1992 in an effort to make baseball statistics freely available to the general public. Now, a team of researchers works tirelessly to maintain the database and release the annual updates.
Sean Forman extended the Lahman Database for easy use on the web as an online encyclopedia at “baseball-reference.com.” Since 2001, Sean Lahman and Sean Forman have led a group of researchers who volunteered to maintain and update the database, known as the Baseball Databank.
The reason that I give this background information is twofold. First, I’d like to give Sean Lahman, Sean Forman, and their team of researchers proper credit for their extraordinarly work. Secondly, it helps to understand the various websites where you will find references to the Lahman Database.
http://www.baseball1.com/ – This is Sean Lahman’s website. You can download the most recent version of the database from this site.
http://www.baseball-databank.org/ – This is Sean Forman’s website. You can also download the most recent version of the database from this site.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/ – This is Baseball Reference, perhaps the most complete online baseball encyclopedia available. This site runs on the Lahman Database.
For most standard baseball research, the information presented on Baseball Reference will be more than adequate. However, if you’re interested in running more specific queries on this historic set of data, you will need to download a copy of the database, and I will guide you through that process.
1. First, I navigated to: http://www.baseball1.com/content/view/57/82/. I clicked “Download Version 5.6 (1871-2008), and then I clicked “Download SQL Version”.
It’s worth noting that Microsft Access and CSV versions of the database are also available. If these files are sufficient for your purposes, you’ll likely find them easier to use. Just download the files, and open them up in their proper programs (Microsoft Access for the mdb files, and your favorite spreadsheet program for the csv files).
2. I created a blank database on my MySQL server called bball_stats to house the Lahman Database. Procedures on how to create a new database will vary depending on your database setup and access privileges.
3. The next thing that you will need to do is import the SQL file. The file is quite large (36 MB uncompressed, 7.9 MB zipped). I found it easiest to upload the SQL file using a MySQL GUI program called HeidiSQL. The script uploaded in a matter of minutes, and the tables and data were ready for research!
4. To verify that all data had uploaded properly, I checked the rowcount of each table. Here is the expected number of rows for Version 5.6 of the database.
TABLE => ROWS
Master => 17264
Teams => 2595
TeamsFranchises => 120
TeamsHalf => 52
Batting => 91457
Pitching => 39016
Fielding => 154843
FieldingOF => 12028
Salaries => 19819
Managers => 3167
ManagersHalf => 93
Allstar => 4321
AllstarFull => 4522
AwardsPlayers => 2558
AwardsSharePlayers => 6182
AwardsManagers => 53
AwardsShareManagers => 318
HallOfFame => 3477
HOFold => 286
BattingPost => 10422
FieldingPost => 8981
PitchingPost => 4006
SeriesPost => 250
Schools => 732
SchoolsPlayers => 5904
xref_stats => 16631
Appearances => 40139
Finally, while we’re talking about these tables, it’s worth talking about the data that each table contains.
The database is comprised of the following main tables:
MASTER – Player names, DOB, and biographical info
Batting – batting statistics
Pitching – pitching statistics
Fielding – fielding statistics
It is supplemented by these tables:
AllStar – All-Star appearances
Hall of Fame – Hall of Fame voting data
Managers – managerial statistics
Teams – yearly stats and standings
BattingPost – post-season batting statistics
PitchingPost – post-season pitching statistics
TeamFranchises – franchise information
FieldingOF – outfield position data
FieldingPost- post-season fieldinf data
ManagersHalf – split season data for managers
TeamsHalf – split season data for teams
Salaries – player salary data
SeriesPost – post-season series information
AwardsManagers – awards won by managers
AwardsPlayers – awards won by players
AwardsShareManagers – award voting for manager awards
AwardsSharePlayers – award voting for player awards
AllStarFull – Expanded All-Star info
Appearances – Detailed games played info
Schoools – college info
SchoolsPlayers – players college info
Later, I’ll write more about how I’ve used the Lahman Database for baseball research. In the meantime, I encourage you to try the database for yourself. Look for the 2009 update to arrive by the end of the year!
Congratulations to Andrew McCutchen, Baseball America’s Rookie of the Year!
Also, congratulations to Garrett Jones who was named to Baseball America’s 2009 All Rookie Team.
A late-summer move combined with a hectic job schedule has obviously limited my ability to score the Pirates on a daily basis. Still, I kept a close eye on the Bucs throughout the 2009 season (as difficult as that was to do at times). I’m hopeful that I’ll soon have more time to continue working on my scorecard, and hopefully I’ll have time throughout next season to ‘keep the books.’
While most eyes (including mine) are closely watching the MLB playoffs, today does mark Opening Day of the Arizona Fall League.
In case you follow the Arizona Fall League (or any of the Winter Leagues) closely, roster files are now available in the Rosters section of this site.
Nationals’ pitcher, Stephen Strasburg highlights the Phoenix Desert Dogs’ roster.
I’ll be checking to see how Jose Tabata plays on the Scottsdale Scorpions’ roster.
Other Pirates in the AFL include: Daniel Moskos, Donnie Veal, Tony Watson, Brian Friday, Chase D’Arnaud, and 1 additional Pitcher.
Enjoy the Playoffs (and winter baseball)!
