Baseball Statistics Project

[Bravos of Steel]

Hey guys,

I'm on here sporadically to talk some baseball, but am pretty busy with school and such. I'll fill you in on what my deal is.

I've been talking pretty extensively with Adam Cromie, who is the assistant director of Baseball Operations with the Washington Nationals. I met him because he is an alumnus of the College I attend. We've communicated by phone and email, and he suggested I conduct a project dealing with baseball statistics and analytics to possibly present to a few places I may intern at next year. It can be something simple like the "5 luckiest pitchers using minimum K/9 rate and opponents BABIP" or the disparities between David Ortiz's careers first half numbers vs. this year's first half numbers, but I'd like to accomplish something a little more advanced.

Do any of you guys have some ideas as to what I could explore? I'd like to take a few months to try and pound down numbers after figuring out what I'd like to do. Any ideas and suggestions are greatly appreciated!

[mblax10]

Compare the heart of David Eckstein to the grittiness of Adam Kennedy.

[Steve-o]

In my opinion, most of the really fascinating and cutting edge stat work is being done with defensive metrics or pitch f/x. If I were looking for a job in a front office, I would focus on pitch f/x stuff, whether it's release point, movement information, or run value of pitches. Pick something you are passionate about in that area.

[walkoffblast]

Pitch F/X and defense(relative value moreso than evaluation) are interesting areas right now. It might be interesting to combine multiple fields and make a valuation as to how much of the decline in the price for no defense outfielders was economic vs mlb teams changing how they value such players.