Player Won-Lost Records in Baseball: Measuring Performance in Context

Thress, Tom

ISBN 10: 1476670242 / ISBN 13: 9781476670249

Published by McFarland & Company, 2017

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 26405851937

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Player Won-Lost Records in Baseball: Measuring Performance in Context
• Publisher: McFarland & Company
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1476670242
• ISBN 13: 9781476670249
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Baseball analysts often criticize pitcher win-loss records as a poor measure of pitcher performance, as wins are the product of team performance. Fans criticize WAR (Wins Above Replacement) because it takes in theoretical rather than actual wins.

Player won-lost records bridge the gap between these two schools of thought, giving credit to all players for what they do--without credit or blame for teammates' performance--and measuring contributions to actual team wins and losses. The result is a statistic of player value that quantifies all aspects of individual performance, allowing for robust comparisons between players across different positions and different seasons. Using play-by-play data, this book examines players' won-lost records in Major League Baseball from 1930 through 2015.

About the Author

Tom Thress is a professional economist specializing in econometrics, forecasting, and statistical analysis. He has Bachelor's Degrees in Economics and Mathematics from Valparaiso University and a Master's Degree in Economics from the University of Chicago.

Mr. Thress has been a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) since 2003 and has had research published in the SABR publications By the Numbers and the Baseball Research Journal. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for Retrosheet.

Mr. Thress grew up a fan of the Earl Weaver era Baltimore Orioles but has lived on the North Side of Chicago for the past 25 years where he was able to attend his first in-person World Series game in 2016 with his wife and two sons.