Meaningless Infographics #1: 2012 wOBA by Birthplace
Numbers represent averaged wOBAs of all qualifying hitters born in that state/country. Labels represent regional wOBA leaders. Click to embiggen.
Author Archive
Ridiculously Photogenic Ballplayer
A certain Philip Humber entertained 27 gentlemen on Saturday afternoon, and dismissed them all. In honor of this feat of unblemished restraint, I’d like to reacquaint you all with the very first individual to have accomplished it: the very pioneer of perfection, Mr. John Lee Richmond of the Worcester Ruby Legs. There are at least three things worth noting about Mr. Richmond and his fabled 1880 exploit.
Fan Base Leaderboard Update: NL East
Well, it’s shaping up to be another mind-numbingly predictable season. Orioles atop the AL East…Rays throwing grapefruits…Reds offense punchless…Pujols disappointing yet again…all-too-familiar names atop the leaderboards…Omar Infante…Jake Westbrook…yawn. Wake me when something happens, will you? But do you know what we do, here at NotGraphs, when suspense is at a premium? We manufacture some, that’s what. I present to you today a leaderboard heretofore never seen: a collection of stats that go beyond mere on-field performance to assess the vitality of a team’s entire culture. Could this completely revolutionize baseball analysis? That’s not for me to say, but yeah, probably.
The Boys of Summer
1. Major league baseball players have romantic liaisons with each other all the time.
2. These liaisons are often extremely sensual, and can be surprisingly sweet and tender as well.
3. They are documented in persuasive detail (under the delicate guise of “slashfiction”) on hard-nosed sites like this one.
4. They make for better reading than you might think.
Pitchers on Toilets
I’ll just be honest: my fondest wish is someday to create an Internet Meme. I dream of taking part in something bigger than myself. I dream of jostling, however minutely, the course of popular culture. I dream of trawling the infosphere’s uncharted seas, leaving ever-expanding ripples of LOLs and WTFs in my wake.
Crowdsourcing J-Dub
Friends, today we help a person in need, and that person is Jayson Werth. Jayson is, and has been, a man in search of a self-image. Feel, for just a moment, his anguish: the anguish of a man condemned by his creator to look like something — and yet perennially thwarted from discovering what that something is. He has sought, as any of us would, guidance from those who know him best; he has seen himself through Brad Lidge’s eyes, as “a cross between Jesus Christ and the Geico caveman”; he has untombed the esoteric secrets of Facebook, and thus learned of shocking and uncanny kinships; he has walked countless miles and studied countless faces, craving always that moment of deep reflection, of thrilling recognition, of sudden, crystallized wholeness.
Ask NotGraphs: The Yahoo! Answers Edition
OK, NotMinds, time to start putting all that jealously guarded knowledge to use! Time to start giving back to the community! I’ve ventured into the intellectual hothouse that is Yahoo! Answers, and picked out a modest bouquet of the most urgent, penetrating, or just plain tough baseball-related questions. I’ll trust you all to sort through these and pitch in where you’re most needed.
Dice K is the greatest pitcher to have ever played any sports, and Gagne is the Pippen of Pitching. Agree?
How do you make a Jackie Robinson sculpture?
Will the records of Babe Ruth survive if another cataclysmic event happens like the extinction of the dinosaur?
NotSpeare: #1. The Tempest
I want to emphasize that this idea was very, very funny in my head.
The Damn You Auto Correct All-Stars
Like most of you, I strongly believe that nicknames can never be too many nor too frivolous. Also, like you, I believe that many if not most of the kabbalistic secrets of creation were uncovered by Steve Jobs and are continually and carefully dispensed from Cupertino for the good of all humanity. Therefore, I’ve just spent longer than I care to admit thumbing the name of every qualifying ballplayer into an iPod Touch, and being gently yet firmly enlightened about what each man’s parents or forebears really meant for him to be called.
There has been a first cut. Some names were simply too searingly revelatory; I chose to shield your eyes. Now, I need your help in paring this down to a manageable roster. Which of these will stick? How much truth can we handle?