Where's the G/L/F?

[Ricko]

Is there any place on the HQ site where we can find out a player's current G/L/F numbers for the year? I find that a very enlightening stat, and wish it were on the Player Projections. Is it anywhere else?

Ricko

[NICK@HQ]

You can find them in the Player Projections. Look for the files marked "Current."

[RAY@HQ]

Nick's right... they're not on the Playerlink pages (yet), but they are in the projection files.

[smithtownguy]

What does LDO mean? I checked the glossary but didn't see it. I see LD, LDO, GB, GBO, and FB, FBO

I realize that LD is the amount of Line Drives, but what's the "O"?

[Biff Pocoroba]

I believe they are outs. LDO=Line Drive Outs, GBO=Groundball Outs, FBO=Fly Ball Outs.

Here's my question: Who measures these things anyway?

Does the official scorer or some designated person watch the balls and is there some sort of general guidelines like "line drive must be x high off the ground and travel y distance?"

Because I'm real, real lazy. And I like to watch baseball. So like, this could be a career opportunity for me.

Only I don't want to do it if they're gonna hook me up to electrodes and test me or something.

"ummmm..... can of corn?"
"NO! Shallow line drive... 100 volts for you!"
"Arrrrrgggghhh!"

"umm.... sinking line drive?"
"NO! Well-hit groundball... 200 volts for you!"
"GAaaaaahhhhh!"

[RAY@HQ]

Biff, I assume it's the same guy who's typing "In Play, Out(s) Recorded" into the MLB Gameday feed. And yes, getting that job is an admirable career goal.

[Randall@HQ]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they have macros for the "In Play, Out(s) Recorded" stuff. Where they earn their money is when they have to type something like, "Brian Giles Leaves The Game In The Top Of The Sixth Inning Because Of A Very Painful Spider Bite."

[smithtownguy]

I worked for the Devil Rays in 2000 and I remember we had this laptop from (I can't remember what the company was, I think it was ACSports) and someone would sit in front of it each game and enter what happened each pitch. Usually an Intern or someone who was board would run it. I occasionally did for a few innings here or there. Usually I was too busy trying to get some free hotdogs or wandering around the visitors clubhouse getting autographs (which was very bad and I wasn't supposed to do, but I have a really nice personalized Delgado ball now)

So anyway, the computer had to be connected via modem line into wherever the main server was, I'm pretty sure Baltimore. But at the time, I don't remember a spot to put in MPH or LD/GF/FB, etc. It was more basic, I'm guessing they've just improved it over the years and now you have the option of choosing those things.

So anyway, much like professional videogame tester, it wasn't a real job, usually whomever was around did it (and only if there was no "real" work to be done). Don't tell Keith Hernandez, but sometimes even female did it!

[Markus_ls]

I was under the impression that the big stats services (and not MLB) gathered this kind of data themselves by hiring people to go to games. No?

[Biff Pocoroba]

Yeah. See, as a data guy in real life I'm always curious about where the data comes from. Particulary what data elements are in a big data warehouse somewhere that could conceivably be tapped into, and the human element of the whole thing.

When I was an undergrad business major, it was pretty typical for summer interns to get their feet wet taking notes on focus groups and stuff like that. And the data was often pretty unreliable because the interns didn't make that much and weren't-- shall we say-- the most mature.

If you had those guys out there charting MLB games, all the game notes would be like
"Willis, 92 mph strike. I'm hungry. Willis, 86 mph foul. Willis, ball in play, lined to left-center holy crap look at the rack on that chick, some dude scored, other guy to second."

[Michael@HQ]

Biff, BBHQ gets their data from Baseball Info Solutions. Other sources will vary in terms of what is classified as a groundball, liner or flyball.

[Bronx Bombers]

ESPN, and a lot of other sites only list G/F. Is there another stats site that lists all 3 other than BBHQ?

[Bronx Bombers]

Anyone?