Batting Split Finder (new at Baseball-Reference.com)

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Sean has added a Batting Split Finder which, right now, is available here:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/split_finder.cgi

It’s currently beta but should launch officially next week, along with a Pitching Split Finder.

Here are a few tweets I’ve made today using the new tool:

Most HR at home in 2012: Miguel Cabrera 28, Curtis Granderson 26. Most HR away in 2012: Adam Dunn 21, IkeDavis/Hamilton/Stanton 21
Most HRs coming on an 0-2 pitch over the last 5 years: Miguel Cabrera 11, R Braun V Wells A Soriano 10, K Morales M Kemp 9
Most HRs coming on an 3-0 pitch over the last 5 years: J Upton 5, M Napoli B Butler 4
Most career home runs leading off an inning: Barry Bonds 184, Rafael Palmeiro 151, Hank Aaron 149, Mark McGwire 148, Rickey Henderson 142
Most times striking out as 1st batter of the game since 1916: Henderson 408, Brock 362, Tony Phillips 249, Biggio & BOBBY Bonds 233
Most RBI in Sep/Oct last season: Chase Headley 32, Miguel Cabrera 30, C Granderson 27, Torii “Homophobe” Hunter 27
Most HR in 2012 when facing the starting pitcher for the 4th+ time in the game: Mike Trout 4, Ryan Bruan & Zack Cozart 3
Most HR in 2012 when facing the starting pitcher for the 1st time in the game: Granderson 14, Carlos Beltran & AJ Pierzynski 12
Over the last 20 years, most triples while batting 4th: Jeff Kent 30, Vlad Guerrero 27, Larry Walker 20, Bernie Williams 19, Scott Rolen 18

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birtelcom

11 years ago

Wonderful! I’ve been asking Sean to add this for years! It’s been possible to do some of this through the Event Finders, but very inefficiently, while some of these splits have been entirely unsearchable before. Christmas comes early in 2013!

Voomo Zanzibar

11 years ago

For three full years of Rickey Henderson’s career, he led off the game by striking out.

Jim Bouldin

11 years ago

Good segue for me…I’m finding that some important team-oriented datasets don’t currently exist (AFAIK), so am building them myself, using the raw Retrosheet game log and play by play data. Right now working on runs scored per inning, for all games 1910-2012. Will make them available when done, not sure how though.

BR.com is terrific. How they made that thing so damn fast on retrievals I don’t know.

birtelcom

11 years ago

Most career homers by month:
March/April: Bonds 117
May: Griffey 134
June: Aaron 150
July: Aaron 152
August: Bonds 148
Sept/Oct: Bonds 128

A-Rod is #2 in March/April; needs 22 more March/April homers to pass Bonds in that category.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to birtelcom

Speaking of A-Rod, this surprised me — he ranked 2nd last year in OPS against power pitchers (min. 100 PAs, trailing Beltre).

Like most players, A-Rod’s career numbers are much better against finesse pitchers, next-best among balanced pitchers, and worst against power pitchers. But last year he crushed power pitchers — 1.065 OPS, 8 HRs in 116 PAs. And he had very little power against finessers.

Small sample, but it goes against the popular notion that his bat has slowed. But it’ll be a while before we get any further data on that question.

Mike L

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

John A. Might be hip related. Finesse pitchers require the batter to wait longer and react to a different break/plane. Or could just be noise.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Sounds great … but still a few bugs in the system. E.g., the platoon splits that specify only one side of the equation are not working for me.

Author

Andy

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Yeah there are quite a few bugs, for sure. Sean’s working on them right now.

11 years ago

Glad to see this! Something I’ve been wanting to see for a while. Would be nice to see something that allowed for an “internal comparison”. (e.g., who has the largest home/road split). But I have a feeling that sort of analysis is still a ways away.

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Ed

I just looked for that, the highest home tOPS split ever. But my search fell flat. Is this just a game finder? I keep getting “no games found” as an error message.

Author

Andy

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

Try picking a different option at the very top–I think the 3rd option isn’t working at all.

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

Bstar – I had the same problem with searches on OPS, also looking at home and away (plus lots of others searches). I guess it still needs some work.

Author

Andy

11 years ago

Reply to Ed

You can at least now make two lists, and then match up the players in Excel–still a better way than having to calculate each split totally manually.

11 years ago

Would also love to see something that allowed for team searches at the season level, not just at the individual game level.

bstar

11 years ago

**POST HIJACK** Bill James is on Clubhouse Confidential right now on MLB Network.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

Thanks, b! I’ve missed the first half — did he give away any state secrets yet?

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

No, he just talked more in length about his HOF opinions on different players instead of the rapid-fire yes/no segment at the end. Here’s some highlights (yes, I scribbled some notes-what a dork): -Brian Kenny drew a line between amphetamine use and steroid use. James agreed but said amphetamines can change what your body can do short-term, and he also said he would draw his line between steroid users and those on the cutting edge of steroids. He specifically mentioned Bonds and Canseco as cutting-edge. He also drew a line between those who have tested positively and failed a drug… Read more »

Editor

Bryan O'Connor

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

I dislike Schilling as much as the next guy, and I idolize Pedro, but I don’t understand not voting for Schilling until a currently ineligible player is in. He’s one of the 20-40 best pitchers ever. Put him in.

And it’s not clear here whether James discussed Larry Walker (no mention of Bagwell or Edgar here either, so this is likely an incomplete account), but if Walker wasn’t underrated before and now he’s been ignored in Bill James’s Hall of Fame assessments, it might be time for a grassroots campaign.

11 years ago

Reply to Bryan O'Connor

Bryan – In response to a recent question on his website, James said that Todd Helton is a clear Hall of Famer. So I would assume he thinks the same re: Walker. Personally, I’m not sure I agree. He is underrated by the non-stats crowd. No doubt. But I think he’s overrated by the stats crowd. His career home OPS is over 200 points higher than his road OPS (his road OPS compares with contemporaries such as Bernie Williams, Luis Gonzalez, and John Olerud). He obviously deserves some credit for being able to take advantage of his home park. But… Read more »

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Bryan O'Connor

Bryan & Ed, yes he did address some other players in a rapid-fire, condensed way during the last segment of the show. Let me point out first that it was host Brian Kenny, not James, who was picking out the names to discuss.

Here’s some names and BJ’s quick HOF opinion:

Raines – absolutely

Walker – Kenny mentioned the crazy home/road splits; James called him very skilled but said Walker was not really high on his list.

Trammell – yes (“with Whitaker”, he added)

Bernie W- probably not

Edgar – yes

Morris – no

Murphy – no

McGriff – yes

11 years ago

Reply to Bryan O'Connor

Thanks for the additional info Bstar. For reasons that I don’t begin to understand, WAR likes Walker more than win shares. As you recall, you and I recently discussed the relative ranking of Walker, Biggio, and Alomar. While the various versions of WAR generally put Walker ahead of the other two, he’s far behind them on win shares (Walker has 315.5, Alomar has 370.7 and Biggio has 426.8).

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Bryan O'Connor

Ed, I share your skepticism of Walker’s numbers. That 200+ point divide between home and road OPS is just too big for me to ignore and I don’t think park factors properly capture how much of an advantage pre-humidor Coors Field was for the top hitters there.

Adam Darowski

11 years ago

Reply to Bryan O'Connor

Larry Walker’s OPS outside of Coors was basically the same as Sammy Sosa’s entire career (Wrigley included). Larry Walker was effing LEGIT.

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Bryan O'Connor

That’s good for Booger, because Sosa certainly WASN’T legit.

Sosa Home OPS: .905
Sosa Road OPS: .851 (54 point decrease)
Sosa H/R tOPS+: 106/94

Walker Home OPS: 1.068
Walker Home OPS: .865 (203 point decrease)
Walker H/R tOPS+: 120/80

Sosa’s not a real good comp to Walker here as far as home field advantage goes.

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Bryan O'Connor

The perfect comp to Walker’s home/road splits would be ex-teammate Todd Helton. The numbers are almost identical.

Home OPS: Walker-1.068 Helton-1.060
Road OPS: Walker-.865 Helton-.864
H/R diff: Walker (-.203) Helton (-.196)
H/R tOPS+: Walker 120/80 Helton 119/80

Adam Darowski

11 years ago

Reply to Bryan O'Connor

I’m not looking to compare the home/road splits of Walker and Sosa. I’m saying that non-Coors Walker had the same OPS as Sammy Sosa. That’s after removing every game he played at Coors—a pretty cruel adjustment to make for any player.

Then again, Sosa also had a 1.183 OPS in Coors. I’m not removing that from his line…

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Bryan O'Connor

OK, Adam, but that’s an entirely different point than I was making @22.

Adam Darowski

11 years ago

Reply to Bryan O'Connor

Ah, my point was that if you even ignore his Coors numbers, he’s probably a Hall of Famer.