Tag: baseball

  • I Want a Pitcher Not a Back o’ Head Hitter

    I Want a Pitcher Not a Back o’ Head Hitter

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    Brendan Barry
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    We’re about to go into the sportsball realm, readers. Baseball, specifically. Tuesday night, Atlanta Braves batter Whit Merrifield was hit in the back of the head by a 95 mph fastball. Luckily, modern ballplayers wear helmets. But at that velocity, one does not have the most reaction time in the world a number of other…

  • The .500 Red Sox

    The .500 Red Sox

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    Brendan Barry
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    I initially made this datagraphic over the weekend, after watching the last few weeks of Boston Red Sox baseball wherein they continued to win a game, lose a game, resulting in an even .500 record. When I started, the graphic I sketched looked very different as I had included timelines and highlighted key moments where…

  • Boston: Sportstown of the 21st Century

    Boston: Sportstown of the 21st Century

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    Brendan Barry
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    Tonight the Boston Celtics play in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors, one of the most dominant NBA teams over the last several years. But since the start of the new century and the new millennium, more broadly Boston’s four major sports teams have dominated the championship series of those…

  • How the Globe’s Writers Voted

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    Brendan Barry
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    Yesterday we looked at a piece by the Boston Globe that mapped out all of David Ortiz’s home runs. We did that because he has just been voted into baseball’s Hall of Fame. But to be voted in means there must be votes and a few weeks after the deadline, the Globe posted an article…

  • 558 Dingers

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    Brendan Barry
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    Yesterday baseball writers elected David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox, better known as Big Papi, to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I was trying to work on a thing for yesterday, but ran out of time. While I will attempt to return to that later, for now I want to share a simple interactive…

  • Those Are Some Heavy Balls

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    Brendan Barry
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    Unfortunately, I don’t subscribe to Business Insider, but I saw this graphic on the Twitter and felt the need to share it. Primarily because baseball will almost certainly stop at midnight when the owners of the teams will impose a lockout (as opposed to players going on strike). And with that baseball will be on…

  • Data Analysis and Baseball

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    Brendan Barry
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    First, a brief housekeeping thing for my regular readers. It is that time of year, as I alluded to last week, where I’ll be taking quite a bit of holiday. This week that includes yesterday and Friday, so no posts. After that, unless I have the entire week off—and I do on a few occasions—it’s…

  • Low Expectations

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    Brendan Barry
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    Today the 2021 Major League Baseball season begins its playoffs. Tomorrow we get the Los Angeles Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals. Why the Dodgers, the team with the second-best record in all of baseball, need to play a one-game play-in is dumb, but a subject for perhaps another post. Tonight, however, is the American…

  • Sankey Shows Starters Sticking with Sticky Stuff

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    Brendan Barry
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    I spent way more time trying to craft that title than I’d like to admit. Headline writing is not easy. Quick little piece today about Sankey diagrams. I love them. You often see them described as flow diagrams—this piece is in the article we’ll get to shortly—but they are more of a subset within a…

  • Ranking the Red Sox Prospects

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    Brendan Barry
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    My regular readers will know that I am a fan of the Boston Red Sox, an American baseball team located in Boston, Massachusetts. I would consider myself a bit more involved than a casual fan in that I keep tabs on the team’s prospects. For those unfamiliar with baseball, the sport works by keeping development…