Chadwick update

Thought I’d take a look at the latest development version of Chadwick.

Chadwick in is an SVN repository, so downloaded an SVN 1.44 installer.

Had to build configure from the *.in files.

% svn co https://chadwick.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/chadwick/trunk
% chadwick_20070921
% aclocal
% automake
% autoconf
% sh ./configure
% make
% sudo make install
% pythonw src/chadwick

That builds OK, but the python stuff doesn’t build–there’s no libchadwick_python.c file. Rats.

Now I can’t get the working version re-installed. Feh.

BTW, that 1973.chw file is poisoned somehow. Can’t figure out what it is.

home-field advantage

One thing caught my eye in the Curve Ball book: batters playing at home hit 12 points better than on the road. Makes sense, but it’s almost as big as the lefty/righty match-up difference, which they say is 15 points. And yet, AFAIK, there are no adjustments in TPB to take home-field advantage into account.

A quick run of the Retrosheet game logs proves the home-field advantage for wins & losses:

              HOME WINS       ROAD WINS
            --------------  --------------
1960-1969    8603 (54.03%)   7319 (45.97%)
1970-1979   10644 (53.78%)   9149 (46.22%)
1980-1989   10995 (54.12%)   9320 (45.88%)
1990-1999   11554 (53.52%)  10033 (46.48%)
2000-2006    9166 (53.93%)   7831 (46.07%)

1960-2006   50962 (53.86%)  43652 (46.14%)

It’s almost 8 points. Not as large as 12, but, of course, there’s more to winning than hitting!

2007-10-07: The Commish’s comment re capturing home-field advantage in Park Effects is very interesting. I might even replace the LHB/RHB categories with home/visitor.

Curve Ball: Baseball, Statistics, and the Role of Chance in the Game

Didn’t expect it, but this book starts out with a simple analysis of All-Star Baseball, APBA, SOM & Sports Illustrated Baseball! Interesting point about the SOM method of splitting the rolls: the batter’s ability is purely additive, that is, there’s no direct interaction with the pitcher. You can get some of that with pitcher symbols in TPB, of course.

More to come…

Situational Scorekeeping

I really like this Situational Scorekeeping method devised by Alex Reisner. It combines the best of the traditional & Project Scoresheet methods. The PDFs provided are very professionally formatted, and there’s great documentation.

Pros:

  • Plenty of room to write.
  • Shows the men on base when the batter’s hitting.
  • Easy to keep track of batters faced.
  • Easy to see whether batter scored, made out, or was left on.

Cons:

  • Have to switch between sides of the page.
  • Separation of innings is not as clear.

Lots of other great stuff on Reisner’s site.

Fewer range & error plays

The last few games I’ve been rolling on the $@%*@! ranges & errors like crazy. How about cutting them down without altering the results too much? I just get tired of looking the damn things up. The Deeps are suspenseful, but the ranges & errors are just a chore lately.

Range plays are pretty much 50/50 between hit & out, so how about foul balls on even rolls to infield & outfield range?

Could do the same thing with possible errors: even rolls are fouls. But that cuts the errors in half. How about on the odd rolls that go to possible error, the roll for the error is halved when even. This will pump up the number of errors from 50% to, I dunno, 75%?

Chadwick installation & tweaks

Finally downloaded Chadwick, an open-source scorebook of a sort. Had little hope that it would build, but got it running, including the GUI. (The only hitch was an error message that meant I had to upgrade the Developer Tools from gcc3 to gcc4.) 

The first problems involved colors. Had to change the valid entry background from  SYS_COLOUR_WINDOW (black) to something else. Also had to change the dark green background from (0, 150, 0) to white. 

The next problem is the line-up windows, which have scrollbars that cover up the info and don’t scroll. Tried to change the type from ScrolledWindow to Window. The size was perfect, but the windows didn’t refresh properly. 

screenshot

The event entry works well, and I haven’t seen any problems as long as I stick to the correct syntax. (The best documentation of that is on Retrosheet.) The highlighting that shows valid/invalid input is invaluable. Unlimited undos, which is also great.  

The box scores & narratives are very cool.

XBL: St. Cloud 9 Memphis 5

St. Cloud (Cain) at Memphis (Redman)

The St. Cloud Cyclones blew into Memphis and handed the Dawgs their third straight loss. The Cyclones broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth on a lead-off home run by Pedro Feliz and four more hits to put them ahead by three. Mark Teahen homered in the sixth to get the Dawgs to within two. St. Cloud exploded for four runs in the top of the ninth, half of them after a crucial error by Dawgs third baseman Teahen. Memphis threatened in the bottom of the ninth, scoring two, but went down with the tying run in the on-deck circle.

Final: St. Cloud 9 Memphis 5

PITCHERS:
Memphis
Redman (7) L
Nelson (2)

St. Cloud
Cain (8.2) W
Ryan (0.1) S

NO INJURIES

PS. After the XBL game the Dawgs manager got one back on the Commish, when his 1973 Cardinals defeated the 1973 Yankees 7-0, behind a complete-game shutout by Bob Gibson.

Continue reading XBL: St. Cloud 9 Memphis 5

1973 cards

I ordered the 1973 cards today. That’s the same year as the original APBA set. Examples:

Henry Aaron Tom Seaver Pete Rose Reggie Jackson Dave Kingman

Print with no margin and they come out 4×2.75 inches. Two long cuts (half-inch left at bottom) and three short cuts with the resulting strips. I still can’t figure out what the instructions are getting at with the method to print them out larger with legal size. Both letter & legal are 8-1/2 inches wide!

I don’t like the borders. They make centering errors seem worse. The Commish sez Lance added the borders at someone’s request.