Fantasy Stats and the Intellectual Property Debate — The Hardball Times

Fantasy Stats and the Intellectual Property Debate –Maury Brown

MLB Advanced Media, for which I work sometimes, continues to assert increasing control over the rights to player and team names. I can see why they’re pursuing revenues this way, but there are serious questions about what intellectual property the game owners actually own, and what is in the public domain. On January 19 MLBAM made a deal with the MLBPA for the exclusive rights to all player names and likenesses for online games, which at least centralizes who is in charge. Maury Brown explains most of what this all means.

For the rest, we need the courts to decide.

A surprising resource

Mock Draft Central Fantasy Baseball Mock Drafts

When I first visited Mock Draft Central a couple of years ago it was to do the mock draft for the Fantasy Baseball Guide. Looking over the site, noting that is a pay site, I thought that a site devoted to mock drafts was plain goofy. Not that I said that to Jason Pliml, whose baby this is. To him I said, Thank you for having us.
But then we did our draft, the software was quite helpful, and I began to see the appeal of a drafting site that works. And I continue to meet people for whom practice drafting is one of their most important prep practices going into the fantasy season. And this year the software is even better.
So, consider me converted. If you’re interested in mock drafting and want to learn more about how mockdraftcentral.com can help you improve your fantasy game, check out the sales pitch at the site and sign up for the free trial.

Mota Fails Physical

Do you think the Red Sox didn’t inspect Mota because they wanted Beckett so much and knew they weren’t going to queer the deal even if he couldn’t comb his hair? Or they did inspect him, realized he was in tatters, and tried to spin him before that became obvious? If the Indians were the Yankees we would think the failed physical was more likely George’s attempt to backtrack than anything real.

Jim Duquette Gets His Man

Orioles get Benson from Mets for Julio, Maine – MLB – Yahoo! Sports

Anna Benson is upset because the Mets signed her husband, and now they’re dumping him. But it was GM Jim Duquette who traded for the Bensons when he was with the Mets, and who has traded for him again. The Bensons have yet to do much to repay that devotion.

Now the Mets should work on getting Duquette excited about Victor Zambrano again.

Baseball Bullet-In

The Japan Times Online

Tim McLeod, who has taken it upon himself to keep me up to date with Japanese baseball, sent me a couple of stories from the Japan Times today. In the first one, a notebook of baseball news I couldn’t find a link to, the newest Tampa Bay reliever from Japan, Shinji Mori, says with the trade of Danys Baez that he wants to be the Devil Rays’ closer. Also, Ozzie Guillen says that Tadahito Iguchi will be batting sixth or seventh because “he knows his baseball,” and wants him to play to his strength. Finally, Kenji Johjima says he plans on catching all 162 games this year, and hopes to work with Seattle ace Jamie Moyer learning opposing hitters, perhaps over a few glasses of wine.

The link above leads to Wayne Graczyk column, which lists which foreign players are staying in Japan this year, and who the newcomers are. Included in the latter group are Kevin Beirne, DJ Carrasco, Jeff Liefer, Jason Grabowski, maybe Jose Macias, Luis Martinez, Gary Glover, Sean Douglass are the big names. He also explains why Johjima should be Jojima unless Ichiro is spelled Ichiroh.

Thanks Tim.

John Shea’s Baseball Research

Baseball Paper List

Economist John Shea studied how baseball’s unbalanced schedule affects our ability to isolate and calculate reliable Park Factors. Given the range of park factors we usually deal with, some of the variation is strikingly large, and throws into question the worth of traditionally calculated park factors. I’m not sure the difference is worth doing the laborious translation Shea suggests because even then he isn’t taking into account other serious variables (like the weather and injuries) that have a real impact on these numbers.

I think the real message is that Park Factors are a very blunt instrument for measuring how any particular ballpark affects run production, and even blunter when it comes to measuring other isolated effects, like home runs.

LA: Lake Arrowhead or Corey Patterson

Daily Graphing: Corey Patterson — The Hardball Times

I have no quarrel with the graphs or the logic that says Corey Patterson isn’t as good as he could be. But I think we have to move away from the simplistic truism that players will get better by improving their walk rates. It’s awfully stale.

And it isn’t necessarily true. A lot of players balance a diverse set of skills that have made them major leaguers, and taking pitches isn’t an important part of that. Adding patience can be a negative, especially when it throws a player off his rhythm. Maybe the Cubs efforts to make Patterson a leadoff hitter hurt him.

Patterson needs to walk more if he’s going to bat leadoff or high in the order. If he’s going to hit down in the order his other skills are enough to offset his shortcomings, most of the time. It’s too bad that he seems incapable of improving his game, but that’s why we admire superstars. They do things that guys like Patterson can’t imagine.

So, Patterson isn’t looking like a superstar today. But if he is used properly in Baltimore he’s going to be a differencemaker in AL only leagues. His price isn’t going to collapse, but even at $20 (unless his confidence is now totally shot) he’s a bargain. (We’ll have to read the leaves of ST to make a better judgement.)