FRES 1010: Baseball Statistics(Fall 2002)

Course Overview

This course will cover basic theory behind baseball statistics:  Specific topics include: Note that this document can be found  at http://www.cs.uga.edu/~dkl/1010/Fall02/syllabus.html

Lectures: M 3:35-4:25pm

Instructors: David Lowenthal and Scott Watterson

Offices: GSRC 219C and 219D, 542-9269 and 542-2737

Email: dkl@cs.uga.edu, saw@cs.uga.edu

We are faculty members in the Computer Science Department at the University of Georgia. Our main areas of research are parallel and distributed computing, operating systems, and compilers.

Office Hours:  by appointment

Office hours will be by appointment, as this is a one unit course.

Reading

The required textbook for the course is Baseball Prospectus 2002 by Sheehan et al.  You should immediately order it or buy it.  See the BP website for online ordering details.

This book is a good compromise between technical content and "fun" reading.

You will also need access to the internet as well as access to a spreadsheet such as Excel.

Lectures

Class will consist of discussion more than lecture.  Each class, a student will make a brief presentation, and then we will supplement this by leading a discussion.

Because class participation is vital in this course, you may not skip class without being excused.  If you have more than 1 absence that is not excused by us, you will fail the class.

Grading

Grades will be assigned on a pass/fail basis.  You will pass if you satisfy the attendance requirement, make your presentation, participate in class discussions, and do your homework.  We do not expect anyone to fail the course, as you have probably signed up because you are interested in baseball statistics. We hope the assignments will be interesting.

Homework Assignments

Class Schedule

A tentative class schedule follows:
 
 
Week Topic
1 Introduction, Survey, Overview
2 OPS
3 Advanced Hitting Stats (RC/27, linear weights, EQA)
4 Value Stats
5 Offensive Projections from minors to majors (MLE's)
6 Historical Offensive Comparisons
7 Offensive Strategy
8 Overview of Defensive Stats
9 Zone Rating, Fielding Average
10 Overview of Pitching Stats, Relief Pitching
11 Advanced Pitching Stats (Defensive Independent, etc)
12 Predictions (team wins/losses, player performance)
13 Hall of Fame
14 Park Effects

Withdrawals and Incompletes

You may drop the class during the first three days without an annotation ending up on your transcript. Thereafter until the drop day, you may drop the class with an annotation. An incomplete will only be considered in a case where there is a documented medical evidence and you are attending class.

Relevant Web Sites

Major League Baseball

Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)

Downloadable Historical Baseball Stats

Voros McCracken's page

Rob Neyer at ESPN.com

John Sickels (minor league prospect analyst at ESPN.com)