Stat Challenge: Week 1
Posted by Andy on May 21, 2010
OK! This is a brand new contest brought to you by the Baseball-Reference.com blog. All of the weekly stat challenges leading up to this one should be considered spring training games because they don't count in the official standings.
The new Stat Challenge is going to be a season-long contest. Each week, 10 entries will earn points based on the best total scores. At the end of the challenge, the contestant with the most points earns a free 6-month subscription (or subscription extension) to the Baseball-Reference.com Play Index. If you like this blog and want to get in on all the fun research, now is your chance to do it for free.
The official rules can be found here. If you've been playing in the weekly challenges so far, it's basically the same in terms of the questions, scoring, and overall rules. The only differences are the new point system for the top 10 entries and the prize at the end.
Instead of posting your answers in a comment, you must fill out the form below. You will not be able to see any other entries but as with the earlier challenge results posts. You must use the same screen name and email address each week. Only I can see your email address and it will never be published. Please pick a screen name with at least a last initial (such as Kim B or Kim1982 instead of just Kim.)
Finally, for people new to this website or the Play Index, after the form below are some tips on how to look up data relevant to each question. Part of the goal here is to help users learn how to use the site to find data of interest.
Here are some tips on how to research the questions to come up with your guesses.
1. To find extra-base hits for the Padres, the easiest way is to go to the 2010 Padres Team Batting Gamelog page. I got there by just typing in 2010 Padres in the search box on the front page, and then choosing "Game Logs" under the Batting [+] option in the gray toolbar down the page a bit. Here, it's easy to see how many extra-base hits the Padres got in the last week or in the entire season (just add up 2B, 3B, and HR for each game) and then take a guess at how many they'll hit in the coming week. You might want to look at which teams and pitchers they are scheduled to face, too.
2. To find the number of solo homers, the easiest way is to look at the 2010 MLB batting splits based on Bases Occupied. As of this writing, there have been 644 homers with the bases empty so far this season. If you want to go into more depth, you could do a PI Team Batting Event Finder to find homers with no runners on and break it down by date to see what happened last week, for example.
3. To find starting pitcher performances of at least 8 innings, the easiest way is to use the PI Pitching Game Finder for 2010 set role to starter and IP >= 8. So far this season there have been 121 such performances.
4. Runs scored by pitchers is another one that is easiest to find with the PI. In this case it would be a Batting Game Finder with the player's position set to pitcher. Set Runs >= 1 and look for all relevant games. To find out how many runs were scored over a certain time period, just pick out the dates you want and add the run totals.
5. To find strikeouts by a particular player, the easiest way to do that is to go each individual pitcher's game logs. Here is Tim Lincecum's 2010 log, for example. From there you can guess how many K's he usually gets in a game. You might want to look at the schedule to see how many times he'll pitch and which opponent(s) he might be facing.
May 21st, 2010 at 10:04 am
What @#$@%$# "Form Below" ?
P.S. -- I told you I was a dinosaur.
May 21st, 2010 at 11:17 am
When you read the above post you should see questions followed by boxes for your answers and a 'submit' button. That's a form.
After the contest closes on Monday, I will post everybody's guesses here in a comment (but not email addresses)
May 21st, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Sorry, but instead of boxes, all there is there is blank space from your goals to the tips you provided.
As I indicated before, I am a dinosaur in terms of computer familiarity.
May 21st, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Frank, I don't know how to help you unfortunately. It's possible you have some sort of firewall or browser extension that is blocking the form from displaying.
May 21st, 2010 at 2:58 pm
BINGO! That was it, Andy. Thank you for your patience.
May 21st, 2010 at 3:55 pm
I repeat my own challenge from the Brooks Conrad entry. How many times has a team scored eight runs in a single inning and still lost the game?
May 21st, 2010 at 3:56 pm
No time now to research it Vidor.
May 21st, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Andy--
if we dont have a rule it is bound to happen. On question 4, how do you define pitchers? Not trying to be tricky but say Micah Owings comes into PH, scores a run and then takes the mound, are you counting that run?
Or what if some team is being blown out and they turn to a position player like the Cardinals did with Mather and Lopez? Do runs they scored earlier as position players count???
I would hate to see a call have to be made after the fact. Unlike when Bengie Molina was PR for halfway through his replay-aided HR, or worse yet when Bid got bored at the All-Star Game in Milwaukee; there should be a rule in place before the incident occurs.
PS This is what happens to ones brain when you spend your working day dealing with lawyers....Sorry
May 21st, 2010 at 5:26 pm
I mean any player appearing in that game as a pitcher.
May 23rd, 2010 at 11:26 am
[...] (or membership extension) to the Baseball-Reference.com Play Index. You can still enter for Week 1 right here. Entries will be accepted until Monday evening at 7PM [...]
May 23rd, 2010 at 11:53 pm
I'm not seeing the form either.
I have checked through my iPod (via Safari), Foxfire and IE on my pc and no dice.
Where I think I should see the form I instead see this.
"Finally, for people new to this website or the Play Index, after the form below are some tips on how to look up data relevant to each question. Part of the goal here is to help users learn how to use the site to find data of interest.
Loading...
Here are some tips on how to research the questions to come up with your guesses."
I clipped the section above between "" from the entry link: http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/6222
Could be my problem but not sure.
Thanks
Danny
May 24th, 2010 at 6:10 am
The form is fixed now--that was a strange problem. You should be able to fill it out now.
May 24th, 2010 at 8:17 am
[...] You still have most of the day today to enter the Week 1 Stat Challenge right here. [...]
May 24th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
[...] Now on to where the games count. We are giving away a 6-month Play Index membership to each weekly winner starting with the new Week 1. [...]
May 25th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Here are the Week 1 entries
May 25th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
[...] I have posted the entries for the Week 1 Stat Challenge in the comments to that post. [...]
May 25th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
I see one Definitely Immoral entry.
May 26th, 2010 at 4:01 am
Bloody hell. I tacked on an extra zero on my answer for question 4. Oh, well, there's always next week.