This Week in SABR: August 31, 2018

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Welcome to “This Week in SABR!” Click here to view this week’s newsletter on the web. Please note: The SABR office will be closed on Monday, September 3 for the Labor Day holiday. Here’s what we’ve been up to as of August 31, 2018:

SABR Defensive Index rankings released through August 19

Oakland third baseman Matt Chapman and St. Louis second baseman Kolten Wong continue to lead their respective leagues in the updated SABR Defensive Index™ rankings.

For the sixth consecutive season, the SABR Defensive Index will be used to help select the winners of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award® and Rawlings Platinum Glove Award™, presented by SABR. The SABR Defensive Index accounts for approximately 25 percent of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award selection process that will be added to the votes from the managers and coaches.

Chapman’s SDI of 19.5 is the highest in the game among all qualified defenders, ahead of his teammate, shortstop Marcus Semien (11.6) and Boston right fielder Mookie Betts (9.6). Kansas City left fielder Alex Gordon (8.9) and Detroit shortstop Jose Iglesias (8.3) round out the top five in the AL.

Wong’s SDI of 12.3 leads all fielders in the NL, followed closely by Colorado second baseman DJ LeMahieu (11.9) and Arizona shortstop Nick Ahmed (11.7). Pittsburgh left fielder Corey Dickerson (10.5) and Atlanta left fielder Adam Duvall (8.3) round out the top five.

The updated SDI results were released this week by the Society for American Baseball Research. The final SDI results will be released following the conclusion of the 2018 season at SABR.org/SDI.

Click here to read the full article at SABR.org.

Save the date! Join us for 2018 SABR Arizona Fall League Experience

Save the date! Join us for the 10th annual SABR Arizona Fall League Experience on Thursday, November 1 to Saturday, November 3, 2018, in Phoenix, Arizona. Registration information will be available at SABR.org/AFL soon.

The 2018 team rosters were released this week and MLB’s No. 1 prospect, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays, leads a star-studded cast this season in the AFL.

The annual conference, hosted by SABR’s Arizona Hemond-Delhi Chapter, is held in conjunction with the Arizona Fall League (mlbfallball.com), baseball’s premier player development league. In the first nine years of the conference, attendees have been treated to sneak peeks at MLB stars like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Buster Posey, Stephen Strasburg, Nolan Arenado, Gerrit Cole, Gary Sanchez, and Ronald Acuña Jr. before they hit the big leagues.

All baseball fans are welcome to attend the SABR Arizona Fall League Experience. Visit SABR.org/AFL for photos and highlights from past conferences.

Seeking nominations for 2019 SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards

What are the best baseball analytics articles you’ve read in 2018?

We’re now seeking nominations for the 2019 SABR Analytics Conference Research Awards, which recognize baseball researchers who have completed the best work of original analysis or commentary during the preceding calendar year.

Please send all nominations via e-mail to this address: 2019-analytics-awards@sabr.org no later than December 31, 2018. Include author, title, date of publication and a URL link (if applicable).

Voting for the winners will be conducted online in January-February 2019 at SABR.org, BaseballProspectus.com, FanGraphs.com, HardballTimes.com and BeyondtheBoxScore.com, with results weighted equally at 20%.

Results will be announced and presented at the eighth annual SABR Analytics Conference, March 8-10, 2019, at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix in Phoenix, Arizona. Learn more at SABR.org/analytics.

The SABR Bookshelf: Summer 2018

Periodically throughout the year, SABR.org publishes The SABR Bookshelf, a listing of new books that are received at the SABR office.

Here are The SABR Bookshelf listings for Summer 2018:

http://sabr.org/content/sabr-bookshelf-summer-2018

Click on the link above for more detailed information on each of these books:

  • Cincinnati’s Crosley Field: A Gem in the Queen City, edited by Gregory H. Wolf
  • Major League Baseball A Mile High: The First Quarter Century of the Colorado Rockies, edited by Bill Nowlin and Paul Parker
  • The World Series in the Deadball Era, by Steve Steinberg
  • The Lost Art of Baseball Humor (1860-1900), by Gerard S. Petrone
  • German-Americans and Our National Pastime, by Frank Amoroso
  • Ted Williams: The First Latino in the Baseball Hall of Fame, by Bill Nowlin
  • Wee Willie Sherdel: The Cardinals’ Winningest Left-hander, by John G. Coulson with John T. Sherdel
  • Baseball in a Grain of Sand: Seeing the Game through a Small Town Season, by Bill Gruber
  • The 1967 American League Pennant Race: Four Teams, Six Weeks, One Winner, by Cameron Bright
  • A Game of Moments: Baseball Greats Remember Highlights of Their Careers, by Ron Gerrard
  • The Page Fence Giants: A History of Black Baseball’s Pioneering Champions, by Mitch Lutzke
  • Babe Ruth and the Creation of the Celebrity Athlete, by Thomas Barthel
  • Baseball Rowdies of the 19th Century: Brawlers, Drinkers, Pranksters and Cheats in the Early Days of the Major Leagues, by Eddie Mitchell
  • Baseball in Alabama: Tales of Hardball in the Heart of Dixie , by Doug Wedge
  • The Age of Ruth and Landis: The Economics of Baseball during the Roaring Twenties, by David George Surdam and Michael J. Haupert
  • The Presidents and the Pastime: The History of Basebal & the White House, by Curt Smith
  • The Integration of the Pacific Coast League: Race and Baseball on the West Coast, by Amy Essington
  • Something Magic: The Baltimore Orioles, 1979-1983, by Charles Kupfer
  • The Giant Killer, by James Carmody

To get your NEW book listed on The SABR Bookshelf, make sure a review copy is sent to: The SABR Bookshelf, Cronkite School at ASU, 555 N. Central Ave. #416, Phoenix, AZ 85004. An e-book file will also suffice; please send the e-book in PDF, EPUB or Kindle/MOBI format to jpomrenke@sabr.org.

To ensure a listing in The Baseball Index — SABR’s online catalog of baseball research materials at www.baseballindex.org — make sure a review copy is sent to The Baseball Index, 4025 Beechwood Pl., Riverside, CA 92506.

To view previous listings in The SABR Bookshelf, click here.

Call for papers: 2019 SABR Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference

All SABR members are invited and encouraged to submit a Research Presentation Proposal Abstract on any topic of 19th-century baseball for the 2019 Frederick Ivor-Campbell 19th Century Base Ball Conference at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The 11th annual Ivor-Campbell Conference is scheduled for April 26-27, 2019.

The deadline for proposal Abstracts is October 31, 2018. Your abstract must be between 200-400 words for a 20- to 25-minute presentation. Please include name, title, and contact information and send your proposal as a Microsoft Word or PDF attachment to Peter Mancuso at peterplus4@earthlink.net.

Click here for complete details and submission criteria at SABR.org.

To learn more about the Ivor-Campbell Conference, visit SABR.org/ivor-campbell19c.

Registration now open for 2018 SABR Cleveland 19th Century Baseball Interdisciplinary Symposium

Join us for the SABR Cleveland 19th Century Baseball Interdisciplinary Symposium, which will take place on Saturday, November 10, 2018, from 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. at the majestic Main Branch of the Cleveland Public Library in the heart of downtown Cleveland.

The day-long Saturday symposium will be devoted to 19th-century baseball as it was played and evolved in Cleveland and its greater region of northeastern Ohio. A keynote luncheon address of interdisciplinary history by David Goldberg, Professor of History at Cleveland State University, will provide a look at late 19th-century Cleveland with a particular understanding of one of that city’s most important and powerful forces, its transportation system. In addition to the on-site luncheon, there will be both an early morning and mid-afternoon coffee and refreshments service.

Other speakers are expected to include John Thorn, MLB’s Official Historian; John Skrtic, Director of Public Services, CPL; Jeremy Feador, Cleveland Indians, Historian & Curator; and four SABR researchers and authors with specific focus on elements of 19th-century Cleveland area baseball: David Fleitz, Joseph Wancho, Ken Krsolovic, and Bryan Fritz. Click here to download a complete schedule (PDF).

We hope to see you there!

Educators, sign up your students for SABR’s Student Group Affiliate Membership

As everyone gets ready for the start of the new school year, we hope all of our teachers and professors will consider signing up their classes or a group of students for a SABR Student Group Affiliate Membership, which will provide students with access to many of the electronic benefits that SABR members enjoy, including “This Week in SABR,” e-book editions of the Baseball Research Journal and The National Pastime, free SABR e-books, and access to the members-only section of SABR.org. This membership will not include any printed publications or voting rights.

In order to make the Student Group Affiliate Membership affordable for groups to join, here are the options we offer:

  • College/University groups/classes: For an annual fee of $250, a group of up to 25 students can receive a one-year electronic SABR affiliate membership.
  • High School/Middle School groups/classes: For an annual fee of $100, a group of up to 20 students can receive a one-year electronic SABR affiliate membership.

Any educational class or student group at the middle school, high school or college/university level is eligible for a SABR affiliate membership, as long as a faculty member, teacher, or adviser is an active SABR member (or registers to join.) The teacher/adviser will be listed as the group contact on the SABR website. Click here to learn more at SABR.org.

If you have any questions about how a Student Group Affiliate Membership might work for your group or class, please contact SABR Vice President Dr. Leslie Heaphy at Lheaphy@kent.edu.

SABR Digital Library: Cincinnati’s Crosley Field: A Gem in the Queen City

Add this new book from the SABR Digital Library to your collection, on one of baseball’s classic crown jewels:

Cincinnati’s Crosley Field: A Gem in the Queen City 
Edited by Gregory H. Wolf 
Associate Editors: Len Levin, Bill Nowlin, and Carl Riechers 
ISBN (paperback): 978-1-943816-75-0, $19.95 
ISBN (e-book): 978-1-943816-74-3, $9.99
311 pages, 8.5″ x 11″

Click here to read the full description of this book at SABR.org.

SABR members, get this e-book for FREE!

SABR members will get discounted rates for all Digital Library publications, including e-book editions for free. Visit SABR.org/ebooks for a list of all titles.

Having trouble downloading our e-books? To view PDF files on your computer, click here to download the free Adobe Reader software. Having trouble downloading e-books to your Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader or iPad? Click here for additional help.

Register now for 2018 Southern Negro League Baseball Conference in Birmingham

SABR’s Rickwood Field Chapter is joining with the Center for Negro Baseball Research, the Southern Negro League Baseball Museum, and Friends of Rickwood to host the inaugural Southern Negro League Baseball Conference on October 4-6, 2018, at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama.

This conference is dedicated to the preservation of the history of Southern Negro League Baseball, and the history of Negro Leagues players from the South. Download the registration form for full details and schedule.

This year’s conference’s theme will be the final Negro League World Series in 1948, including a visit with Rev. Bill Greason, who played for the Birmingham Black Barons in that series 70 years ago. Please consider attending and sharing your commitment to keeping alive the rich history of Southern Negro League Baseball.

Click here to read the full announcement at SABR.org.

2 new SABR biographies published

Two new biographies were posted this week as part of the SABR Baseball Biography Project, which brings us to a total of 4,621 published biographies. Here are the new bios published this week: 

All new biographies can be found here: SABR.org/bioproj/recent

1948 Negro League World Series player bios now posted online

In Bittersweet Goodbye: The Black Barons, the Grays, and the 1948 Negro League World Series (SABR, 2017), edited by Frederick C. “Rick” Bush and Bill Nowlin, we focused on the end of an era in black baseball.

All of the biographies that appeared in Bittersweet Goodbye are now available to read online at the SABR BioProject:

SABR.org/category/completed-book-projects/1948-negro-league-world-series

This book was inspired by the last Negro League World Series ever played and presents biographies of the players on the two contending teams in 1948 — including Piper Davis, Nat Pollard, and Artie Wilson of the Birmingham Black Barons and Buck Leonard, Luke Easter, and Sam Bankhead of the Homestead Grays — as well as the managers, owners (including Tom Hayes of the Black Barons and Hall of Famer Cumberland Posey of the Grays), and articles on the ballparks the teams called home, Rickwood Field and Griffith Stadium.  

Also included are articles that recap the season’s two East-West All-Star Games, the Negro National League and Negro American League playoff series, and the World Series itself. Additional context is provided in essays about the effects of Organized Baseball’s integration on the Negro Leagues, the exodus of Negro League players to Canada, and the signing away of top Negro League players — specifically Willie Mays of the Black Barons.

SABR members, click here to download the e-book edition for free or get a 50% discount off the paperback edition.

4 new stories published by the SABR Games Project

Four new game stories were posted this week as part of the SABR Games Project. Here are the new game stories:

In addition, the following game stories from Boston’s First Nine: The 1871-75 Boston Red Stockings (SABR, 2016), edited by Bob LeMoine and Bill Nowlin, were also posted this week:

New Games Project stories can be found at SABR.org/gamesproject/recent. Find all published Games Project articles at SABR.org/GamesProject.

If you have any questions about the Games Project, please contact Mike Huber. To request an assignment, please contact Steven C. Weiner. After the article has been completed in accordance with our Authors’ Guidelines, please submit it to Len Levin, who will initiate the editing process and get your story started toward publication.

  • Get involved: Have memories of a game you attended? Or a game you watched that caught your interest? Write about it! Writing for the Games Project is an easy way to get involved as a SABR member. Find out how by reading the Games Project FAQs section or checking out the Authors’ Guidelines. We have editors and fact checkers who are willing to help you write your first article.

Listen to Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM on Sunday nights

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM, a radio show hosted by SABR President Vince Gennaro, is back for the 2018 season at its regular time: 7:00-8:00 p.m. ET on Sundays, on MLB Network Radio.

This week’s guests are New York Yankees reporter Sweeny Murti of WFAN and Russell Carleton of Baseball Prospectus.

You can listen to archives of recent episodes on-demand on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App. Click here to learn more.

Behind the Numbers: Baseball SABR Style on SiriusXM focuses on examining and interpreting the statistical analysis that plays a critical role in baseball today. It airs weekly throughout the year on MLB Network Radio, available to subscribers nationwide on XM channel 89, Sirius channel 209, and on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App.

ICYMI: Highlights from last week’s This Week in SABR

We’ve heard your feedback: Some of you have said you look forward to “This Week in SABR” every Friday, but sometimes there are just too many compelling articles and announcements to read every week. We’re not complaining — hey, keep up the great work! — but we know the feeling. So in an effort to make the length of this newsletter more manageable to read, we’ll summarize some of the repeating/recurring announcements in a special “In Case You Missed It (ICYMI)” section of “This Week in SABR”.

Here are some major headlines from recent weeks that we don’t want you to miss:

All previous editions of This Week in SABR can be found here: https://sabr.org/content/this-week-in-sabr-archives.

Welcome, new members!

We’d like to welcome all of our new SABR members who have joined this week. You can find all Members-Only resources at members.sabr.org and the Membership Handbook can be downloaded here.

Please give these new members a warm welcome and help them make the most of their membership by giving them the opportunity to get involved in their local chapter or a research committee.

You can find contact information for any SABR member in the online membership directory (SABR.org/directory).

Name Hometown     Name Hometown
Michael Billoni Grand Island, NY     Brett Linneweber Billings, MT
Anthony Ciccone Mountain View, CA     Lawrence Locklin Jacksonville, FL
Tim Collier Greenwood, IN     Matthew Righter Poughkeepsie, NY
Nicholas Cunningham St. Augustine, FL     Donald Merrion Littleton, CO
Edward Fisher Aliso Viejo, CA     Howard Runyon Chattanooga, TN
Fred Fontana N. Topsail Beach, NC     Devon Stein Pittsburgh, PA
Hayden Goethe Moorhead, MN     Thomas Wheeler Denver, CO

 

Research Committee news

Here are the new research committee updates this week:

  • Business of Baseball: Please welcome Dan Levitt as the new co-chair of the Business of Baseball Committee, joining Michael Haupert and Steve Weingarden. To learn more about the Business of Baseball Committee, click here.
  • Negro Leagues: September 2018 newsletter

Find all SABR research committee newsletters at SABR.org/research.

Regional Chapter news

Here are the new regional chapter updates this week:

Visit SABR.org/chapters for more information on SABR regional chapters.

SABR Events Calendar

Here is a list of upcoming events on the SABR calendar:

All SABR meetings and events are open to the public. Feel free to bring a baseball-loving friend … and make many new ones! Check out the SABR Events Calendar at SABR.org/events.

Around the Web

Here are some recent articles published by and about SABR members:

Read these articles and more at SABR.org/latest.

This Week in SABR is compiled by Jacob Pomrenke. If you would like us to include an upcoming event, article or any other information in “This Week in SABR,” e-mail jpomrenke@sabr.org.

Have trouble reading this e-mail? Click here to view this week’s newsletter on the web.

Are you receiving our e-mails? “This Week in SABR” goes out by e-mail to all members on Friday afternoons. If they’re not showing up, try adding “sabr.notes@sabr.org” to your contact list to ensure they show up in your inbox (and not the spam folder.)

 

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Originally published: August 31, 2018. Last Updated: April 3, 2020.

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