Help with Baseball database

[ChrisCary]

On the baseball database that you can download here, how do I show career numbers?
Is it possible?

[NetShrine]

Nope - but, again, it's just a freebie - so, I have no leverage with the creator.

If you want a cheapie - try:
http://baseball1.com/statistics/
you can generate your own totals, if you know Access.

For a little more, try Lee's Encylo - - see the URL at the profile for "nyy26wc."

[ChrisCary]

If you find a minute today an you give me a brief description of what I can do with the two, limitations and diferences?

I prefer to support Lee, but if they're similar and the price difference is huge......well I have to feed my jones', ya know?

[NetShrine]

Lee's is very user friendly - - the baseball1 version requires you to do all the work in Access.

I know Buzz has used the baseball1 data (too bad he's on VAC). Personally, I would go with Lee's - - it's the best one out there (IMHO) since the Bill James CD - - - which they no longer make .

Chris, you would have a lot of fun with Lee's app. I'll see if we can get him to chime in here.

[nyy26wc]

I've been pretty quiet lately, since I've just started the work on some additions to the encyclopedia.

First, the free database at baseball1.com is no longer free. Yesterday, they decided to only make it available on CD format, for $13. That database is commonly referred to as the Lahman database, named after its creator, Sean Lahman, so that's how I'll refer to it here.

The sabermetric encyclopedia is $29.95. But, let me see if I can convince you that the additional cost is worth it.

To use the Lahman database, you need to know how to use Access. In order to do anything interesting, you really will need to know SQL, which is Structured Query Language.

To use the sabermetric baseball encyclopedia, you don't need to know anything about computer languages. There is an enormous amount of code working behind the scenes (approximately 175-200 pages, an amount that's about to start to increase). Unlike Lahman's, where you have to do the busy work, the encyclopedia takes care of everything without you having to concern yourself with it.

Stats like AVG, ERA, OBA, SLG & OPS do not appear as "fields" in the Lahman database. You will have to do the work to get Access to be able to determine those stats for you. Also, Access is not really set up to handle formulas in an effective manner, so often times, to get the job done, I've gotten information from that database, have cut and pasted them into Excel and then manipulated the data in Excel. Of course, doing it this way would also require you to know how to use Excel.

One of my favorite features of the encyclopedia is the fact that you can compare any player to his league average. Each player has a league average that is perfectly customized to himself. In other words, if a player had 10% of his career PA in the AL in 2000, but only 5% in 1999, then 2000's AL averages would be prorated to make 2000 count twice as much.

Then, the encyclopedia takes things 1 step further. You can generate leader lists by comparing everyone to their own league averages. For example, Mark McGwire's hit 554 HR (coming into the season), while his league average hitter would only have hit 187. We know McGwire's 367 HR above average, but without knowing where that would rank him, it's more difficult to put the number into its proper perspective. But, the encyclopedia can produce the following chart, of players with the most HRs above their customized league averages--

1 Babe Ruth 602
2 Hank Aaron 436
3 Jimmie Foxx 387
T4 Mark McGwire 367
T4 Willie Mays 367
6 Lou Gehrig 359
7 Mel Ott 355
8 Mike Schmidt 351
9 Harmon Killebrew 345
10 Ted Williams 339

The sabermetric baseball encyclopedia can give you a list of all of any player's top 10 rankings in any stat in any season. There's no way to do that kind of query in Lahman's database.

It can also give you the annual top 10 leaders, or just a list of all of the league leaders, in a stat. To do that in the Lahman database, you would need to look at each year individually.

The sabermetric baseball encyclopedia allows you to cut and paste lists from itself into other programs. The Lahman database forces you to have to retype them. So, mine is more efficient for people to share their discoveries with bulletin boards like this.

The sabermetric encyclopedia allows you to pick a year and a league and see all of the top 10 lists for that season. To do this in the Lahman database would require you to look at each stat individually.

I think I've covered most of the differences. If anyone has any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

[nyy26wc]

Originally posted by NetShrine
I know Buzz has used the baseball1 data (too bad he's on VAC). Personally, I would go with Lee's - - it's the best one out there (IMHO) since the Bill James CD - - - which they no longer make .

I'm no longer upset that they no longer make the Bill James/Fanpark Encyclopedia.

The fact that it's no longer being made was a major motivation for me to create the sabermetric baseball encyclopedia.

Also, the fact that, while the BJE/FPE did lots of stuff, it didn't do everything I wanted it to do. So, I set out to create an improvement.

[NetShrine]

Thanks Lee!

[ChrisCary]

SOld!

Now I gotta explain to the wife why I need to spend more money on baseball stuff.

One more question. Can I download it over the internet or do I need to install it by disk? My home computer has no CD rom drive.
Can I install the program to two computers (home and work) and woul dI have to pay twice?

[nyy26wc]

Sounds great. I'm looking forward to getting your order.

The program can be installed on more than 1 computer. But, it's only available in CD format. The program is just too big to be sent through the Internet.

[ChrisCary]

Can I transfer it from CD disk to Floppy disk?
Can I email it to myself?

You'll probably get the order form the wife or mother, I got a birthday coming up.

[nyy26wc]

If you have PKZIP, which you can get for free from their website, which I believe is http://www.pkzip.com, then you could zip it onto floppy disks. I emphasize the plural nature. It will take many floppys to hold the program.

You could email the files to yourself. But, here are some of the file sizes--

Encyclopedia.CAB (which is part of the setup process) is 19.6 MB (that's no misprint. We're talking megabytes, not kilobytes here).

Jet & MDAC, which are also part of the setup process, are 3.51 & 5.19 MB, respectively.

The database is 44.2 MB.

There are 4 other files that each over a megabyte apiece.

Overall, the whole program is over 80 MB. But, when the program is finally installed, it only takes about 50 MB of space on your hard drive. The other 30 MB are files that Windows uses as part of the installation process and then they go away.

[nyy26wc]

I have a couple of ideas. Do you know anyone who has an external CD-ROM drive that you could borrow?

Or, do you have access to a Zip drive. That way, you could copy the files from the CD to the Zip drive and then plug that into your computer at home.

[BuzzBuzzard]

It sounds like you are sold, Chris, and I think you made the right choice. I had to self-teach myself some Access to use the baseball1 data effectively. Lee's comments about some basic statistics not being displayed, but rather needing to calculate them is entirely on point and a big PITA.

What is the cost of keeping the baseball encyclopedia data current? Is is $30 per year?

[nyy26wc]

The cost will not be $30 to upgrade.

I'm thinking about a 20% discount for an upgrade. The next edition will have some new features in it, so, by upgrading, you'd be getting more than just the new set of stats.

Then, in the future, assuming I run out of ideas on new features, or there are just less of them than in this upgrade, the discount for upgrading is likely to be more than 20%.

Also, there is another way you can reduce the upgrading cost. If you recommend the product to someone, and that person buys it and lets me know you were the recommender, you save an extra 10%, for each person who recommend.

[NetShrine]

Lee - you looking for recommendations on functionality for the next version? I have some things on my wish list.