Sports Reference Blog

Archive for September, 2014

Baseball Similarity Scores Updated for 2014

30th September 2014

After the season ends we update the similarity scores for all players. One special feature we have is similarity scores for career stats and also through each year of the player's career. So when we show that Mike Trout's most similar player through age 22 is Mickey Mantle you get a bit more feel for the path he is on.

Posted in Announcement, Baseball-Reference.com | 1 Comment »

Super Detailed Post Season Game Previews

30th September 2014

Game Previews - Baseball-Reference.com

Every possible pitcher batter matchup is detailed along with a host of other details.

Posted in Advanced Stats, Announcement, Baseball-Reference.com | 2 Comments »

Search Targets and Catch Percentage from Player Season Finder

30th September 2014

Since we're busy adding targets (since 1998) everywhere, I've also put them on the player season finder tool, so for instance you can find the most targets since 1998, sorted by total receptions. In addition I've added Catch Percentage as a searchable and sortable item, the number of targets that actually turned into receptions - Marshall Faulk has the highest percentage of targets caught for players with 100+ targets in a season, and in 2014, Brent Celek has the lowest ratio of passes caught to targets among players with 10+ targets.

Posted in Announcement, Pro-Football-Reference.com | Comments Off on Search Targets and Catch Percentage from Player Season Finder

Large Point Differential Wins and Losses

26th September 2014

Because it's Friday and an interesting trivia question, I went and looked it up in the database - it's actually not as uncommon as you'd think to win and lose in the same season by the same large point differential. The big winners (and losers, of course) in this category are the 1988 Saints managed to beat the Broncos 42-0 and two weeks later lose to Minnesota, 45-3. Here are the top 25 teams with a large win and corresponding large loss in in the same season since 1970:

+------------+---------+------+------+-------------+---+
| name       | year_id | w    | l    | points_diff | c |
+------------+---------+------+------+-------------+---+
| Saints     |    1988 |    1 |    1 |          42 | 2 |
| Patriots   |    1993 |    1 |    1 |          38 | 2 |
| Lions      |    2007 |    1 |    1 |          37 | 2 |
| Giants     |    2009 |    1 |    1 |          37 | 2 |
| Bengals    |    1988 |    1 |    1 |          35 | 2 |
| 49ers      |    2009 |    1 |    1 |          35 | 2 |
| Broncos    |    1979 |    1 |    1 |          35 | 2 |
| Jets       |    1976 |    1 |    1 |          34 | 2 |
| Lions      |    1991 |    1 |    1 |          32 | 2 |
| Vikings    |    1977 |    1 |    1 |          32 | 2 |
| Patriots   |    2003 |    1 |    1 |          31 | 2 |
| Bengals    |    1986 |    1 |    1 |          31 | 2 |
| Vikings    |    1989 |    1 |    1 |          31 | 2 |
| Jets       |    1986 |    1 |    1 |          31 | 2 |
| Redskins   |    2014 |    1 |    1 |          31 | 2 |
| Bills      |    2003 |    1 |    1 |          31 | 2 |
| Saints     |    1976 |    1 |    1 |          30 | 2 |
| Buccaneers |    1992 |    1 |    2 |          28 | 3 |
| Ravens     |    2008 |    1 |    1 |          28 | 2 |
| Chargers   |    1984 |    1 |    1 |          28 | 2 |
| Packers    |    1992 |    1 |    1 |          28 | 2 |
| Buccaneers |    1979 |    1 |    1 |          28 | 2 |
| Chiefs     |    1985 |    1 |    1 |          28 | 2 |
| Vikings    |    1982 |    1 |    1 |          28 | 2 |
| Broncos    |    2004 |    1 |    1 |          28 | 2 |
+------------+---------+------+------+-------------+---+

Posted in Pro-Football-Reference.com | 1 Comment »

Situational Rate Stats on Hockey-Reference.com

25th September 2014

As part of our plan to continue to add "advanced" stats to the site, we've included new rate stats on the "Additional Stats" pages for players. These new stats are primarily "per 60 minutes" versions of already existing stats, but we also have included a break out of assists to include both 1st and 2nd assists per 60 minutes. The advantage of the "per 60" versions of these stats is that it makes it easier to compare players with wildly varying amounts of ice time.

 

Screen Shot 2014-09-25 at 8.14.59 AM

These stats are available by clicking on the "Additional Stats" link on the player pages:

Screen Shot 2014-06-05 at 3.26.02 PM

As always, we appreciate any feedback or questions.

Posted in Advanced Stats, Announcement, Hockey-Reference.com | 4 Comments »

Advanced Player Splits Now Available

25th September 2014

We've added advanced splits to our existing player splits pages, breaking down passing, rushing, and receiving performances by down, distance, score differential, quarter, and more, for every year from 1998 to 2014. Did you know that..

Note that you can always slice & dice the play-by-play data to your heart's content using our play finder tool, and we're also working on adding further splits, such as playing surface, weather, point spread, and more. If you have any suggestions, let us know in the comments below.

Posted in Announcement, Pro-Football-Reference.com | Comments Off on Advanced Player Splits Now Available

Target Data Added to PFR’s Fantasy Pages

22nd September 2014

Just a quick note that we have added target data back to 1998 on our Fantasy pages. For instance, you can now see that Jordy Nelson leads all players with 37 targets thus far this season. This data is now live for 2014 and will be populating the pages for 1998-2013 soon. Hope everyone finds this info useful when they're setting their weekly lineups.

Posted in Announcement, Data, Pro-Football-Reference.com | 1 Comment »

Added Targets to Player and Team Pages

17th September 2014

targets

We've added pass target data to player pages and team pages since 1998 - see the 'Tgt' column under 'Receiving'. And if you mouse over the targets number, it will show you the player's catch percentage, defined as his number of receptions/number of targets.

This target data is derived from the play-by-play data that's used to populate our play finder tool, so when you see something in a box score like "Jay Cutler pass incomplete short left intended for Brandon Marshall", we are counting that as a target for Marshall as determined by the official scorer's judgement.

Look for these to be added to the player season finder and player game finder tools soon. And if you're curious, the most-targeted player in our DB is Marvin Harrison in 2002 with a whopping 205 targets, which might explain why he was able to set the single season receptions record that year.

Posted in Announcement, Pro-Football-Reference.com | 2 Comments »

Current Gamelogs Added to Player Pages

15th September 2014

Screen Shot 2014-09-15 at 10.11.47 AM

To help provide more insight into a player's current year performance, we've added a box with the current year's gamelogs to the top of every active player page highlighting this year's game lines. This box also lists his bye week, the next 3 opponents, and his per-game averages against each opponent at a glance, so you can to see Joe Flacco's career gamelogs vs. the Browns, for example. This box also has quick links to all career gamelogs, penalties, splits and more, for all your gameday number-crunching needs.

We've also added the ability to filter by team on each player game log page - just change the team in the select box above the table and you can break down career numbers vs. only that team (for example, Tom Brady vs. the Dolphins).

Posted in Announcement, Pro-Football-Reference.com | 1 Comment »

The Relationship Between Winning and Ticket Prices in College Football

12th September 2014

By Dan Pizzuta

There's not many things in sports that can increase ticket prices on the secondary market like successful on-field performance. Generally the best teams have the highest ticket prices. However, early in the season some of the price points are still based on preseason expectations and on-field performance has not yet led to shifts in the market. That's especially true early in the college football season on the secondary market.

TiqIQ tracks the most average prices by school on the secondary market during the college football season with the TiqIQ Top 25. Of the schools with the 25 most expensive average prices, 12 are also currently in the Top 25 of SRS after two weeks of the season.

Through two games, the closest match between SRS and secondary market prices is Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish are ranked as the top team with a SRS of 56.99. Notre Dame football tickets are also the third most expensive on the secondary market with a $215 average price for 2014 home games. The University of Georgia is close to Notre Dame, ranking fourth in SRS and second on the secondary market as UGA football tickets have an average price of $219. The biggest disagreement between the two is Ohio State. Ohio State football tickets are the most expensive in the country with a $252 average price. Ohio State's average is 15 percent above the next school, however, they come in just 55th in SRS, 7.43 points above average.

Four of the top ten schools in SRS do not appear in the 25 most expensive schools on the secondary market. Of those four, only Michigan football tickets are the closest to cracking the Top 25. The Wolverines currently have the 26th highest average price in the country at $120. Home games on the Michigan football schedule are typically more expensive, but both high profile rivalry games against Notre Dame and Ohio State were scheduled on the road this season.

When it comes to average prices on the secondary market, there's not much of a difference between top offensive and defensive schools. Both eight of the top 25 schools in defensive and offensive SRS appear on the TiqIQ Top 25. The best defensive schools have a bit of an edge when the it comes to being top five units. Four of the top defensive teams in the TiqIQ Top 25 are in the top five in Defensive SRS. However only two of the eight offensive teams on the secondary market are top five in Offensive SRS--Georgia and Auburn.

Of the 25 most expensive schools on the secondary market, Auburn football tickets might be the best deal. The Tigers rank 14th on the TiqIQ Top 25 and third in SRS. They are only top secondary market school that rank in the top 25 in SRS for both offense and defense. For that type of balance, the $149 average price at Jordan Hare Stadium could be considered a steal.

 

Posted in Announcement, CFB at Sports Reference, Pro-Football-Reference.com | Comments Off on The Relationship Between Winning and Ticket Prices in College Football