Sports Reference Blog

Archive for November, 2014

First Downs Added to Team Game Finder

26th November 2014

We just wanted to quickly note that we have added First Downs (for & against) as a search criteria in the Team Game Finder. Additionally, we have added breakdowns for First Downs by rushing, passing & penalties since 1999 (total First Downs are complete back to 1940). Here's a few examples of these new searches:

These searches are just the tip of the iceberg here and we encourage users to dig in.

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

Advanced Stats Added to Team Game Finder

24th November 2014

Users of our Play Index have likely grown accustomed to searching through the Team Game Finder to find things like highest-scoring games or best shooting performances. However, over the years basketball fans (and our users) have grown more statistically savvy and often crave a deeper perspective beyond the raw numbers. For that reason, we have included an advanced box score within our games boxes for some time. Now, we have taken the next step by allowing users to search through these advanced statistics via the Team Game Finder.

To use these tools, you can simply go to the link above and set the parameters you would like for your search. Please note that these advanced stat searches are limited to the era for which we have complete box scores (since 1985-86). Here are some examples:

Please note that cumulative searches utilizing possession-based metrics will differ slightly from some season totals found on team pages and in the team season finder because our box scores have player turnovers, but not team turnovers, which causes slight variations.

Posted in Advanced Stats, Announcement, Basketball-Reference.com, Data, Play Index | Comments Off on Advanced Stats Added to Team Game Finder

2015 Payroll Estimates Added

14th November 2014

Thanks to Matt Swartz at MLB Trade Rumors, we have 2015 arbitration estimates to flesh out our projected team payrolls for 2015. MLBTR's list can be found at this link. We have incorporated these estimates into our 2015 team payroll estimates, which can be found on table form on our front page (as seen below). The "#" column is for the number of players signed, while "Pyrl" represents the committed payroll on players signed for 2015. Finally, "Est" is an estimate of the team's final payroll for the season:

Screen Shot 2014-11-14 at 11.51.14 AM

 

Any team can be clicked on to find a fuller table with information on individual players. There is also a mouseover for each team showing their most recent payrolls for perspective on their past spending habits.

Posted in Announcement, Baseball-Reference.com, Data | Comments Off on 2015 Payroll Estimates Added

Player Season Finder Improvements, Including BPM & VORP

13th November 2014

Just a note that we've expanded the searchable options in our Player Season Finder this week.

In particular, we've added BPM and VORP to the list of searchable stats, both of which are available going back to the 1973-74 season.  If you don't know what those stats are, you may have missed this recent announcement. Also feel free to weigh in at the discussion on the APBRmetrics forum.

Also, we've added search options by a player's birth state, college, and debut seasons, either in the NBA or ABA. There's also a new option to search by award winners so you can see all seasons by MVP winners, All-NBA selections, Defensive Players of the Year, etc.

If you're new to the site, the Player Season Finder is our most popular database search tool. You can get to it by clicking on 'play-index' in the top navigation menu, then the large 'Player Season Finder' link. It allows you to search for and compare player stats for a season or a player's career (or a span of years). You can also find the number of seasons that match your criteria. As an example, you can find the highest USG% seasons of all timemost career VORP for a player from Duke, or the most points scored in a single postseason.

The new fields are highlighted in red below:

 

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Posted in Advanced Stats, Announcement, Basketball-Reference.com, CBB at Sports Reference | 2 Comments »

Offseason Updates

12th November 2014

We just wanted to share a few recent site updates as we head into baseball's offseason:

We have updated things like rookie status, service time and contract status for 2015. Here's the updated data for Joe Panik, for instance:

Screen Shot 2014-11-12 at 3.07.57 PM

As you can see, we've pointed out that his rookie status has now been exhausted and updated the other items, as well.

Additionally, our free agency page is now live and contains the signings thus far, as well as a list of remaining available free agents. This information can be found here. You can also follow free agent signings via our transactions page.

And finally, any new signings will be reflected on team payroll pages, which can be found as a tab on main team pages:

Screen Shot 2014-11-12 at 3.22.49 PM

Posted in Announcement, Baseball-Reference.com, Data | Comments Off on Offseason Updates

Touches Added to Play Index

5th November 2014

You often hear about dangerous workloads for NFL running backs and the struggles many have had after particularly taxing seasons. But, particularly in this era, the running game is only part of the equation for backs (though we won't opine on whether or not receptions are less taxing than rushes). Many of them are 3-down players heavily involved in the passing game. With that in mind, we've added "touches" as a searchable statistical category in the Play Index. For our purposes, we have defined "touches" as the sum of rushes, receptions, kick returns & punt returns. While Larry Johnson may famously hold the record for rush attempts in a season with 416, James Wilder has the record for touches with 492 in 1984. The most touches in a game we have in our data (since 1960) is 48 by LaDainian Tomlinson & Wilder.

As I write, the 2014 leader in touches is DeMarco Murray, with 255 through 9 games. That puts him on pace for 453 touches this season, which would be tied with Eddie George for 3rd most in NFL history and 14 more than Emmitt Smith ever had in a season.

Posted in Announcement, Data, Play Index, Pro-Football-Reference.com | Comments Off on Touches Added to Play Index

Combined Points Added to Team Game Finder

4th November 2014

Thanks to a recommendation from user Jon P, we have added "combined points" as a search and filter option in the Team Game Finder.

You can now search for games in which the 2 teams combined for 100+ points or the highest scoring games since the merger. Or, if you can stomach it, you can even find games with twice as many turnovers as points.

Posted in Announcement, Play Index, Pro-Football-Reference.com | 5 Comments »