Hardball Retro

dedicated to the enrichment of casual and serious enthusiasts in all aspects of professional baseball

Sabermetrics

Hardball Architects – Volume 2 (National League Teams): Evaluating Roster Construction and Team Performance Based On Player Acquisition Methods

Hardball Architects – Volume 2 (National League Teams) – on sale now! Kindle edition ($9.99), paperback ($19.99) order here -> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TPYMNSS (Kindle), https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09YNH354F (paperback) Hardball Architects examines the trades, free agent acquisitions, draft picks and other transactions for the 30…

Pedro J. Martinez

WHIP or NO WHIP

In a day where measuring a pitcher’s ability to induce misses is vital to assembling a rotation, identifying a gauge for the alternative outcome (what happens when they don’t swing and miss) has become just as necessary in order to…

Billy Martin

The New “Billy Ball”

In 2003, Michael Lewis published his deep dive into what became an analytics revolution. “Moneyball” popularized Bill James theories on analytics and thrust Billy Beane reluctantly into the baseball spotlight. Take away Brad Pitt, an A’s historic win streak, and…

Isn’t It Ironic … Don’t You Think

Bill James, the father of Sabermetrics, called bunting “usually a waste of time.” Super Agent Scott Boras referred to the defensive shift as “discriminatory”, in part because his client Bryce Harper was struggling against the tactic. How do these extreme…

Inning Outcomes

Does the inning affect player production? Do certain batters perform better under pressure (in the late innings of a ball game when the outcome usually hangs in the balance)? Conversely, can we derive any patterns from a pitcher’s performance over…