Intentional Inexorability

Hello all--

Here are some quick updates on the progress I've made with the site in the last week or so, before I try to meet my 3 a.m. bedtime:

1. The 2001 stats got added to the site on Saturday night. It turns out that Barry Bonds led the majors that year with a massive 890 Bases Produced.

I'm pretty sure that I knew that, once upon a time, before I deleted the 2001 stats from the web page in the summer of 2003. It only remains to be seen whether or not Todd Helton really did crack the 900 BP barrier in 2000. I'm pretty sure I used to know that, too, before I deleted the 2000 stats from the site in the Spring of 2001, to make room for the 2001 stats. I won't really know for what anyone did, way back then, though, until this weekend. I'll keep you updated.

2. I've made more progress in creating a web interface that can automatically display season leaders in each statistical category. Try out the following link to give the current system a try. It only works for the first few rows of offensive stats right now, but it's still a lot of fun. Check out the league leaders in Hit by Pitch Percentage since 2001:

Year Name Team HBPPCT HBP BBPA
2001 Craig Biggio hou 0.039 28 716
2002 David Eckstein ana 0.039 27 687
2003 Jason Kendall pit 0.038 25 659
2004 Craig Wilson pit 0.047 30 644
2005 Jason Giambi nyy 0.035 19 545
2006 Reed Johnson tor 0.041 21 514

3. I got an interesting e-mail today from a Paul Tagliaferro, in Pittsfield, Mass. It seems that he's independently developed the basic concept of bases produced--with a few minor modifications--and was somehow referred to my site by Gary Hardegree, who did something similar about a year and a half ago. He even wrote to Bill James to tell him about it. :-)

Our numbers are growing. And I mean that in every way possible. :-)

Until next time,
Steve