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Breadcrumbs Back to Omaha
Column Archive

June 20, 2000: A Better Format (Part 1): The CWS is broken. Here's a better way.
June 27, 2000: A Better Format (Part 2): More detail and a sample run of my proposed format.

July 4, 2000: Don't Draft Him, He's Short: Memories and ruminations on player scouting.
July 11, 2000: Strength of Schedule: The 2000 Strength of Schedule numbers are in, with some analysis.
July 18, 2000: Getting a Grip on Home Field Advantage: Some evidence found at last.
July 25, 2000: Park Factors, 1999-2000: It matters where you play.

August 1, 2000: The Men and Those Guys over There: The world's problems, writ large in my mailbox.
August 8, 2000: Multi-Year ISR's: A look at sustained program excellence.
August 15, 2000: A Look at the Distance Matrix How close is everyone for comparison purposes?
August 22, 2000: Theoretical Winning Percentage, Part I: Yet Another Ratings System
August 29, 2000: Theoretical Winning Percentage, Part II: Comparisons with the ISR's

September 5, 2000: Peace in Our Time?, Part I: The regional debate, a starting point
September 12, 2000: Peace in Our Time?, Part II: The West: The Case for the West
September 19, 2000: Peace in Our Time?, Part III: The Southeast: The Case for the Southeast
September 26, 2000: Peace in Our Time?, Part IV: Parity: The Case for Moderation

October 3, 2000: All-Time Conference Standings: Fun with history
October 10, 2000: The 2000 External Factors Index: Advantages and Disadvantages
October 17, 2000: The Real 2000 RPI's: The Usual Shenanigans
October 24, 2000: In Praise of Microfilm: A New Old Source of Fun
October 31, 2000: I-AA?: A Chance for the Other Guys

November 7, 2000: Month-to-Month Correlations: How Well Does the Early Season Predict?
November 14, 2000: Looking to February: A Little Peek at the Early Season
November 28, 2000: CWS News: A Look at the Summer Meeting

December 5, 2000: School Baseball Web Sites, Part I Sports Information Directors and the Web
December 12, 2000: School Baseball Web Sites, Part II What Sites Already Look Good, and Some Guidelines

January 2, 2001: Pitching or Hitting? Which One Is More Useful?
January 9, 2001: Does Starting Earlier Help?: Are Teams Getting an Advantage?
January 16, 2001: Three to Watch Out For: Some Dark, or at Least Grey, Horses
January 23, 2001: Pre-Season Polls and What They're Worth
January 30, 2001: Off-the-Field News: A Couple of Big Proposals

February 6, 2001: The Begats: Coaching Bloodlines
February 13, 2001: What If? Changing Some Coin Tosses
February 20, 2001: A Look at the Coaches: The Top of the Crop

March 6, 2001: The Rankings Are Back: This Year's First Release
March 13, 2001: Intended Strength of Schedule: What They Meant to Do
March 20, 2001: Ten-Year Conference Standings: The Last Decade
March 27, 2001: Southern California -- A Psych Experiment in Progress

April 3, 2001: Crackerjacks in the Office: Internet Audio
April 10, 2001: A First Look: Who Might Be In
April 17, 2001: Go Down, Maholm? The Hill? My First Game Report
April 24, 2001: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Newcomers to Division I

May 1, 2001: Hey! Pay Attention! Great Conference Races
May 8, 2001: Regional Hosts and #1 Seeds: A Little Guesswork
May 15, 2001: One Last Prediction: A Little More Guesswork
May 22, 2001: The 2001 Tournament Field: Small Steps, Big Problems
May 29, 2001: Notes on the Supers

June 5, 2001: Hey! They Got It Right: The New Format Is Having Positive Results
June 12, 2001: Moving the Fences: A Look at Offense in Omaha
June 19, 2001: 2001 in Review: How'd I Do?
June 25, 2001: In Memory of Clay Gould
June 26, 2001: State Championships

July 3, 2001: This Year's 16-Team Championship: Wavy Lines on the Screen
July 10, 2001: Why Not Get It Right?, Part I: Another Different Format
July 17, 2001: Why Not Get It Right?, Part II: Simulations and Travel Costs

August 14, 2001: "Gaming" the RPI: A Shock to the System
August 21, 2001: News from the Summer Meetings
August 28, 2001: Three-Year ISR's -- 1999-2001

September 4, 2001: A Closer Look at Park Factors
September 18, 2001: A Bit More about RPI's: A Few Things I've Wondered About
September 25, 2001: 2001 Attendance Leaders: Empty Seats and Actual Fans

October 2, 2001: Individual Hitting Performances: A Stab at Evaluating Player Performance
October 9, 2001: Adjusted OPS for 2001: A Closer Look at the Hitters
October 16, 2001: Evaluating the Pitchers: ERA and AERA
October 30, 2001: Home Field Advantage -- 1998-2001

November 6, 2001: Tony Gwynn -- Brave New Frontier: How Will It Go?
November 13, 2001: Pitcher Workloads in College Baseball: A Quiet Problem
November 27, 2001: A Different All-Star Game: Ex-Collegians vs. High-School-to-Minors

December 4, 2001: The Annual February Preview: Blue Skies and 70 Degrees
December 11, 2001: RBOA: A New Pitcher's Metric
December 18, 2001: Prophet Wanted -- Inquire Within

January 1, 2002: Three More for This Year: The Annual Dark Horse Picks
January 8, 2002: Updated Coaching Leader Lists
January 15, 2002: Go Ahead and Bunt: It Really Doesn't Matter That Much
January 22, 2002: Estimated Pitch Counts: Crude but Useful
January 29, 2002: Fuji vs. Golden Delicious: Minor League Workloads

February 5, 2002: Fire Up the Wayback Machine: Another Trip to the Microfilm
February 12, 2002: 2002 Intended Schedule Strength
February 19, 2002: A Mish-Mash: Clearing the Followups
February 26, 2002: This Year's Model: Game Reports Are Us

March 5, 2002: Ah, Fresh ISR's: The First Rankings of the Year
March 12, 2002: New Online Sources: More Things to Read
March 19, 2002: Quick off the Blocks: Starting Fast Matters

April 2, 2002: That Starts with C That Rhymes with T: You Got Trouble
April 9, 2002: Good Starts: The Ever-Present Companion Piece
April 16, 2002: Surrender: The First Look at the Tournament Field
April 23, 2002: Alumni Week: Who's Cranking Out the Pros
April 30, 2002: Scoring Trends: The Eternal Tug of War

May 7, 2002: The Home Stretch: Out of the Curve and into the Wire
May 14, 2002: A World Upside Down: A Little News from the NCAA
May 21, 2002: One Man's Guess: 64 That Could Be
May 28, 2002: The 2002 Tournament Field: Less Unpleasant than Usual

June 4, 2002: Measuring Fairness?: How'd They Do?
June 11, 2002: Parents' Week: Something Different
June 13, 2002 Extra: Lois Ortmeier's Draft Day Journal
June 18, 2002: The CWS Schedule: Skewing the Results?
June 25, 2002: Googling for Fun: A Bit Lazy This Week

July 9, 2002: 2001 Pitch Counts Followup: How Are They Holding Up?
July 16, 2002: Comprehensive Pitch Count Report 2002: A Large Set of Numbers on a Painful Subject
July 23, 2002: The NCAA Selection Process: Behind the Scenes
July 30, 2002: Smart Stats for 2002, Part I: The Hitters

August 6, 2002: Smart Stats for 2002, Part II: The Pitchers
August 20, 2002: Smart Stats for 2002, Part III: The Defense
August 27, 2002: Program and Class Strength: Multi-Year ISR's

September 3, 2002: Replacement Level Talent?: Scholarship Distribution
September 17, 2002: Schedulability Revisited: This Stuff Actually Works
September 24, 2002: Conference Strength: Starting a Few Arguments

October 1, 2002: Teams Wanted: Save the West
October 15, 2002: Workload Effects -- A Case Study
October 29, 2002: Dragging Them Down: Do the Worst Teams Hurt?

November 5, 2002: The Second Annual Real All-Star Game
November 12, 2002: The Price of Growth: A Tainted Championship
November 19, 2002: Brrr! Well, OK Sog, Anyway: The Annual February Preview

December 3, 2002: Defense-Independent Pitching Statistics for College
December 10, 2002: Advice for the Recruited: Things to Look For
December 17, 2002: DERA for Relievers: Guys You've Never Heard Of

January 7, 2003: And Another Three: The Annual Watch List
January 21, 2003: Hoping for an Advantage?: Is That Fair?
January 28, 2003: Tweaking the ISR's

February 11, 2003: Park Factors with Teeth: High Altitude or Bad Weather?
February 18, 2003: Strength of Schedule for 2003: Who's Taking Their Best Shot?
February 25, 2003: This Year's Most Underrated and Overrated: Who's Using the RPI?

March 4, 2003: Interesting Starts: Out of the Gates
March 11, 2003: The Future of Entertainment, College-Baseball Style
March 18, 2003: Park Factors and Winning: Building to Win?
March 25, 2003: Back Again, Then There: A Tale Long in the Telling

April 1, 2003: There Are Other Sports? The RPI's Actually Work?
April 8, 2003: Predictability across Different Sports
April 15, 2003: A First Look at the Field
April 22, 2003: Our Basic Currency -- Runs per Game
April 29, 2003: Hobgoblins and Small Minds: How Consistent Is Your Team?

May 6, 2003: The 2003 Conference Races
May 13, 2003: The Shape of a Championship: Clues from the Visual
May 20, 2003: My Best Guess: These 64?
May 27, 2003: The 2003 Tournament Field

June 3, 2003: Who's Hot? Does It Matter?
June 10, 2003: Who's Hotter? Longer Term Trends
June 17, 2003: Top Stories of the Year: A Celebration
June 24, 2003: Climbing the Mountain: How to Get to the Top

July 1, 2003: The 2003 Boyd's World Media Guide Awards
July 8, 2003: Fun Facts from Media Guides
July 15, 2003: High-Stress Pitcher Followups
July 22, 2003: Comprehensive Pitch Count Report 2003
July 29, 2003: Where to Start: Beane Counts

August 12, 2003: Smart Stats for 2003, Part I: The Hitters
August 19, 2003: Smart Stats for 2003, Part II: The Pitchers
August 26, 2003: Smart Stats for 2003, Part III: The Defense

September 9, 2003: Average: The Value of Showing Up
September 16, 2003: Sustained Excellence: Three- and Five-Year ISR's
September 23, 2003: Updated Park Factors: Off the Oak Tree Is a Double

October 7, 2003: Get 'Em Young: The View from Williamsport
October 14, 2003: As It Flutters By: Do Something Different

November 4, 2003: A Smattering of Salaries: What They Make
November 11, 2003: Money, Part Two: Conference Realignment
November 18, 2003: RPI Changes for 2004
November 25, 2003: The Annual Non-conference Preview, Short Form

December 2, 2003: The Day After: The Next Start
December 9, 2003: A Blast from the Not-So-Distant Past: The 1997 Season

January 6, 2004: Competitive Conferences: How Many of Them Have a Chance?
January 13, 2004: What's Good? How about Great?
January 20, 2004: The Annual Watchout Report: A Larger View

February 3, 2004: 2004 Schedule Stuff: Hard Opponents and Being Underrated
February 10, 2004: Twelve-Team Tournaments
February 17, 2004: Special No More: Giving Away the Knowledge Store
February 24, 2004: DERA Report for 2003: Who's Worth Keeping an Eye on?

March 2, 2004: Fast Starts: Worth Anything?
March 9, 2004: Overlap with Other Divisions: How Good Are the Top Division II and NAIA Teams?
March 16, 2004: A Call for a Three-Man Rotation
March 23, 2004: The 1935 CWS: One That Got Away, and the Lessons Therein
March 30, 2004: Changes in Fortunes: History's Biggest Improvements

April 6, 2004: Unlucky?: Playing around with Pythagorean Projections
April 13, 2004: Just Hit It Somewhere, Baby, Make 'Em Play: The Value of Contact
April 20, 2004: A First Real Look at the Field: Take These 64, Please
April 27, 2004: The Value of In-Season Scheduling

May 4, 2004: The 2004 Conference Races
May 11, 2004: The Best We've Got: A Look at This Year's Contenders
May 18, 2004: The Way the World Should Be: The Field in Boyd's World
May 25, 2004: Who's In?: My Best Shot at the Field

June 2, 2004: The 2004 Tournament Field
June 9, 2004: Banging the Drum: A Call to Action on Pitch Counts
June 16, 2004: A Flaw in the ISR's? A Bit of Uncertainty in the System
June 23, 2004: Celebrating the Good: The Top Ten Stories of 2004
June 30, 2004: Comprehensive Pitch Count 2004

July 27, 2004: The 2004 Boyd's World Media Guide Awards: Thanks, Folks

August 3, 2004: The Bottom 100 All-Star Team: Guys You Might Have Missed
August 17, 2004: Interesting Rest Areas of Southern Kentucky for $400, Alex

September 7, 2004: AOPS 2004: The Best Hitters of the Year
September 21, 2004: RBOA 2004: The Best Pitchers of the Year
September 28, 2004: Defensive Efficiency 2004

October 5, 2004: Record Watch -- The Offense
October 26, 2004: Let's Get Out of Here?: Does It Help to Leave the Conference Tourney Early?

November 16, 2004: Stuff to Look Forward To: This Year's Non-Conference Schedule
November 30, 2004: The Other Divisions: Some of Them, At Least

December 7 2004: The Other Divisions, Part 2: Fitting Them In, Again

January 4, 2005: DERA Watch: Did They Break Through?
January 11, 2005: Predictability of Offensive Stats: What Can You Count On?
January 18, 2005: Predictability of Pitching Stats: The Flip Side
January 25, 2005: The Annual Strength of Schedule Column

February 15, 2005: Travel Distances and Scheduling Considerations: How Far Do You Have to Go?
February 22, 2005: Actual Travel -- Where the Rubber Meets the Road

March 1, 2005: Hothouse Flowers? Are There February Teams?
March 8, 2005: How Easy Was It? Picking the Field
March 15, 2005: Temperature Extremes: Who's Hot? Who's Not?
March 22, 2005: There Is No Joy in Texas: Brooms

April 5, 2005: Who Are Our Yankees?
April 12, 2005: Storm a Coming: The Game Length Controversy
April 19, 2005: Is It Getting Better?
April 26, 2005: A Serious Look at the Tournament

May 3, 2005: The Contender: Time to Poke Your Head Out
May 10, 2005: The 2005 Conference Races
May 17, 2005: A Better Field: One Yawp, Coming Up
May 24, 2005: Who Gets to Dance?: My Last Guess for This Year
May 31, 2005: The 2005 Tournament Field

June 7, 2005: The Usual Smorgasbord: Reviewing the Regionals, Previewing the Supers, and Some Big News
June 14, 2005: Fun with Formats: Little Tweaks with Big Effects, Maybe
June 21, 2005: Good Things: Celebrating the Year

July 5, 2005: Bad Things: The Other Shoe Drops
July 12, 2005: Underperforming in the Postseason
July 19, 2005: The 2005 Bottom 100 All-Stars

August 9, 2005: Comprehensive Pitch Count Report 2005
August 16, 2005: Some Notes on Attendance
August 23, 2005: More Fun with Box Scores: Got Some Place Better to Be?

September 6, 2005: Building Again: Tulane and UNO
September 13, 2005: Enormous, Humongous Crowds of People: Playing Off-Campus
September 20, 2005: Smart Stats -- The Fast Version

October 4, 2005: Stats for Jocks: Finding Answers to Questions That Bother Us So, Without Going to Paris
October 18, 2005: Correlations and Tacos: Wanna Score More?

November 1, 2005: Career Stats Leaders: Gunning for the Record?
November 8, 2005: The 2006 Non-Conference Schedule: Warm Thoughts in Cool Times
November 29, 2005: The New Big 12 Tournament Format: Everybody in the Pool
December 6, 2005: A Call for Help: Let's Get Some Stuff Done
December 13, 2005: Welcome to the Neighborhood: New Teams for 2006

January 3, 2006: Breakout Candidates -- The DERA Report for 2005
January 10, 2006: The Other Annual January Column: Strength of Schedule
January 17, 2006: A Different Perspective: College Third-Order Winning Percentage
January 31, 2006: Returning Talent: A More Rigorous Approach to the Preseason

February 7, 2006: Returning Talent Revisited: Not as Good as One Might Have Hoped
February 14, 2006: How Many Runs? Translating Runs into Wins
February 28, 2006: Ten-Year Standings Revisited: A Long-Term View

March 7, 2006: Hot? Cool? Tepid? Sunny but Breezy? Getting It Started
March 14, 2006: Another Measure of Conference Balance: Sweep Rate
March 21, 2006: Well, Crap: Sweep Rate Corrected
March 28, 2006: Collapses (and Late Charges)

April 4, 2006: Voting Strategies: I'm a Pollster!
April 11, 2006: Five-Year Team Leaders
April 18, 2006: Career Value: Who Has Sustained Greatness?
April 25, 2006: Going In: My First Serious Look at the 2006 Tournament Field

May 2, 2006: Positional Adjustments for Finding Player Value: A Little More Tinkering
May 9, 2006: The 2006 Conference Races
May 16, 2006: Denial Week -- My 2006 Field
May 23, 2006: Out of Denial -- What Will Actually Happen
May 30, 2006: The 2006 Tournament Field

June 6, 2006: The 2006 Supers
June 13, 2006: The 2006 CWS
June 20, 2006: Ten Good Things: Happy, Happy

July 18, 2006: The 2006 Bottom 100 All-Stars

August 1, 2006: The 2006 Comprehensive Pitch Count Report
August 8, 2006: 2006 Attendance Notes: Come and See the Amazing Prospects
August 22, 2006: Take Him Out, Leave Him In: When Do You Pull the Pitcher?

September 5, 2006: Ten-Year ISR's
September 26, 2006: The Racial Composition of College Baseball

October 24, 2006: Ghosts: Best Seasons by Teams No Longer with Us

November 7, 2006: The 2007 Non-Conference Schedule

January 4, 2007: DERA 2006: Who Might Surprise?
January 11, 2007: Grist for the Hot Stove: Intended Strength of Schedule Numbers
January 23, 2007: What Do You Need to Do? How Many Wins Is Enough
January 30, 2007: Revisiting Normal

February 13, 2007: Coaching Metrics: How Do You Tell Who's Good?
February 27, 2007: C'Mon Blue: Umpiring Metrics

March 13, 2007: Better, For Now: Scheduling around the RPI's Problems
March 27, 2007: A New Way of Measuring Home Field Advantage

April 3, 2007: New Conference ISR's: Snacking on the Bottom of the Barrel
April 10, 2007: Kyle Nicholson, Pitcher at Large
April 17, 2007: How Much More Do You Need to Do? Taking Aim at the RPI's

April 24, 2007: First Look '07

May 1, 2007: Hitter Development: A Quick and Dirty Coaching Metric
May 8, 2007: The Conference Races -- The Home Stretch
May 15, 2007: Gonna Hold My Own Tournament, So There
May 22, 2007: One Last Projection
May 29, 2007: The 2007 Tournament Field

June 12, 2007: Home Field Advantage in the Super-Regionals
June 19, 2007: More Good Things: The Annual Smiling Boyd

July 10, 2007: PAP 2007: Another Smile
July 24, 2007: College Quality Starts?

December 20, 2007: One Toe Back In -- The 2008 Non-Conference Schedule

February 7, 2008: The End of the Trail

Boyd's World-> Breadcrumbs Back to Omaha-> Column Archive

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