I've spent a good part of the weekend awash in the most specific statistics imaginable as part of a test of
Baseball-Reference.com's new PI system, which is everything it seems and more.
When I started testing it, I was trying to figure out which event would be suitable for research with this powerful a tool. It had to be an event that didn't show up in any stat column, yet one that can be quantified categorically, and also occur with a fair amount of regularity.
Then while clicking through the Meet the Sox section, I read what I wrote about
Aaron Rowand in his eulogy:
At times, his last name may as well have been “Rowand 6-3”, because a groundout to short was almost a predetermined outcome.
Had PI existed while I wrote this, I could've looked up how many times Rowand grounded out to short in 2005.
The answer?
65 times.
To put it in context of how often that is, Jermaine Dye finished a distant second with 46 groundouts to short.
To put it in further context, 2005 was actually the second highest rate of groundouts to short in his career. In 2002, he grounded out to short once every 8.88 at-bats. In 2005, he grounded out to short once every 8.8
9 at-bats. In his breakout 2004 season, that rate was 9.55 at-bats per groundout to short.
Oddly enough, even while
breaking his face in Philadelphia, he had a far better season in this category, with 10.94 at-bats to every groundout to short.
I think I'm going to have to purchase PI access when the testing period is over. I've gone mad with
my moderate amount of power.