Last week, I gave a little tour of the splits pages we offer for individual players, so today we thought it would be a good idea to go through the same run-down with regard to team splits.

First, let's locate the links to the splits on each team page -- I would imagine that this can be a bit difficult for new users because the links are somewhat hidden. So, I'll go to my favorite team's page to get started:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BOS/2009.shtml

From there, I decide I want to see the team's batting splits. In that case, I mouse over "Batting [+]" on the team nav bar, causing a drop-down menu to appear. I click on splits.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=b&team=BOS&year=2009

At this point, the page is very similar to that which you saw on the individual hitters' pages last week. Note that all of the same breakdowns are available, but often in even more detail -- for instance, you can see the Red Sox's hitting breakdown by each side of the plate, vs. each handedness of pitcher, and every possible permutation thereof (as RHB vs. LHP, as RHB vs. RHP, etc.). And don't forget to click the red text, which will bring up the performance of every player on the team in the selected split (i.e., every Red Sox player with RISP). I also just demonstrated the "permanent link" feature, which allows you to share any of the splits with another user.

But enough about batting, let's head over to the pitching splits, since we didn't touch on that facet of the game last week. From the main team page, mouse over "Pitching [+]" and click "Splits" in the resulting menu:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=p&team=BOS&year=2009

You'll recognize many of the splits on this page from their batting counterparts -- platoon, home/road, etc. -- but the pitching splits are even more in-depth than the batting ones. Not only do we show the opposing hitter's batting line for all of the stats, but in many cases we also show the conventional pitching line with IP, ERA, WHIP, K/BB, and more. We also break down each category further with rows for starters and relievers, since it's really a critical distinction to make when evaluating a pitching staff. And there are unique categories on the pitching splits pages as well, including Game Outcome for Pitcher, Pitching Role (starter vs. reliever), Times Facing an Opposing Batter in a Game, Pitch Counts (which can be of particular importance for those individuals who fall off like clockwork after a certain # of pitches), # of Days of Rest, and one of my favorite splits: a breakdown of the team's pitching performance by catcher (for those who place a great deal of emphasis on the influence of a catcher's pitch-calling and "handling of the staff"). And, as was the case with the batting splits, you can toggle whether or not you want to view the stats in the context of a 162-game season for more context.

So go ahead and play around with the team splits, and spend some quality time learning what makes your favorite (or least favorite) team tick. Do it so that when the playoffs roll around, you can be sure that you'll have a great handle on the keys to each series if you carefully study these reports... Plus, you know, perusing these things is a lot of fun -- we can't forget that, either.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Site Features, Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.