Archive for the 'Stat Challenge' Category

First of all, you still have some time to enter Week 2. Head over and try to win yourself free access to the Play Index.

Now here are the answers:

1. Extra base hits by the Padres: 13

2. Solo homers in MLB: 98

3. Starting pitching performances on at least 8 IP: 18

4. Runs scored by pitchers: 11 (in 10 games)

5.Strikeouts by Tim Lincecum (5) Josh Johnson (6) Dan Haren (6) and Yovani Gallardo (7): 24

Here are the winners:

1	Arom24	9
2T	Josh W	11
2T	Johnny Twisto	11
4	elkboy	12
5	Omer_h	13
6	djsperr	16
7T	jacket1515	17
7T	TPRaider	17
9	FrankM	21
10T	KomA	23
10T	abeboparebop	23

And according to the points system I chose, here is the leaderboard after Week 1:

1	Arom24	10
2T	Josh W 7
2T	Johnny Twisto 7
4	elkboy	4
5	Omer_h	4
6	djsperr	4
7T	jacket1515	2
7T	TPRaider	2
9	FrankM	2
10T	KomA	2
10T	abeboparebop	2

Congrats to Arom24. We will be contacting you for your 6-month Play Index subscription!

Here are the questions for Week 2 of the Stat Challenge. A few things:

• Each weekly winner gets a 6-month Play Index subscription! So even if you didn't enter last week, you can win this week.
• Remember to submit your entry by 1:05 on Monday, as there are day games on Memorial Day.
• Check out the official rules, which I have updated slightly. One thing I added is that in the event of a first-place tie, the winner will be the person who submitted their entry first.
• Fill out the form that follows to submit your entry. If you can't see it, you might need to disable ad-blocking software.

For Question #1, the Play Index Team Batting Event Finder is the way to go. Set to 2 outs, relative score tied, home runs, and all teams, and you can easily see how many times this has been done already this season. (The answer is 104 for the season to date as of this writing.)

For Question #2, a PI Player Batting Game Finder is in order. Set position to CF and hits >= 2 and away we go.

For Question #3, use a Team Batting Game Finder, set h = 5, and you'll get your answer. There have been 97 such games so far.

For Question #4, check out Morneau's game logs for 2010.

For Question #5, there are numerous ways to look up the Blue Jays strikeout totals. Hey, I can't spoon-feed you everything 🙂

I have posted the entries for the Week 1 Stat Challenge in the comments to that post.

I will normally do this each week from now on without making a reminder post like this.

We got exactly 100 entries this week!

Here are the results for our final exhibition contest. As you probably already know, starting next week the contests count for prizes.

Answers:

1. Total games in which one pitching staff allows 2 or fewer hits: 2

2. Total first-inning runs scored by the Minnesota Twins: 11. This was crazy. The Twins scored in the first inning only twice in the last week, but totaled 11 runs thanks in large part to 7 first-inning runs in this game against the Brewers. (They scored 4 in the first the next day.)

3. Total naps, umm I mean plate appearances, for Ken Griffey Jr, SEA: 14

4. Total RBI for Paul Konerko and Andruw Jones, both CWS: 3, all by Konerko.

5. Total wins for pitchers with a seasonal age of 24 or younger (that means any player who will still be 24 or younger by June 30th of this year): 19

Baseball is, as they say, a young man's game. Price, Gonzalez, and Cueto each won twice in the last week, plus 4 of the wins came in relief appearances.

We had interesting results this week.

• Numerous people guessed question #1 correctly, however there were no correct guesses on ANY of the other FOUR questions with the exception of Elkboy and Chad getting #3 on the button.
• For the first time in the stat challenge, every single entrant under-guessed one of the questions--number 5. Looking back at it, I might have worded the question in a confusing way. When I said the pitcher needed to be "24 or younger" I meant that the number assigned to their age needed to be a 24 or lower number--in other words that they qualify by B-R methods of being in their Age 24 season or younger. Sorry if that confused anybody.
• For the first time, we have a clear winner by several points:

The official results:

1. Josh W 15 (3)
2. Elkboy 19 (3)
3T. Jon 20
3T. Koma 20 (3)
3T. Johnny Twisto 20 (4)

Wow, lots of repeat winners this week.

Congrats to BSK also, who joins the 4 people above with 3 wins in the spring training period of the Stat Challenge.

I declare the overall winner to be Johnny Twisto!

Now on to where the games count. We are giving away a 6-month Play Index membership to each weekly winner starting with the new Week 1.

Sean has just authorized me to offer a free 6-month membership to the Play Index for each weekly winner on the Stat Challenge! I'll see if we can also come up with a prize for the overall winner, but now you have a good reason to enter every single week. That's about 20 more chances to win yourself free access to the Play Index. (Repeat winners will be allowed too!)

You still have most of the day today to enter the Week 1 Stat Challenge right here.

In case you didn't see, we have started a new Stat Challenge that will run for the rest of the season. At the end of the contest, the winner gets a free 6-month membership (or membership extension) to the Baseball-Reference.com Play Index. You can still enter for Week 1 right here. Entries will be accepted until Monday evening at 7PM ET.

OK! This is a brand new contest brought to you by the Baseball-Reference.com blog. All of the weekly stat challenges leading up to this one should be considered spring training games because they don't count in the official standings.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here are the official rules of the Stat Challenge contest:

1) Games included in each week's challenge are games that are started and finished within the time period stated in the contest. This includes games that start on the final day of the time period and extend past midnight (usually west coast games.) It also includes games re-scheduled from earlier in the season or from the early part of the time period that get played in their entirety during the time period (such as a rained out game that becomes part of a double-header the next day.) It does not include games that are suspended and not played in the entirety during the time period.

2) You must enter your email address and a screen name and these must be exactly the same from week to week if you want to earn a cumulative score and compete in the contest. Please choose a unique screen name that includes at least a last initial (for example Kim B or Kim1982 instead of just Kim.) Your email address is essentially your password and will not be publicly shared or used by Baseball-Reference.com for promotional purposes. Also, importantly, only your first entry for a weekly contest counts. If you make a mistake or decide later you want to change your answers, too bad.

3) For each question, you will assigned a score equal to the difference between your guess and the actual answer. For example if the answer to a question is 25 and you guessed 30, your score for that question is 5. If you guessed 20, your score is also 5. For the weekly Stat Challenge your total score will be the sum of the scores on each of the questions. Weekly rankings are determined by the players with the lowest total scores. There are no weekly prizes.

4) Each week, the people with the 10 lowest total scores earn points as follows: 1st place 10 points, 2nd place 8 points, 3rd place 6 points, 4th-6th place 4 points, 7th-10th place 2 points. In the case of ties, points will be averaged. For example if 2 people tie for first place, they will each receive 9 points.

5) The prize for the person with the lowest score each week is a 6-month subscription to the Play Index. If you are already a paid subscriber, your subscription will be extended for 6 months. If two or more players tie for the best score in any given week, the winner will be the person who submitted his or her entry first. I am hoping to also offer a season-long prize as well--we'll see about that.

6) All decisions I make are final. If there are disputes or mistakes I will try to resolve them in the fairest way possible, and you will have to accept whatever solution I come up with. Also, anybody whom I suspect of cheating, trolling, or trying to interfere with the contest will simply be kicked out.

7) All of the Stat Challenges we've had to date do not count toward this new season-long contest.

8) Most importantly: have fun!

Answers:

1. Total team HR by Mariners, Astros, Indians, Braves, and Athletics (at this writing, these are the 5 teams with the fewest homers in the majors.)   36--Mariners 8, Astros 6, Indians 7, Braves 11, Athletics 4--wow some big totals there

2. Highest game score posted by any Giants starting pitcher  76 by Jonathan Sanchez

3. Total RBI by National League #8 hitters (includes any player hitting in the #8 spot, such as pinch-hitters.)  45 (see list here)

4. Total bases by Kelly Johnson, ARI  11

5. Total earned runs allowed by Cardinals pitching staff  24

Here are the results:

First, a few people who nailed the questions exactly.

• Nobody got Question #1 correct--in fact the average guess was 21.7 HR as compared to the answer of 36. Only two people guessed as high as 36--everybody else guessed under 36.
• Chris and Alan got #2 exactly
• James got #3 exactly
• Four players got Kelly Johnson's 11 total bases: JT, Alan, Russell, and JGov5
• Three players got the Cardinals' 24 earned runs: Spartan Bill, Mark, and Scott K

Congrats to Alan for nailing two questions!

The average scores for 3 different questions were very close. For #2, it was 76.5 (answer was 76), for #4 it was 13 (answer was 11) and for #5 it was 22.2 (answer was 24.)

Finally, the official Week 6 winners:

T1. Spartan Bill 21
T1. Johnny Twisto 21 (3)
T1. BSK 21 (3)
4. Alan 24
T5. Elkboy 26 (2)
T5. James W 26
T5. Shlomo 26

Wow, we have a real barn burner here. JT and BSK now each have 3 top-5 finishes. Next week is the final week of this pre-season contest--after that we're wiping the slate clean and playing for a seasonal prize.

Sorry I am late posting this one. I had a very busy week at my real job! I have some exciting news about the Stat Challenge. We are going to add a prize for the seasonal winner starting next week. Results from the first 7 weeks will not count since some people would have participated more if they had known there was a prize. Use this week as your tune-up and check back next week for the official contest with a prize!