Knot of Light

Brandon Crawford to Brandon Belt. That one was fun to watch.

Dave Flemming on KNBR

Around the Bases: 30 Stadiums and Four Acquaintances That Built a Friendship That Will Last a Lifetime (free at the moment)

Most non-public domain free Kindle books are only free for a limited amount of time so DOUBLE CHECK that it is still free before downloading.

Repost in Honor of Spring Training: Bill James Baseball IQ free iPhone app

Bill James Baseball IQ combines both helpful statistical information about MLB baseball with a simple and user-friendly design. It features a Hit Locator, Hit Zone, K Zone, Batter Comparisons, Pitch Locator, Pitch Profile, and Batter and Pitcher match-ups.

If you want to find out where on the field Josh Hamilton is likely to hit the ball, you would go to Charts then Hit Locator. For batter choose Rangers and then Josh Hamilton. You can also search Hamilton versus a specific team or against all teams. There are then options for Ball in Play, Pitch, Count, Result, Venue, Season (options are ‘07 to Current, Last Season to Current, and Current Season only), and RISP (option to select yes). Then hit run. A colored temperature map will appear showing the results. Obviously with spring training just starting current season means the 2011 season.

If you want to review Matt Cain’s numbers against the Phillies you go to Match-Ups, for pitcher choose Giants and then Matt Cain, and batting team choose Phillies. Click run and the results will show BAA and K/BB as for the team as a whole. Then individual Phillies players are shown with Temp, H-BA, Average, HR, walks, and strikeouts. Skimming the results shows that Ron Howard has a .158 average against Cain with only one walk and seven strikeouts. Ibanez has a .091 average against Matt Cain with one walk and three strikeouts.

If you wanted to look up Pat Burrell’s discipline you would go to Discipline and put in Pat Burrell. There are options to search for Burrell vs. a specific pitcher or by right or left handed pitchers only. There are further options for pitch, count, venue, season, and an option for RISP. From 07 to 2011 Pat Burrell swing at balls 27% of the time. You can compare this Huff who swung at balls 36% of the time or Aaron Rowand who swung at balls 34% of the time during this time period. Or if you prefer to search just 2011 Rowand swung at 40% of balls.

This app is free and highly recommended for those with an interest in baseball statistics. It requires an internet connection to run and is sized for the iPhone, but works perfectly fine on an iPad 2.