Happy Valley Hardball with a sabermetrics twist

You can change the stat that’s displayed by clicking on the left hand column. You can also vary the order that the bars are presented in by selected the boxes at the bottom of the chart.

You can change the stat that’s displayed by clicking on the left hand column. You can also vary the order that the bars are presented in by selected the boxes at the bottom of the chart.

In what can only be viewed as appropriate, the Lions are last in the conference in fielding. There’s certainly no need to point fingers at anyone for the Nits dismal performance so far, everyone can share in the blame.

With an ERA of 6.41, Penn State is next to last in the conference, ahead of only Northwestern. We’ve given up the most runs, the most earned runs, and we have the worst strikeout to walk ration.  Pitching was supposed to be the strength of this team and, while the starters have been almost adequate, [...]

With conference play starting this weekend, I thought this would be a good time to see how PSU is stacking up against the rest of the conference. Heading into conference play, Penn State remains mired at the bottom of the Big Ten in most batting stats. They are last in the conference in batting average [...]

And just to complete the triumvirate, we are last in fielding also. The start to this season has been an all-around complete meltdown. Everyone can share in the disappointment.

What’s particularly disappointing about the start to this season is our pitching. We are LAST in the conference in several key indicators such as ERA, WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched), and strikeout/walk ratio. Pitching was supposed to be our strength and to see us at the bottom of the conference is disheartening.

Not surprisingly we are near the bottom of the conference in most of the batting statistics.

Some pretty ugly numbers from Penn State’s perspective: 9th in runs 8th in hits 9th in singles 5th in doubles no triples 1st in home runs (only real positive) 7th in total bases 6th in extra bases 9th in strikeouts 10th in steals 8th in batting average 7th in slugging average

This is the first of many user visualizations that will appear on this site. On a weekly basis, I’ll be providing interactive charts that statistically compare the Big Ten teams hitting and pitching aling with the individual hitting and pitching stats for the PSU players. I’ll occasionally toss in some fielding stats too. These charts [...]