The DRaysBay New User Community Guide
by kericr on Jul 23, 2009 2:23 AM EDT
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PrintI'd like to take the time to welcome you to DRaysBay, arguably the largest collection of intelligent, free-wheeling Rays fans on the internet.
DRaysBay is a community that values information, and it is ultimately in your best interest read around on the site and get a feel for how things are researched, presented, and debated. DRaysBay is also a community that fully embraces sabermetrics. As a new user, it would serve you well to at least understand why analysis of players using 19th century stats is frowned upon here.
If you really don't want to dig into all of this information right now, there are ultimately only two rules you need to follow here:
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No self-promotion. Obviously, a spam bot isn't going to read this, and we take care of those things accordingly. This rule is for people who think that it's OK to post links in the comments section to their personal blog, or create fanposts where they link to their blogs or try to add some kind of forced personal panache. This website is not 'America's got Talent', and we're not here to be your personal audience. Be yourself. Behavior like this is insulting to the community and makes you look like an ass in general. That leads me to the second rule...
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Do not disrupt the community at large. If you think that sounds vague, that's because it is. Anything that you do that creates an overwhelmingly negative reaction amongst the community is likely enough to get you a copy of the home game.
You may be asking, “well how do I know what is and isn't going to piss you guys off?” Good question. We do not have a set-in-stone scale as to the types of things that will be tolerated versus what gets you warned versus what will get you banned. The simplest way I can answer this is 'don't be an ass,' but I do have some specific examples I can give you as things I can guarantee will get you in trouble one way or another:
- Personal attacks. You can make snarky comments about someone's opinion, but you're not fucking anyone's mom, and you're not meeting anyone down by the oak tree after school to settle your disagreements 'like men.' This is a zero-tolerance rule. You will be banned, first time, every time. You won't be welcome back.
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Bad Grammar. We're not exactly grammar nazis here, but you have spellcheckers, dictionaries, and thesauruses literally at your fingertips. A blog or message-board is a communication arena that relies solely on text, so proper communication is paramount. Don't type like you're three years old. Don't type like you're texting on twitter or sending an SMS. For the love of all things holy, don't use chat-speak.
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Learn the difference between opinion and fact, and make sure you present your information properly. There's a huge difference between “I've met BJ Upton and I think he's an asshole” and “BJ Upton is a cancer in the locker room.” One of these is an opinion, and the other one is an opinion presented as a fact. One of these will draw constructive criticism, and the other one will get your ass railroaded right off this site.
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Do not come onto this site thinking you're smarter then everyone else. You're not. Nobody here is your kid, your son, or any other derisive adjective that portrays them as being inferior to you because you're old. There are users here who have followed baseball for a very long time, but they're smart enough to know that nobody is an expert in baseball. Fresh minds bring fresh opinions and fresh perspectives. An open, two-way exchange is the best way for users to share knowledge amongst others. If you don't think there is anything you can learn here, then we have no use for you.
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This is a Rays blog, first and foremost. If you're a fan of another baseball team, you are free to post or comment here as long as you're willing to talk about the Rays. We're not at all interested in your trolling after the Rays lose to your team. Not only will you get banned, but we're going to delete your posts, and nobody's going to see your handiwork, so don't bother. There is an SBN blog for all 30 baseball teams, the blog for your favorite team would be more then happy to have you as a member.
In the end, DRaysBay is a community that embraces that which is most familiar, and is relatively tightly-knit and friendly. While it may not seem that way at first, the more often you contribute and participate here, the more you will be embraced.
This post was written by a member of the DRaysBay community and does not necessarily express the views or opinions of DRaysBay staff.
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Wait, someone isn't smarter than me because they are older than I am?
Damn I need a raise then.
Finally.
And He said DRaysBay must have order. We shall call this order: the Anti-Raymondo/BGFour law. For It has been spoken but never written: “If thou ist tempted to sin, to the banbox thou shall march until thy feet bare the wrath or a thousand lashings”. – KeRiCr, 11:23
Sign lady must die.
by EminenceFront on Jul 23, 2009 9:27 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Actually, I specifically chose the Balfour argument because Raymondo uses it, yet adheres to the guideline. I was hoping someone would catch that.
I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.
I think most people did, just much too depressed to mention it.
Also, he’s like Bloody Mary. You mention him three times, and he pops out your mirror and swallows your soul.
I think this is a good piece because it has more than 5 recs
www.bucem.com - SBNation's source for all things Buccaneer
Serious question: Do you guys have legitimate feedback? If there's something you don't like about it, I want to know. This is kind of a living document, I'll make changes as necessary.
I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.
I have no feedback
I think it’s written so anyone can understand and it gets the point across. ALot of what you posted should be general knowledge on forums. I.E. dont jump straight in and be an ass. It seems simple, but here, and other sites have been plagued with the newbie idiots.
www.bucem.com - SBNation's source for all things Buccaneer
If I may
I love this piece, as I’ve mentioned before, but if you are asking for feedback, I would like to say one thing:
Unless your name is Keith Law, Nate Silver, Stuart Sternberg, Matt Silverman, Andrew Friedman, Joe Maddon, Peter Bendix, Graham MacAree, or Rob Neyer, do not come onto this site thinking you’re smarter then everyone else.
I get what you’re getting at, but something about the way this is worded rubs me the wrong way. I’ve disagreed with the opinions/statements of the so-called experts of, a baseball team/baseball knowledge in the past; sure, they are paid and have legitimate insider information, but it does not mean that what they say is the be-all, end-all, all the time, IMO.
I think it’s just simply the way the wording assumes that the above mentioned are smarter than everyone else, and maybe it’s my defiant attitude, but truth be damned, I don’t like it when others tell me that so-and-so are smarter than me. This is very minor, and I understand that I may be overstepping my grounds being such a noob here myself, so it’s all cool by me if you choose to ignore this. Everything else I love, especially the points about age difference.
No wonder nobody likes you, Tuttle... everything's a (Pujols) damn debate.
I see what you're saying. That was a little bit of ranting; I'm going to modify it.
I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.
If that part was still in there, I'd specifically take just your name out for this unforgivable transgression.
I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.
Ok, I'm officially an A's Fan
but I guess I am a fan (lowercase “f”) of the Rays, and this is a real high-quality blog with great discussions. I can stay, right?
"Sometimes Joe (morgan) doesn't like facts to get in the way of his opinions."- billy beane
"That was a great pick...if this was 2002" Me, to guy who selected Barry Zito in a fantasy draft
www.27ClubPeak.blogspot.com
I'm not trying to imply that we don't want fans of other blogs here, only that if you're going to come here, don't be an ass every time the A's beat the Rays.
You have LittleBoPeep to thank for that one.
I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.
sure thing
I’m always slightly confused whenever that happens, because I love the A’s but my fantasy baseball team is pretty much all Rays. So I wont be an ass.
"Sometimes Joe (morgan) doesn't like facts to get in the way of his opinions."- billy beane
"That was a great pick...if this was 2002" Me, to guy who selected Barry Zito in a fantasy draft
www.27ClubPeak.blogspot.com
by harendaman365 on Jul 23, 2009 11:15 AM EDT up reply actions
I thought about replacing the crack about dragging the dog out back and shooting it with something along the lines of being sent to a retirement home an forgotten about.
But I’m serious with this post. People think we don’t cater to newbies, and that’s wrong. Newbies are suprised that we don’t listen to them, and it’s because they don’t know what flies here. I’m trying to help fix that with this post.
I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.
This is beautiful
As one of the mods for the Atlanta Braves’ SBN site, I would l love it if you would allow me to refer to your magnificent piece if/when I ever reach my boiling point with the users there.
No wonder nobody likes you, Tuttle... everything's a (Pujols) damn debate.
Not that this is a big deal but we use headers here.
Newbies seem to not use them.
Jeter Sucks.
by PriceMultiCyYoungs on Jul 24, 2009 1:58 PM EDT reply actions
That's a Lets Go Tribe thing, and very very far from a bannable offense.
I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.
Yeah, it's probably more annoying than anything.
I know they don’t use them over at talkingchop either. IIRC.
Jeter Sucks.
by PriceMultiCyYoungs on Jul 24, 2009 3:49 PM EDT up reply actions
Geezer here
I grew up thinking RBI’s and ERA were stellar measuring tools of production. I have heard here that those numbers may not be quite so goodas I was raised to believe. Here are a couple of questions:
First, what is the consensus here of the two or three or four most meaningful offensive and defensive statistics?
Second, is there someplace like “New Era Baseball Statistics for Dummies” where a geezer can learn a few things? I want to learn to know intuitively what a good number is in a particular category and why. (Caveat – I can’t extract cube roots in my head. I’m looking for someone who will do this step by step, and without using the term “standard deviation” even once.)
Bonus question – since the main stream media only publishes the old fashioned stats, once I learn what the new ones are and what they mean, where do I find them?
Thanks. I’ll hang up and take the answer off the air.
Check out these links
http://www.draysbay.com/2009/1/26/736782/the-draysbay-stats-guide
fangraphs.com
Have any other questions ask ahead
Swav or Die (>'-')> <('-')> <('-'<)
For the lulz
It's a bit difficult to try to give you all of the explinations because it gets pretty in depth
But to try to give you the short versions:
Instead of ERA, use Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) at a minimum. Instead of Batting Average, use On-Base-Percentage (OBP) or on-base-plus-slugging (OPS). RBIs aren’t really that good for measuring anything, but home runs are still pretty valid, but no more so then they’ve ever been.
To try to give you a bit more in-depth:
ERA and Batting average aren’t worth using to measure any kind of value.
ERA does not take into consideration how runs were scored, and statistical analysis has been done by people smarter then us that shows that the circumstances a pitcher faces more positively correlate with a pitchers performance over time then Earned Run Average. There are several ‘alternate’ stats that you can use, but Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) is probably the easiest to understand amongst the bunch. FIP is read very much like ERA; the lower the number, the better. You can find FIP on Fangraphs.
Batting Average only accounts for how often a player gets a hit. As we all know, a player can score a run any time they manage to get on base. So a walk or getting hit by a pitch is for all intensive purposes, just as good as a single. On base percentage (OBP) is a more reliable metric to use when measuring a batter’s performance. Slugging Percentage (SLG) measures on average how many bases a player gets when he scores a hit; players with more power typically tend to have higher slugging percentages then players who don’t. For an easy, pretty reliable measurement on a batter’s overall performance, On-base-plus-slugging (OPS) is a good metric to use. All of these stats are relatively mainstream, so you can find them on ESPN.com or whatever major outlet you wish to use, but fangraphs uses them as well. There are other ‘more accurate’ stats (like wOBA), but I personally haven’t messed with it. OBP and OPS is objective enough to get by here.
RBIs don’t really measure anything because it highly relies upon where a player is in the lineup, and what kind of players someone has in front of him to potentially drive in. It’s a nice number to marvel at, but really not worth much in any kind of analysis.
Home Runs on the other hand, still hold some value, but are no more in-depth then what you’d be used to interpreting them as.
In terms of defensive metrics, there’s nothing that can act as an easy-to-understand reference other then saying that looking at errors by themselves is not at all a reliable way to measure a player’s defense. Fielding percentage is also no good, as it just measures errors vs chances. Range Factor is kinda meh, and is available on baseball reference and ESPN (I like BRef’s better because they go a little more in-depth). Zone Rating is a bit better, and can be found on fangraphs and a few other places.
The stats guide on the “Reference Materials” sidebar on the left side of the main page (also linked to in this post) can help give a more overview-style explanation of many different statistical measurements. If you have specific questions about one type of stat, feel free to ask away in any one of the daily threads and someone should be able to give you a good answer. There are many different ways to statistically evaluate a player’s performance.
I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.
If I could, I'd like to have this thread closed to further comment.
I can't wait until we trade him for a reliever.
Will do.
I’d like to add though, that we don’t care what you say, as long as you have some logic behind it.
by R.J. Anderson on Jul 27, 2009 4:26 PM EDT up reply actions
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