"Six Degrees of Nolan Ryan: Network Science Ranks Baseball Greats"

From Wired, 8/4:

Arguing over who’s the better player is as much a pastime as baseball itself.

Pedro Martinez or Sandy Koufax? Barry Bonds or Mickey Mantle? Of course it’s impossible to say. You can’t compare players from different eras. Heck, it’s hard enough to compare them between teams, in the same season.

But that doesn’t stop stat junkies from trying. They use equations only slightly less complex than credit derivatives formulas, and no more comprehensible to outsiders than the nose-tapping, ear-tugging, cap-pulling signals of a third base coach.

The latest entry to this field of Monte Carlo simulations and regression analyses and optimization algorithms was posted last Thursday in arXiv, an informal online repository of papers devoted to high-energy physics and self-organizing systems and other such knuckle-balling disciplines.

The study’s authors used network science to crunch the results of every single at-bat between 1954 and 2008 — and thanks to a baseball version of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” it’s possible to compare players who never faced each other.

I don't know about the batters, but I think they've got the #1 relief pitcher and #1 starting pitcher right.

Comments

[kyle8]

Something that cannot be argued, Nolan Ryan - best beat down of young idiots charging the mound.

[whosonfirst]

This sort of thing ought to contain the caveat that it's for entertainment purposes only. These lists are always topheavy with more recent players as in, what have you done for me lately. And, by their own admission, they ignore the question of drugs, which have made a joke of the baseball record book.

However, I'll put my two cents in. I have the dubious advantage of being old enough to have seen all of the players in question. The best ballplayer I ever saw was Willie Mays. Ranking him behind Mickey Mantle, in particular, forces me to recall that Mantle was often referred to by non-Yankee fans as the third best centerfielder in New York.

And putting ANY pitcher ahead of Sandy Koufax is laughable.