Baseball blogs are a prime example of how blogs are almost light years ahead of the mainstream thought in their field. Baseball bloggers like John Bonnes of Twins Geek are providing far more indepth analysis of the sport, using advanced mathematical metrics, than anyone in the mainstream media.
The power of baseball blogs, in changing the way fans think of their favourite sport, is reflected in the now widespread use of the term OPS. Almost unheard of, prior to the baseball blogging revolution, OPS is the total of a batter's on base percentage (OBP) and his slugging percentage (SLG).
On base percentage is presented as a decimal fraction by dividing a hitters total plate appearances by the number of hits plus walks and times hit by pitches accumulated. An average on base percentage (OBP) is in the vicinity of .350 or reaching base on 35% of trips to the plate as a batter.
Slugging percentage is derived by dividing the number of total bases (a single is one total base, a double is two, a triple is three, and a home run is four) into the number of official at bats (ones where a hitter either got a hit or made an out). An average slugging percentage (SLG) would be in the area of .400.
By that calculation, an average offensive player would have an OPS of about .750. (.350 OBP + .400 SLG = .750 OPS)
Other more advanced metrics calculate pitching, fielding and hitting, but there is no need to examine them here. Suffice it to say, bloggers are on the cutting edge of baseball analysis.
Moving far beyond traditional measures like batting average and runs batted in, baseball bloggers are changing the way people think about baseball. Now those bloggers are becoming mainstream baseball thinkers.
On my blogroll are three baseball blogs. One is Jeff Angus's business oriented Management By Baseball. Jeff examines a business issue by relating it to a management problem in baseball. The way the matter was solved or not, in a baseball context, provides insights into your own business problems.
Another is JD Arney's Cincinnati Reds blog Reds Daily. The blog provides a good readable example of a sports blog. JD also is a daily visitor to Blog Business World.
A third baseball blog is the very prolific and highly regarded Aaron Gleeman of Aaron's Baseball Blog. Aaron's innovations in blogging have been discussed on Blog Business World before in another blogging context.
For more great baseball blogs, whether you are fan of the sport or not, be sure to check the blogrolls on the baseball blogs mentioned. They provide an insight into the cutting edge of blogging that is, in my opinion, far beyond the better known political blogs.
Now baseball bloggers are taking their innovations, and their blogs, into the mainstream.
Other bloggers will soon follow.
