Expert: Tom Schott - 5/10/2010

Question
Dear Mr Schott,

Thanks for taking my question.  In my office, I guess I have been designated as the official baseball "nut" (love those Cardinals) so I get a lot of questions thrown at me, especially probability  questions.  Example -- I was recently asked what percentage of teams that are in first place by Memorial Day make it to the playoffs.  I get questions like this every now and then and I really don't know where to go to get the answers.

My question is -- can you recommend a source / sources either on line or in print that I could go to to get answers for probability / trend questions like this.  I must admit the questions intrigue me, too.

Thanks in advance.

Answer
Hi, Randall,

I can recommend a few aids for you: first of all, the greatest baseball site in existence:
www.baseball-reference.com. It will take you several hours probably just to discover all the information that's available there.

Next, I rely on www.baseball-almanac.com. It answers lots of "list" type questions.

And now two sites that are great aids to finding information in the vast trove of baseball sites out there.

http://www.baseball-links.com/  -- John Skilton's Baseball Links
If it's on the Web and about baseball, Skilton lists it. Sites are categorized and rated.

http://www.baseboogle.com/
This is a Google like search engine that searches only baseball sites for information. This tool works with the Firefox browser. It does not work with Google Chrome.

And then . . . you can always ask me. :-)