The Society for Baseball Research

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
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<p>Hey, you know how everyone always trashes UROP? The research is either boring or tedious or you’re not involved nearly as much in the actual work as you could be, right? Well now you have the chance to do interesting research AND be involved to the fullest of your capabilities (or, basically, however much time you want to put into it.)</p>

<p>Since baseball’s such a numbers oriented game, you can derive a lot about the sport just by looking at the stats. That’s why I’m starting a club: The Society for Baseball Research (SBR). Each year, more or less using statistical analysis, we’ll tackle three or four prominent issues facing baseball: whether a team should use 4 or 5 starters, the effects of re-signing a good player vs. signing a very good player (basically the difference in stats between a homegrown player and a mercenary), the effects of the luxury tax and revenue sharing on baseball’s competitiveness and profitability (for all you b-schoolers out there), and statistically proving or providing insight into the quantitative effects of good and bad clubhouse players (Bill Simmons’ notorious “Ewing Theory” put to numbers.)</p>

<p>I’d imagine the club would apply itself most to Economics/Business or Statistics majors, but having some Psychology/Philosophy or any kind of humanity and social science majors on board would be helpful, too. The most important thing by far though is just an interest in baseball.</p>

<p>Right now we’re just at the point where we need 10 signatures to proceed to “club status,” but after that it’s pretty much clear sailing.</p>

<p>I also have to stress that there are PLENTY of leadership positions available (especially for you Ross wannabes who need something substantial to put on your resumes before applying to the b-school.) Everything from president, vice president, treasurer, secretary and those standards all the way down to Head of Data Management, Webmaster, and Director of Marketing/Public Relations (responsible for publicizing our results.) </p>

<p>If you’re at all interested in joining, feel free to PM me or post here. I’d be glad to send you a copy of the constitution or just answer any questions you may have about the organization. I look forward to hearing from you.</p>

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<p>Wow that sounds sweet, im just a senior though - but it sounds really cool. Is that the same thing as SABRmetrics?</p>

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<p>Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports
<a href="http://www.bepress.com/jqas/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bepress.com/jqas/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Might want to look into some stuff here to get ideas.</p>

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<p>Yes, Adidas, it's very much like SABR in both name and organizational style (projects are assigned to committees. People pick which committee they're in. Etc...) </p>

<p>Dilksy, thanks for the link. Good stuff. For any others of you who checked out the link too tho, please don't be scared away; I promise the club won't be as math intensive as those papers would lead you to believe.</p>

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<p>Sounds chill. Count me in.</p>

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<p>I'm a senior in HS, but probably going to UM next fall. Definately something I'd want to do.</p>

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<p>When's the first meeting?</p>

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<p>Once we get to 10 people I'll start emailing you guys about a meeting. Right now I think we're at 7. Anyone else interested?</p>