An Interview with David Pinto
“I read The Hardball Times, Baseball Prospectus, Sabernomics, MVN blogs, Baseball Toaster blogs, 6-4-2, Athletics Nation, Lookout Landing, The Soxaholic, Rays Index, Metsblog.com, Detroit Tigers Weblog, WasWatching, River Ave. Blues, The Baseball Analysts. And many others.”
“I got up one morning and logged onto Icon Sports Media to download a picture for a post and saw the picture of Dana drinking vodka out of a bottle. I knew Deadspin was following this story closely, so I wrote Will Leitch and asked if he would link to my site if I posted the picture. He was very appreciative, and now I’m a minor celebrity on Deadspin.”
David Pinto: Interviewed on February 18, 2008
Position: founder of Baseball Musings (baseballmusings.com)
Born: 1960, Bridgeport, Ct.
Education: Harvard, 1982
Career: Harvard Medical School, 1982-1984; Dragon System, 84-90; Stats Inc., 90-2000; University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2000-04; Baseball Info Solutions 2004-05; Bay Path College 2005-
Personal: Married, one daughter
Favorite restaurant (home): Grapevine, Longmeadow, Ma. “great burgers”
Favorite restaurant (away): Legal Seafood, Cambridge and Boston, “best fish”
Favorite hotel: Waldorf Astoria, New York
Posted by Dave Pinto, Feb. 15, 2008, 8:55 PM
The Reds made Brandon Phillips a rich man as they avoid arbitration by signing him to a four-year contract with an option for a fifth season. He’ll make $27 million over the first four years:
The 26-year-old infielder had a breakout season last year, when he joined Alfonso Soriano as the only second basemen in major league history to hit 30 homers and steal 30 bases.
Agents Sam and Seth Levinson negotiated the deal for Phillips, who wants to stay with the team that gave him a second chance by getting him from Cleveland in a trade. Phillips had asked for $4.2 million in arbitration, and the Reds had offered $2.7 million.
Phillips over his career isn’t a great offensive player, but he led second basemen in PMR in 2007
. His level of offense for a great defensive second baseman is just fine.
Q. How does Brandon Phillips’ PMR (Probabilistic Model of Range) compare to a couple of Hall of Famers: Bill Mazeroski and Joe Morgan?
A. No idea. We didn’t keep detailed stats back then. However, those two were top defensive players for a long time, and Phillips is still very young.
Q. If you were stranded on a desert island with one stat projection system, which would you choose: PECOTA, ZIPS or Marcel?
A. Marcel. It doesn’t try to do anything fancy, and it’s not dependent on ballparks.
Q. Is there a profile of a Baseball Musings reader?
A. Mostly intelligent baseball fans. They understand sabermetrics and contribute good ideas to the discussions.
Q. How much traffic does your site get?
A. About 4000 unique visits a day. In a good month about 120,000.
Q. Who advertises on Baseball Musings?
A. Mostly ticket resellers and people selling baseball books and fantasy games.
Q. What is your work routine?
A. I get up early, blog for about two hours, then work from 10 to 2 at Bay Path college as a programmer. After I get home, it’s back to blogging and watching games during the season.
Q. What are the roots of your fascination with baseball?
A. I started watching baseball when I was nine years old. I think that was the year Mantle retired. I remember seeing the five-minute standing ovation for him and being really impressed. I started following the game closely after that.
Q. Which sports websites do you read?
A. All the major news sites and many, many blogs.
I read The Hardball Times, Baseball Prospectus, Sabernomics, MVN blogs, Baseball Toaster blogs, 6-4-2, Athletics Nation, Lookout Landing, The Soxaholic, Rays Index, Metsblog.com, Detroit Tigers Weblog, WasWatching, River Ave. Blues, The Baseball Analysts. And many others.
Q. What is the future direction of baseball stat analysis?
A. I think we’ll keep collecting finer and finer data. The pitch f/x is the latest, and we’re starting to learn about release points and how a pitch really moves.
Q. Tell us the story behind Deadspin’s photo of Dana Jacobson.
A. I got up one morning and logged onto Icon Sports Media to download a picture for a post and saw the picture of Dana drinking vodka out of a bottle. I knew Deadspin was following this story closely, so I wrote Will Leitch and asked if he would link to my site if I posted the picture. He was very appreciative, and now I’m a minor celebrity on Deadspin.
Posted by Dave Pinto, Feb. 18, 2008, 4:58 PM:
Why do players always do this?
Eric Gagne, identified as a user of human growth hormone in the Mitchell Report, apologized today to his new Milwaukee Brewers teammates for “a distraction that shouldn’t be taking place.”
Pettitte took his time apologizing for taking HGH, starting off with an apology for the embarrassment. Tell these people no one is embarrassed but them. No one is distracted but them. Apologize for what you did wrong.
(SMG thanks Dave Pinto for his cooperation)