Introducing College Splits
by Jeff Sackmann of The Hardball Times
February 09, 2007

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/introducing-college-splits/

Last week, Baseball Prospectus prospect guru Kevin Goldstein marked the
opening of the college baseball season with a reminder of just how little we
"know" about college players:At the end of the year, Ike Davis' 9-for-11,
four-double weekend or Matt Spencer’s 7-for-9 run with 15 total bases will
do wonders for their final totals, but not be especially informative. Until
college statistics get more advanced, with not just much-needed standard
splits, but also a separation based on competition, I’ll stick to the
20-80 scouting scores for making my judgments.

To some, that could be taken as a warning; to others, it reads as a simple
celebration of the role of the scout. To us, it was further confirmation
of what we have felt has been missing all along. It's because of this
glaring need that, today, we launched CollegeSplits.com.

For as long as minor league splits have been readily available, better
college data has been the next logical step. Last fall, we decided to make
it our quest. Since then, we've built a database of more than 9,400 active
college baseball players, from more than 270 teams. And counting.

For those already familiar with the format and layout of
MinorLeagueSplits.com, the site should be pretty straightforward. As many
splits as humanly (or technically) possible, for every single college
player. That’s the goal.

While the vast majority of those thousands of players will never make an
impact in pro ball, we think college splits are an even more interesting
field for study than their minor league counterparts. College baseball has
many characteristics we don't normally associate with even the lowest levels
of the minors:lopsided, exhibition-like games (think Yankees vs.
Royals...Burlington Royals)crazily different parks, with run factors below
80 and above 150short, unbalanced schedulesvery different ability levels
even on single teams

Much of sabermetrics is about adjusting for all the stuff that old-fashioned
stats don't take into account. Given the degree to which major- and
minor-league stats can be profitably tweaked based on context, it stands to
reason that the same work ought to be done with even greater fervor for
college numbers. So let's get at it.

In this work, as in so much else, we're indebted to many other researchers.
In the world of college baseball stats, the deepest tip of the cap goes to
Boyd Nation, who has tirelessly collected (and made freely available!)
traditional stats for college players. And his "Breadcrumbs Back to Omaha"
column is a must-read for anyone interested in keeping up to date on
research related to the college game. His site is the unrivaled
standard-bearer.

Now it's time to build on those achievements, taking advantage of the wealth
of freely available information. Home/road, left/right, situational
hitting, start/relief, pinch-hitting, position-by-position,
inning-by-inning—if you can dream it up, we've probably got it on our
list. Not only that, but with the power of avilable play-by-play data, we
can begin to adjust for many of the vagaries of college baseball in even
greater detail.

At this early stage of the season, no team has played more than a few games,
many of which are hugely mismatched. So, while we're tracking this data,
we're not about to claim to give you numerical proof of who's the best
context-adjusted hitter or pitcher, or opine on who your favorite team
should draft this June based on stats alone. However, we have put together
some data so you can get a taste of what we'll be tracking throughout the
season.

For example, here are some splits for Mitch Canham, an Oregon State catcher
drafted but not signed by the St. Louis Cardinals last year:Split AB
H 2B HR BB HP K BA OBP SLG
Overall 11 6 2 0 4 1 0 0.545
0.688 0.727
vs LHP 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.500
0.500 0.500
vs RHP 9 5 2 0 4 1 0 0.556
0.714 0.778
Home 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000
0.000 0.000
Road 11 6 2 0 4 1 0 0.545
0.688 0.727
RISP 3 1 0 0 1 0 0 0.333
0.500 0.333
C & L 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000
0.000 0.000

C & L: Close and LateAs we said, there's still quite a lot of baseball to be
played. The four games the Beavers have logged so far came against the
University of Hawaii-Hilo, not exactly a powerhouse (average temperature: 81
degrees; average runs scored per game: 1.67). But as more college teams
kick off their seasons in the next few days and the data pile up, there will
be plenty more to be found on the site. And as the carpal tunnel in our
fingers begins to subside, we'll give you new and different splits, each
with greater levels of granularity.

Want to know the direction or type of each batted ball hit by Vandy’s
Pedro Alvarez, and who’s playing in the field at each defensive position
at the time? Want to be able to view a season-long hit chart for Washington
State’s Jared Prince, without having to constantly listen to the annoying
“ping!” of an aluminum bat? Want to know how your favorite hitting
prospect performs against the top 10% of opposing pitchers? So do we.

Some of these splits will be available publicly right away; others will
take some time. But we’ll do all we can to get them in your hands, as soon
as we can. We've kicked off the site with a few sets of hitting and
pitching splits for the defending champ Oregon State Beavers, which you can
check out by clicking here.

While you wait for the rest of the NCAA, remember: While most of major
league-fandom is stuck in the cold of winter, there’s a great big world of
baseball already being played near you. Head to the spreadsheets ballpark,
and enjoy!