Alright, so the other day I was messing around with some baseball data, trying to figure out a good way to compare starting pitchers. I had this idea to look at two specific guys and see how they stacked up against each other.
Getting Started
First, I needed to grab the data. I found a decent source online that had all the stats I needed – things like ERA, strikeouts, walks, all that good stuff. I spent a good chunk of time just figuring out how to scrape the data and get it into a format I could actually work with. It was a bit of a pain, to be honest, lots of trial and error.
Cleaning it Up
Once I had the data, it was a mess. Missing values, weird formatting, you name it. So I rolled up my sleeves and started cleaning. I used some basic Python libraries to handle the missing data – sometimes I just filled them in with averages, other times I had to drop entire rows. It was tedious, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
The Comparison
Finally, with the clean data, I could actually start comparing my two pitchers. I decided to focus on a few key metrics:
- ERA (Earned Run Average): Lower is better, obviously.
- K/9 (Strikeouts per 9 Innings): How many batters they strike out.
- BB/9 (Walks per 9 Innings): How many batters they walk.
- WHIP (Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched): Another measure of how well they prevent runners from getting on base.
I wrote some simple code to calculate these for each pitcher and then displayed them side-by-side. It was pretty cool to see the numbers laid out like that, made it easy to see who was performing better in each area. Also, I can calculate each pitcher’s winning rate.
The Result
In the end, I had a neat little comparison of my two starting pitchers. It wasn’t anything super fancy, but it gave me a good sense of how they measured up. And the whole process – from finding the data to cleaning it up to doing the actual analysis – was a good learning experience. I definitely feel more comfortable working with this kind of data now, and I have some ideas for other comparisons I want to try in the future!
