I've sometimes joked that the reason I like baseball isn't for the sport - it's for the statistics. Nowadays, there are so many varieties and permutations of statistics that can break down every little detail of a player, a team, a ballpark or a manager - sometimes to the point of over-analysis. But that doesn't stop the mathematically-oriented of us from finding new ways to address a simple pleasure through absolute geekdom.One great site to deliver sports statistics through a mainline drip is called Fangraphs, best represented by the charts which show the Win Expectancy (WinExp) of a team throughout a game. Know that feeling you get when you know your team's going to win, and the inevitable roller coaster downwards when they cough up the lead (see yesterday's game)? FanGraphs has a graph sure to match your anxiety level.
Take a look at yesterday's game with the A's against the Blue Jays. Once cruising along with an 80% chance of victory, the A's gave away the lead, and reversed the odds, against them, only to storm back with one Milton Bradley swing. The chart does justice that words cannot. Check out the rest of the site for more goodness.
