Newbie

[OrangeDisk]

I have really been enjoying the new site -- thanks for the great resources and all the work that has obviously gone into it.

 

I am a relatively new baseball fan, and I come up with a TON of obnoxious newbie questions every time I read a blog post or forum thread. I hold back from asking them partly out of embarrassment, but also because I don't want to hold back the flow of the conversation by asking something like "I'm struggling to understand what pulling the ball means, I've googled and googled and I'm still confused. Can someone help me with that?" (for the record -- I figured that out last year, I'm just using it as an example here).

 

So I was wondering if you might consider adding some sort of newbie's corner, which would be a kind of "safe place" to ask these kinds of questions, about baseball generally, and also about the Twins, without slowing down the flow of things in other forums.

[Seth Stohs]

Good question... I'd say there are a couple of options. You could feel free to e-mail me any questions. I'd also say that you shouldn't be embarrassed. I think another good idea would be to start a new Forum thread. Sometimes a question has one easy answer. Sometimes there isn't necessarily one straight-forward answer and the discussion in the forum may give you a couple of ideas with which to develop your own opinion.

[Jim Crikket]

... now that you have THIS thread started, just ask your question(s) here as they arise. When you or someone else posts a new question, the thread rises to the top of the list, so we all know there's been a new question and/or answer(s).

[davidjcampbell]

I would actually be very interested in seeing these questions come up. I would imagine there would be a benefit to many of us thinking about the basics of baseball on a more fundamental level. i.e Why would that be a good strategy, in what situations, etc.

[John Bonnes]

:-) Usually, we don't bite. And David is right - it would be very helpful to us to see what the questions are. It's easy, after writing for years, to not want to revisit explanations made months ago, because you assume everyone is reading everything you have written. Obviously, that's a big mistake on our part.

[anthonyq77]

Hi guys! Just signed up and love the site. my biggest problem with reading the site is not knowing much about the sabermetrics used so often. if someone could link me to a good page or better yet create a post to sticky on the front page so rubes like myself can better understand would be great. technical jargon is not needed for me but simple explanations of things like WAR, RISP, xFIP etc in an easily accessible place would be great.

I agree that this newbie thread is a great place for questions of this sort and maybe should be mentioned on the cheat sheet. this forum and site in general is a great resource for twins fans!

[Ultima Ratio]

Welcome! Don't let the very fews jerks on here lead you to self-censor your innocent questions. We all asked them at some point in our life. Also, it's okay to give an opinion on the various threads, though you may be asked to provide support for it. Usually it will be a nice interchange of ideas and claims

[Jim Crikket]

Hi guys! Just signed up and love the site. my biggest problem with reading the site is not knowing much about the sabermetrics used so often. if someone could link me to a good page or better yet create a post to sticky on the front page so rubes like myself can better understand would be great. technical jargon is not needed for me but simple explanations of things like WAR, RISP, xFIP etc in an easily accessible place would be great.

I agree that this newbie thread is a great place for questions of this sort and maybe should be mentioned on the cheat sheet. this forum and site in general is a great resource for twins fans!

There's a quick & dirty golossary of terms here: http://baseball.about.com/od/termstatglossar1/a/sabermetrics.htm

 

To get a bit beyond that, I generally refer to Fangraphs. http://www.fangraphs.com/library/ (Click on the dropdown menus for Offense, Defense, Pitching, etc.)

 

OK, honestly, if I need more than the basic explanation from a glossary, my eyes will usually glaze over and I'll lose interest. But occasionally, it's worth digging a bit deeper and Fangraphs is where I usually start, at least.

[glunn]

Welcome Newbie. Almost everyone here started as a newbie. You will find that we are all brothers-sisters at heart, even though our shared passions may trigger passionate disagreements.

[anthonyq77]

thanks for the info and welcome guys! i've been following the twinkies since i was 3 years old fishing the st. croix river and listening to them on the radio. thats since 1980!! i feel old just saying that. i look forward to some great give and take here on TD.