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A new page has been added to the public space on the Visual-Baseball Project - a "bullpen" where some new or recent ideas can be shared. This area will focus on all sorts of visual content, including maps, Google Earth displays, reports, analysis views, and other types of visual analysis.

Please offer your comments on these ideas. We'll do our best to keep the page updated with the latest displays.

One of the goals of the project is to develop and share innovative approaches for displaying baseball stats data. A key aspect of this focus is to present as much meaningful data as possible in a limited space; what visualization guru Dr. Edward Tufte refers to as maximizing the data-ink ratio. In other words, we don't want bar charts that consume a full page yet provide only two data points. The next several pages provide examples of some efforts consistent with this approach.

As this image underscores, baseball is a very visual game. Wide expanses of lush green turf are surrounded by often beautiful stadiums beneath an enchanting evening sky. 

So why are baseball statistics often so dry, so non-visual in their presentation? Given all the tools at our disposal courtesy of advances in technology, via the internet, and especially through the availability of open source software, the time is right to develop more visually sophisticated statistical analyses. 

Our goal is to enliven the presentation of baseball statistics while remaining true to the integrity of the underlying numbers, consistent with the philosophy of Dr. Edward Tufte, the guru of effective data display.

To fulfill this challenge, we are looking for other like-minded people to contribute, critique, share, and discuss these efforts.

This site provides the tools to get you started, as detailed on the next page.  

The Visual-Baseball Project is built on a foundation of open source tools, enabling the creation of a powerful community-based site geared to the visual analysis of baseball data.

With your help, we hope to expand the reach and influence of the site in creating advanced visual analysis for baseball enthusiasts. Learn more about the tools we use on the site on the following pages.

As part of our desire to promote visual baseball analysis, we offer some free site tools that can help you in your efforts to create baseball charts and graphics.

VIP Reporter lets you run traditional reports with a twist - you can specify many of the criteria, in order to quickly customize your results. In addition, the results can be dropped into a host of formats for further viewing and analysis - RTF, CSV, Excel, Acrobat, and even Flash. There are already hundreds of report templates available; with customization, the number grows exponentially. 

VIP Analyst lets you interact with the data until you arrive at the results you were looking for, all courtesy of point and click technology. Again, there are literally hundreds of analysis views to get you started. 
 

Community members also receive a personal folder for storing reports and analysis views, as well as the ability to schedule and email reports. Simply create a username and address to join the community and receive these additional features.