Visual Representation of Awesome Things

Sometimes, the coolness of math intersects perfectly with the coolness of baseball.

Today's initial example of this comes from the website Beyond the Box Score and is a little something they're calling DiamondView Composite Player Evaluation.

In this one, each player is graded in four skill sets - on base, power, fielding, and base running. The players are then graphed in each of the four quadrants as to how they compare to the league average and league best. The four points are then connected and shaded to produce awesome results like the Adam Dunn graph to the left in which you can see at a quick glance that he's a horrible fielder (-27% compared to the league) and a poor base runner but has a lot of value tied up in his power and on base skills.

Click on through to check out graphs of Carlos Pena, Albert Pujols, Ben Zobrist, and a few other fun examples. I can't find anywhere that has graphs for all the MLB players, but I'd love to see them. I'm also cool with the fact that some people have continued the discussion on other sites.

Beyond the Box Score also had a recent column about the Wins Above Replacement levels for the various members of the Big Red Machine exploring why it was that they peaked so brilliantly in the early/mid-1970's.

Then there's the United Countries of Baseball which tries to divvy up the US (and Canadia) based on where the allegiances to various MLB teams lies. Head on over and cast your vote.