Do you go to college games? Are you a savvy college baseball fan who feels like you have a good handle on a handful of player's defensive skills? If so, we would like you to share with us your expertise. I'm helping informally WITH an undisclosed MLB club and we are putting together a "Scouting Report by the Fans" evaluating D1 players. The idea is to get the wisdom of the crowds when it comes to rating a player's fielding SKILLS. If you are interested in hearing more about the project, let me know at eriknmanning@gmail.com, along with a little info on your baseball background. You don't have to be an ex-player or a scout, just a knowledgeable fan.

Okay, so last time around, I talked about Points Per Play (PPP) as the football version of Slugging %.  In baseball, OPS (On-Base + Slugging) is one of the most telling, easy, reliable stats around.  It’s great because it’s flexible.  There are two different ways to put together a strong OPS—either by getting on base a lot or by hitting for power—and the best hitters do both.  You find consistency and explosiveness in one measure.

So if PPP is equivalent to Slugging % (explosiveness), what’s equivalent to On-Base % (consistency)?  Success Rate, that’s what.

In its most basic form, Success Rate is simply the percentage of time in which a play is deemed ‘successful’.  It is a measure I culled from Football Outsiders and tweaked to fit my own purposes.  How is ‘success’ determined?

Hey, this is The Boy from Rock M Nation.  I posted this over at Sunday Morning QB a couple days ago, but I figured I might as well post it on some other blogs too...let me know what you think.

OFFSEASON PROJECT!  Over at RMN, I’ve been playing with the ‘Beyond the Box Score’ idea (calling it that as an ode to the wonderful SBN sabermetrics blog of the same name) as it applies to college football stats.

I’ve been cranking out play-by-plays for 2007 games as fast as possible—as I post for a Mizzou blog, I’ve focused on Big 12 teams, Mizzou opponents, and teams with fellow Heisman finalists—but this is a massive undertaking, and I need some volunteers to enter play-by-play for the games I have yet to enter from the 2007.  They take about 30-45 minutes each, and I’m figuring I’ll need about 6-10 volunteers to finish this stuff in a timely enough fashion to do something about it before the 2008 season starts orbiting everybody’s attention span, so...actually, how about I just show you why I’m doing this?

Gamecock Man offers our first installment of reader submissions on how to fix the Gamecocks for next year.

I think there are two things we need to do to improve for next year. (1), Spurrier should consider firing Nix and going after a proven defensive coordinator who has experience shutting down a variety of offenses. I don't think Nix is terrible--he's had some successes, and I think part of our problem owes to injuries. But I don't think it's surprising that our two worst performances have come against innovative offenses, although what Arkansas does might be better termed unorthodox than innovative. Nix didn't have good schemes for these games. Arkansas is the most infuriating; their offense is one-dimensional and even though it would be impossible to completely shut McFadden down, it's very possible to contain him (see Auburn, UT). Our d-line got mauled in that game; that's not so much Nix's fault, because we just don't have the studs to take on Arky's big d-line. But where were our linebackers and safeties, when they should've been stepping up to contain? That falls on Nix and his staff. And where was our great pass defense against the Gators? They had open receivers all night, and that again owes to coaching. In sum: Nix is a decent coach, and he's had bad luck with injuries this year, but we need a defensive coordinator who can make adjustments and handle the injuries in the best way possible.

The diary feature on SB Nation was one of the draws for me. In essence, this allows you to post a comment to Garnet and Black Attack regardless of what I'm writing about.

Want to ask a general question? Check. Want to hold forth on something I haven't posted on? Check. Want to tell the world why seven wins shouldn't get you an extension? Yes, Tommy Bowden, you too can create a diary.

Of course, the normal, unwritten rules of Internet conversation apply, which basically means don't libel anyone.

Beyond that, feel free to join the conversation.