Once again, Dave Smith mines the treasure trove that is the Retrosheet database. This year, the subject is pitchers … as baserunners. Will another piece of (anecdotal) conventional wisdom – that running the bases adversely affects a pitcher’s performance in the rest of the game – fall by the wayside once Smith examines the actual events over the half-century of the Retrosheet Era? It’s an issue only Retrosheet can tackle, and Dave Smith knows Retrosheet like no other.

Download Powerpoint • Download Audio

David Smith

David W. Smith (dwsmith@retrosheet.org) joined SABR in 1977 and has made numerous research presentations at SABR meetings. At SABR31 in 2001, he won the USA Today Sports Weekly Award for his presentation on the 1951 NL pennant race. In 2005 he received SABR’s highest honor, the Bob Davids Award. He is a past co-chair of the Statistical Analysis Committee and recipient of the first SABR Special Achievement award. He is also the founder and President of Retrosheet, a non-profit organization dedicated to the collection, computerization, and free distribution of play by play accounts of Major League games.