Research Paper....

[TeamSelig]

I have a big research paper to do. 10-12 pages, 10 sources and 12-15 sources cited in text.

I was thinking of doing it on scoring runs in baseball, maybe have the sabremetrics stuff on scoring runs or something. Not really sure. Does anybody have any ideas on a general & narrow topic to write it on? I'd really like it to be baseball oriented that way it is somewhat interesting to write.

Thanks.

[RedsManRick]

I did a research paper on salary distribution of free agents signees and player value based on age and position. I basically focused on the left-right defensive spectrum and position scarcity due to how different skill sets change over time.

Perhaps an interesting topic for your paper would be an analysis on "small ball" or "smart ball" versus the earl weaver / sabermetric OBP and 3 run homer approach. You can discuss the historical development of the sabermetric approach, talk about it's inherent advantages and disadvantages, and then theorize on what your research proves to be the "best" way to build and run an offense.

[westofyou]

Does anybody have any ideas on a general & narrow topic to write it on?

Tons of stuff on this, plus you tie the sport into the daily life of a community and that in turn will make the teacher think you're not just reading ESPN magazine for your ideas.

The History of Baseball Stadiums and the eventual involvement of public money in the creation of them.

1876 - 1909 - Transient Clubs, wooden stands, fires etc.

1909 - 1915 - Privately built steel and concrete stadiums emerge, teams don't move for 40 years. An attempt to middle class the sport in the age of middle class awareness.

1921 - Yankee Stadium is built with private money, last privately built stadium until Pac Bell

1930 - Cleveland Municipal is built to try and get Olympics, public money used.

1950 - Public money builds stadium in Milwaukee and Baltimore, 4 years later both have MLB teams

Mid 60's Multi Use Stadiums - Built in many stadiums

Domed Stadiums

1990's Wave of Retro parks publically funded

Ensuing backlash

[Highlifeman21]

You should write on why the NL is the last league at very competitive levels to not adopt the DH rule.

[westofyou]

You should write on why the NL is the last league at very competitive levels to not adopt the DH rule.

Or the first not to cave in to a bad idea.

[Highlifeman21]

Originally Posted by westofyou

Or the first not to cave in to a bad idea.

I'm not suggesting that the NL adopt this horrendous rule, I'm just recycling a baseball topic that immediately came to mind from when I TA's a JCOM 367 class @ the Ohio State University. This kid wrote a tremendously bad paper on why the NL should adopt the DH rule, and then bored the class with a 5 minute diatribe on the same issue. I'll keep looking through old papers I have that might have been baseball related that I graded highly and the grade was verified by the professor to be accurate.

[TeamSelig]

Hmmm... so maybe the general topic would be Offensive Strategies in Baseball. Point of paper could be to inform readers of the best strategy (or persuade to think the same as me)... This seems like a good idea, but I'm not sure if I could easily find enough sources. Plus, would it be easy to write without filling up pages with stats and numbers?

I'm not sure how I could get the public funds into that topic though.

[Cyclone792]

There's a ton of stuff out there on sabermetrics, especially offensive sabermetrics since guys such as James, Palmer, Thorn, etc. started getting into that stuff over 25 years ago. You could find a ton of stuff alone on sites such as Baseball Prospectus, Hardball Times, Retrosheet, etc.

One good site that you may not know about, but could be useful is TangoTiger's site where he's got a nice collection of essays and research involving sabermetrics.

[Highlifeman21]

I just found one that is sort of interesting. It was titled "Contraction: 30 is too many". This paper focused on the Florida Marlins AND the Tampa Bay Devil Rays being contracted. It touched on the stadium issue in Miami, and the horrible franchise in Tampa Bay, in regards to public interest/opinion, and the economic impacts of each respective franchise in their markets. This paper was written in 2003-2004, and the little speech accompanying the paper mainly focused on the current pool of talent being too thin, and eliminating teams improving competition. I found it advanced for a college sophomore.