Statisticians Examine the Mitchell Report’s Findings

Sur le même thème que "Statisticians Examine the Mitchell Report’s Findings"

Did Steroid Use Enhance the Performance of Mitchell Report Hitters?

According to a new study published in Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports (JQAS)—Did Steroid Use Enhance the Performance of the Mitchell Batters? The Effect of Alleged Performance Enhancing Drug Use on Offensive Performance from 1995 to 2007 by Brian J. Schmotzer, Jeff Switchenko, and Patrick D. Kilgo—the answer is yes. Conclusions: This analysis suggests a significant and substantial performance advantage for players who used steroids during the study period. It is estimated that offensive production increased approximately 12% in steroid users versus non-users. This analysis represents the first attempt to quantify the overall effect of PED abuse on offensive performance in baseball. This study intrigued me, but the results are highly suspect because of obvious factual errors that should have been caught by a referee. [lien] [EN]

A Response to My Critique of the Mitchell Report Study

I have received a response to my critique of Did Steroid Use Enhance the Performance of the Mitchell Batters? The Effect of Alleged Performance Enhancing Drug Use on Offensive Performance from 1995 to 2007 by Brian J. Schmotzer, Jeff Switchenko, and Patrick D. Kilgo. What follows is the authors’ response. I will comment on this response within the next few days. I thank the authors for responding to me. — — — Dear J.C., We read your review of our paper on your sabernomics.com website. In the interest of the pursuit of the truth, we have constructed a reply. We would be grateful if you would post it on your site. We have pasted our reply below. Please let us know if a different format would be helpful. Thanks for your consideration. -Brian Schmotzer, Pat Kilgo, Jeff Switchenko Thank you for your recent detailed examination of our study “Did Steroid Use Enhance the Performance of the Mitchell Batters? The Effect of Alleged Performance Enhancing Drug Use on Offensive Performance from 1995 to 2007. [lien] [EN]

What Does the FSU Cheating Scandal and the Mitchell Report Have in Common?

By JP, from Pyle of List  With the release of the Mitchell Report this week, after months of feverish anticipation, baseball fans and the media finally have an official list of names connected to performance enhancing drugs. While there is some substantial evidence linking these names to the indiscretions we always suspected them of, the distinct lack of a “smoking gun” detracts from the report’s impact. However, it is the closest thing we have to proof that hundreds of players in MLB have been cheating for roughly a decade. Across town in College FootballVille, 25 FSU football players were caught cheating in their online class. Several FSU employees were also implicated in the scandal. First of all, how in the world do these guys have online classes in the first place? Secondly. [lien] [EN]

Carl Hates the Mitchell Report

Notorious DEK finds Carl latest ranting about the Mitchell Report. I disagree with Carl about the Yanks not injecting PEDs into their buttocks but I do agree that Senator Mitchell's conflict of interest with Red Sox is considerable and he never should have been the man in charge of the report. [lien] [EN]

My Response to the Mitchell Report Study Response

My response to Brian J. Schmotzer, Jeff Switchenko, and Patrick D. Kilgo’s reply to my criticism of their study follows. I would like to thank the authors for offering their response; however, I do not think their explanations succeed in validating their study. First let me address a few minor issues about which I will not go into significant depth. I have no problem with mixed effects, it just isn’t the model I would have used. In fact, in my initial critique I stated, “I suspect that it ought to get the job done”. Aging also is not a big issue, but I am appreciative that the authors took the steps to re-estimate their model according to my previous analysis. It appears that aging adjustments do not make much difference. I see that our disagreements boil down to two points on which I will focus my remarks. [lien] [EN]

Mitchell Report Open Thread

Oh the drama! Figured we could use a nice clean new open thread for the Mitchell Report findings since the speculation diary is already up in the 60s for comments. This says we'll be getting MVP's and All-Stars, but considering Ken Caminiti was an MVP I wouldn't get all excited or anything. Go to town folks. Update [2007-12-13 14:26:9 by boobs]: Click here for a pdf of the Mitchell report. [lien] [EN]

Gary Sheffield, Four Former Tigers Named In Mitchell Report

The much anticipated (for a variety of reasons) Mitchell Report was put out yesterday and at least in my opinion, it didn’t live up to the hype.  Most of the report centered around Kurt Radomski’s testimony and while he had evidence, you’re talking about a lot of fringe players to go along with a few [...] [lien] [EN]

Dr. Tanya Byron explains her report findings, stance on games

Filed under: NewsFollowing her report (which follows all of the Manhunt 2 ruckus), UK psychologist Dr. Tanya Byron sat down to discuss some things with Next-Gen. While we don't know much about her, what with us living across the pond and all, she does come off as kind of grounded and level-headed about all of this. It seems that she's very much for adult content in games, just that the adult content in question should only be accessible by, you know, adults. "There's a huge moral debate around content in videogames," she says, "I'm very clear, that wasn't the remit of my review to pass judgment on that and I do believe that content for adults is content for adults. It should be rated that way." She goes on further to add: "I can understand that gamers fear that there will be a 'you can't play these games anymore. [lien] [EN]

Reporters find presumed priveleges revoked behind the Great Firewall [China]

The Chinese government may have assured the International Olympic Committee that reporters would enjoy Western freedoms while covering the Olympic games, such as unfettered access to the Internet. Once on the ground, however, journalists have discovered that's not exactly the case. The IOC has been busy backtracking. Olympics reps now have clarified that open Web access is only for sites about "Olympic competitions" — not, say, Amnesty International, one of many sites that has been blocked. The question no one has asked, however, is why China should feel compelled to act in any other way? No restrictions of press freedoms will ultimately harm the financial interest by companies like NBC, which paid $900 million for the right to broadcast the games. And technology companies here in the Valley. [lien] [EN]

Report Finds Windfall in Bank Executives' Stock Options

As shares of bailed-out banks bottomed out earlier this year, stock options were awarded to their top executives, setting them up for millions of dollars in profit as prices rebounded, Reuters reported, citing a report released on Wednesday. The top five executives at 0 financial institutions that took some of the biggest taxpayer bailouts have seen a combined increase in the value of their stock options of nearly $0 million, the report by the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies said. “Not only are these executives not hurting very much from the crisis, but they might get big windfalls because of the surge in the value of some of their shares,” said Sarah Anderson, lead author of the report, “America’s Bailout Barons,” the 6th in an annual series on executive excess. The report — which highlights executive compensation at such firms as Goldman Sachs. [lien] [EN]

Scientists find rate of aging is at least in part genetically determined

We can dye gray hair, lift sagging skin or boost lost hearing, but no visit to the day spa would be able to hide a newly discovered genetic marker for the toll that time takes on our cells. “We’ve found something that is at the core of aging,” said Stuart Kim, PhD, professor of developmental biology and of genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. In a study to be published in the July 21 issue of Public Library of Science-Genetics, Kim and colleagues report finding a group of genes that are consistently less active in older animals across a variety of species. The activity of these genes proved to be a consistent indicator of how far a cell had progressed toward its eventual demise. Until now, researchers have studied genes that underlie aging in a single animal, such as flies or mice. [lien] [EN]

Thoughts on the Mitchell Report

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy on the sea-shore, diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. -Sir Isaac Newton It's been four days since the Mitchell Report was released to the public, and while some new people and details have been made known, I don't believe it accomplished what the commissioner thought it would. Because Major League Baseball did not grant Senator Mitchell subpoena power, no one was obliged to speak unless obliged by an outside power. The two major new sources would not have divulged anything without the spectre of criminal charges staring them in the face. At best this report gave us a tiny glimpse of the truth. [lien] [EN]

RED REPORTER OWNS THE 2008 CINCINNATI REDS

We may be entering a recession and the markets may be soft right now but you'll all be pleased and proud to know that Red Reporter is taking an unprecedented step to buy up our own littlecorner of the interweb. Check it out. (Scroll down. No, wait.Not thatfar. Scroll back up a bit. You see it? Pretty cool, huh?) For those of you wholong ago stopped trusting me to send you off linking to anything worth seeing... just trust me on this one. It's pretty cool. (Cooler thanpoppin' and lockin'for papal pleasure. And cooler than a hockey rink blowing up under a monster truck race.) For those of you who don't click on any hyperlinks until after your mom has checked them all out for razorblades and anthrax, I'll just spell it out for you.. Your favorite quietlittle out-of-the-way Cincinnati Reds blog has gone big time. [lien] [EN]

Ohio judge: delete references to Tasers from medical examiner’s reports

Need I say more? Now it’s come down to official scrubbing the use and abuse of Tasers by law enforcement. From Ohio, a look at where the police state is going. A Summit County Common Pleas judge ordered the county medical examiner to delete any reference that Tasers contributed to the deaths of three Ohio men. All [...] [lien] [EN]