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Today is unsurprising research day. The Wall Street Journal reports on a computer model that can predict whether a baseball player gets elected to the Hall of Fame:
Using a radial bias function network, a sort of neural net, Dr. Smith and Dr. Downey were able to identify statistical commonalities among Hall of Famers. As it turns out, hits, home runs and on-base plus slugging percentages are what count for hitters, while wins, saves, earned run average and winning percentage are what count for pitchers.
Sounds right to me. But did we really need a computer to tell us this?
