Comments on: Batting Average on Balls in Play

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:42:00 +0000

I kind of kept the argument simple, so there are some holes in it, but I could patch most of them up pretty easily. You’re right about acceptance rates, but the thing is, they’re not all that different. A “fledgling” magazine might accept 5% of submissions. A big magazine is just under 1%. That’s a big difference, but it still only changes your acceptance rate by 4%.

BABIP goes up as the level of play goes down, because defenders cover less ground consistently, but it’s not all that dramatic an effect. I don’t have the exact numbers but in the majors it’s .300, but in AAA it’s .310, AA .320, and so on. It’s still not a big difference.

By: Cafais

Cafais — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:44:58 +0000

Tim:

A thoughtful essay, however, I think you may have understated the factor of a particular magazine’s acceptance rate. For example, if you have two poets of equal talent and poet A submits regularly to “Poetry” and equvalent markets, and poet B submits to “Podunk Review”, etc., then of course poet B is going to have a much higher BABIP.

Put another way: Ty Cobb’s batting average in the minor league would be a lot higher than his batting average in the major league.

That having been said, it seems to be entirely reasonable that the more submissions you send, the more “hits” you will get.

Batter up!

By: Poetry News For May 25, 2009 | Poetry Hut Blog

Poetry News For May 25, 2009 | Poetry Hut Blog — Mon, 25 May 2009 05:04:17 +0000

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By: Jeannine Hall Gailey

Jeannine Hall Gailey — Sun, 17 May 2009 20:20:34 +0000

Yes, just keep the poems in motion – instead of my usual (over-)worrying of which poem to send where, and when, and in what order, and picking exactly the right magazine – just put some poems together in an envelope and get it out into the world!

By: Tim

Tim — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:11:55 +0000

That’s okay, Jeannine — so not worth coming from S.D. for; it’s was just a little party. But I appreciate the thought!

Hope you’re feeling better now. It’s been a weird spring for the flu, etc. We’ve been hit, too, which doesn’t happen often.

I’ll have to hear more about the Theory of Velocity. Velocity because it doesn’t matter what direction you go, as long as you keep moving?

By: Jeannine Hall Gailey

Jeannine Hall Gailey — Sat, 16 May 2009 04:11:10 +0000

Sorry I couldn’t make it, Tim – I’ve been sick the last couple of days, and didn’t want to get you all sick too!
Interesting ideas on acceptance – my husband calls this “the theory of velocity.” He also says that velocity is hampered by places that don’t take sim subs, so you should theoretically only send to places that allow you to send to more than one place at a time.