2004 Season

Since there are a variety of ways to look at baseball's season, I offer a variety of topical pages every season. These pages tracked aspects of the 2004 Midwest League Season while the season progressed.

The 2004 Season

2004 League and Team Information

• Season Summary
• Leaders & Highlights
• League & Team Information

Events, Issues, & Ongoing Studies

• All-Star Game
  • June 22 @ Cedar Rapids Veterans Memorial Stadium
• Best Players
  • Strictly my opinion.
• Team Ages
  • as of Opening Day

Western
Division

• Beloit Snappers (Brewers)
• Burlington Bees (Royals)
• Cedar Rapids Kernels (Angels)
• Clinton LumberKings (Rangers)
• Kane County Cougars (Athletics)
• Peoria Chiefs (Cardinals)
• Swing of the Quad Cities (Twins)
• Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Mariners)

Eastern
Division

• Battle Creek Yankees (Yankees)
• Dayton Dragons (Reds)
• Fort Wayne Wizards (Padres)
• Lansing Lugnuts (Cubs)
• South Bend Silver Hawks (Diamondbacks)
• West Michigan Whitecaps (Tigers)

Explanatory Note

The team pages were intended as previews, and my expected reader was someone who wanted to know which players to watch on the visiting team.

What's Defensive Efficiency?

One of the statistics I track on these pages is each team's Defensive Efficiency Rating (DER). DER is a quick measure of team defensive effectiveness; it's the ratio of defensive outs to the number of defensive opportunities. Bigger numbers are better; the range in the MWL is about .650 to .720. A team with a .720 DER makes outs on about 72% of the balls put into play.

I've chosen to use this stat because it's one of the few defensive statistics which can be calculated from the information published on the commercial sites. It's a valuable measure, but since it measures team performance it does not tell much about individual players.