Baseball rules the winner. This is known as a walk-off. The basic contest is always between the "pitcher" for the fielding team, and a "batter". The pitcher throws—"pitches"—the ball towards home plate, where the "catcher" for the fielding team waits (in a crouched stance) to receive it. Behind the catcher stands the home plate umpire. The batter stands in one of the batter's boxes and tries to hit the ball with a bat. The pitcher must keep one foot in contact with the top or front of the pitcher's rubber — a 24×6 in (61×15 cm) plate located atop the pitcher's mound
The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers with the "Pitcher Abuse Points" statistic developed by Baseball Prospectus, and this essay is followed by a response by Prospectus writers Rany Jazayerli and Keith Woolner. The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers () is a non-fiction baseball reference book, written by Rob Neyer and Bill James and published by Simon & Schuster in June 2004. In the text on its dust jacket, it bills itself as a "comprehensive guide" to "pitchers, the pitches they throw, and how they throw them". "The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers" is divided into three main sections. The first section contains a