IYO, what is the most important stat in baseball?

[Stu]

Re: IYO, what is the most important stat in baseball?

What about On Base Percentage..

OBP is important if you consider what it's telling you. Obviously it's important to get on base, especially in today's game when anybody can hit a HR. Beyond that, as a general rule, hitters who have a high OBP usually walk more than your average player so are patient hitters. Patient hitters hit more in favorable counts (3-1, 2-0, etc) when they're going to get better pitches to hit. That along with the ability to wear out pitchers and having patient hitters, which OBP indicates, can put your team at a significant advantage.

Obviously there are exceptions though with players like Vlad Guerrero and Nomar Garciaparra who can hit pretty much any pitch in any count and hit it hard, but there's very few players like them.

[Stu]

Re: IYO, what is the most important stat in baseball?

Shh..you hear that? Thats the sound of all of that swooshing directly over my head.

Wow, where did all these stats come from? I thought I was a stat nut, I need to reavaluate that claim.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/about/

[Dice]

Re: IYO, what is the most important stat in baseball?

What about On Base Percentage..

If you like the 'Money Ball' type team then OBP would be a key stat.

[Pujols91]

Re: IYO, what is the most important stat in baseball?

Batters - OPS
Pitchers - ERA

[Stu]

Re: IYO, what is the most important stat in baseball?

If you like the 'Money Ball' type team then OBP would be a key stat.

OBP is important any way you look at it in today's game, especially in the AL. You need to have people on base to score runs.

It's not a coincidence that the 5 teams in the AL that have scored over 500 runs so far are the top 5 teams in OBP.

[NYJets]

Re: IYO, what is the most important stat in baseball?

Batters- OPS
Starting Pitchers- ERA
Relief Pitchers- WHIP

[mjb2124]

Re: IYO, what is the most important stat in baseball?

It's amazing how many people still thing BA (by itself) Runs, RBI's, etc are significant statistics.

I agree. I think Batting Average by itself is one of the most overrated stats in baseball. How can a stat be worth something when it doesn't factor in walks, hit by pitches and penalizes a hitter for a fielders error? If the object is to score more runs than the opponent, why should a hitter be penalized by those factors?

If we're just talking standard stats, I'll take,

OPS for hitters.
ERA for pitchers.

[Blzer]

Re: IYO, what is the most important stat in baseball?

It's amazing how many people still thing BA (by itself) Runs, RBI's, etc are significant statistics.

Are you saying they are insignificant?

I don't want to go into too much detail in this thread, because I want to find the thread similar to this that we've once had before. Obviously, OBP is a very important stat, as well as SLG. Therefore, OPS is a very important stat. But what are the good TELLING stats? What REALLY defines a hitter's ability to not only hit the ball... but to hit the ball hard, hit the ball smart, get on base, advance base-to-base with liability of being put out on the basepaths, and to cross home plate?

Well, no stat does it perfectly, but I tend to enjoy the RC27 stat (the theoretical average number of runs scored in a nine inning ballgame of a team comprising nine of the same player). Of course... it's not VERY telling as to what this player actually does. Maybe he steals a lot of bases. Maybe he walks all of the time. Maybe he just doesn't ground into many double plays. You can do all of those three things, and get a few more extra-base hits to raise your total bases, and still have the same RC27 number as somebody that's hitting .600 in the league with all singles.



But one thing that I really enjoy about the stat is that it's, actually, very accurate. It really does determine how good a player is at bringing a runner home, even if it's himself. It may not give you the skinny, but it's a telling stat that doesn't NEED Runs or RBI's to tell you how a player is doing. You can get on base every time you come up to the plate... but if you're stranded because of ANOTHER player, then YOU should be screwed out of your Runs Created stat? Likewise, you could have 200 RBI, but what if every one of your 650 at-bats were with a runner on third? While... there's some other guy that had 100 at-bats with a runner on third, and he got 100 RBI. Who really is the better RBI machine? Well... you don't need RBI counts to track this. That's what's so glorious about it.



I also like how people just really don't like the batting average stat, but are completely glorified by the OBP stat. Recall that OBP is NOT independent from batting average. It's... uh... what is it? It's times getting on base divided by total plate appearances, correct? So, you can get on base by a hit, walk, reaching on error, or fielder's choice; and you would divide that by plate appearances.

So, if one were to reach on an error or hit into a fielder's choice every time they came up to the plate, and had an 1.000 OBP, they must be very valuable for the club, right? How about a guy that, while drawing a few walks and getting a few hits, he sacrifices his at-bat to move a runner over, which would later score. Because his OBP (and SLG) lowers drastically, he must be less valuable to the ballclub, right?



Basically, by large sample sizes, Bonds is leading the league in on-base percentage. He's batting .250, but he still gets on base so much. I guess he's still considered the most valuable person to have on your team (offensively). Not to mention his stolen base percentage is 100% (3-for-3 ). So... tell me... does he deserve the MVP? Is that REALLY the most important offensive stat in baseball?




A stat that I personally enjoy, more or less another sabermetric, is the Isolated Power stat. It really determines a player's ability to hit for power given any at bat, because it's completely independent of batting average. It's a player's SLG - AVG, and there's your IsoP number. You could have a 1.000 SLG by getting singles all the time, but what about the players that are getting multiple extra-base hits, but are, at times, getting out, therefore not only lowering your batting average, but ALSO your slugging percentage. If you really want to see a player's ability to get extra-base hits, you would look at this stat.



Again, people say that AVG is not very important, but they say that OBP, SLG, or better yet... OPS is important, when they are all dependent upon the player's batting average.






Basically, there is no greatest stat. There is no ultimate telling stat, either. A player can best be individualized by looking at ALL of the stats.



BTW, I said how RBI's aren't really integrated well because it does not give somebody the knowledge of how many opportunities they had. How about that "clutch" stat? You know, the AVG with R.I.S.P.? I also like that stat very much.

[Stu]

Re: IYO, what is the most important stat in baseball?

I said that Batting Average by itself is insignificant. OBP and OPS are better because they include BA but give you a lot more information, ie a batter reaching base without getting a hit and what exactly he does with those hits. If you use BA by itself you'd be assuming 2 players hitting .300 are equal even though one might have 20 singles to the others 20 HR's.

As for Runs and RBI's, they just aren't good indicators of a players performance because they're so dependent on a player's teammates.

[Pujols91]

Re: IYO, what is the most important stat in baseball?

I agree. I think Batting Average by itself is one of the most overrated stats in baseball. How can a stat be worth something when it doesn't factor in walks, hit by pitches and penalizes a hitter for a fielders error?

True, batting average can only really be used fully when looked at with SLG, OBP and plate appearances.

I guess there really is no one stat we can use to measure a hitters performance, although OPS is my favorite one to look at. I also like the avg with RISP stat alot, lets you know how players are doing under pressure.

[mjb2124]

Re: IYO, what is the most important stat in baseball?

True, batting average can only really be used fully when looked at with SLG, OBP and plate appearances.

I guess there really is no one stat we can use to measure a hitters performance, although OPS is my favorite one to look at. I also like the avg with RISP stat alot.

Exactly how I feel and well said. This is the problem with only 1 individual stat. Most of these stats lose some amount of meaning when they are disassociated from other stats.

However, if I had to use only one offensive stat, it would be OPS simply because it does entail some of the other stats whereas batting average doesn't.

[dkgojackets]

Re: IYO, what is the most important stat in baseball?

OBP for hitters. Getting on base means not making outs. Not making outs is how you score runs.

And ERA for pitchers. Again, pitching is about preventing runs from scoring.

[Blzer]

Re: IYO, what is the most important stat in baseball?

OBP for hitters. Getting on base means not making outs. Not making outs is how you score runs.

Not exactly. Crossing home plate is how you score runs.

Get a hit, steal a bag, bunt him over, hit a deep fly ball, and you scored a run after recording two outs.

Secondary Average is also a good stat. It's a way to look at a player's extra bases gained, ALSO independent of batting average.

[Stu]

Re: IYO, what is the most important stat in baseball?

Not exactly. Crossing home plate is how you score runs.

Get a hit, steal a bag, bunt him over, hit a deep fly ball, and you scored a run after recording two outs.

That's a pretty inefficient way to score runs. Small ball is becoming obsolete except for certain situations.

[Blzer]

Re: IYO, what is the most important stat in baseball?

That's a pretty inefficient way to score runs. Small ball is becoming obsolete except for certain situations.

Hey, just sayin'...