Sabermetrics- Advanced Statistics in the MLB

More On Base Percentage (OBP) measures the most important thing a batter can do at the plate: not make an out OBP is considered more accurate than Batting Average in measuring a player’s offensive value, since it takes into account hits and walks MLB leader in OBP: Miguel Cabrera with a.448 OBP

BackMore On Base Plus Slugging (OPS) the sum of a player’s on-base percentage and their slugging percentage If you’re looking to evaluate a player’s offense, OPS is a better metric to use than batting average, but should always be used in conjunction with other statistics as well. It’s a good gateway statistic to get people thinking beyond the traditional statistics 2011 MLB leader in OPS: Jose Bautista with a OPS

Weighted On Base Average (wOBA) Weighted On-Base Average combines all the different aspects of hitting into one metric, weighting each of them in proportion to their actual run value. While batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage fall short in accuracy and scope This stat accounts for the following aspects of hitting: unintentional walks, hit-by- pitches, singles, doubles, triples, homeruns. Stolen-bases and caught stealing numbers are also sometimes included MLB leader in wOBA: Jose Bautista with a.441 wOBA BackMore

Batting Average of Balls in Play (BABIP measures how many of a batter’s balls in play go for hits. The average BABIP for hitters is around.290 to.310. If you see any player that deviates from this average to an extreme, they’re likely due for regression. Line drives go for hits more often than groundballs, and groundballs go for hits more often than flyballs MLB leader in BABIP: Adrian Gonzalez with a.380 BABIP BackMore

Weighted Runs Created (wRC+) quantify a player’s total offensive value and measure it by runs. measures how a player’s wRC compares with league average. League average is 100, and every point above 100 is a percentage point above league average wRC is based off of wOBA and is regarded as a more accurate depiction of a player’s offensive value MLB leader in wRC+: Jose Bautista with a 181 wRC+ BackMore

Back Isolated Power (ISO) measure of a hitter’s raw power. Or, to look at it another way, it measures how good a player is at hitting for extra bases The simplest way to calculate ISO is to subtract a player’s Batting Average from their Slugging Percentage, which leaves us with a measure of just a player’s extra bases per at bat MLB leader in ISO: Jose Bautista with a.306 ISO

More Walks plus Hits per Innings Pitched (WHIP) measures how many base runners a pitcher lets up. It’s formula is exactly as it sounds: walks plus hits, all divided by innings pitched great pitchers will typically have lower WHIPs, and questionable pitchers will have higher WHIPs. However, since hit rates vary depending upon a pitcher’s BABIP, WHIP values are also prone to fluctuating MLB leader in WHIP: Justin Verlander with a.92 WHIP

Back Earned Run Average (ERA) designed to assess how well a pitcher has done in the past. To calculate, divide a pitcher’s total number of Earned Runs allowed by his total number of Innings Pitched and multiply by nine. ERA is difficult to compare across teams due to differences in team defenses, difficult to compare across leagues due to competition imbalance and the DH, and difficult to compare across years because of different run-scoring environments MLB leader in ERA: Clayton Kershaw with a 2.28 ERA More

Batting Average of Balls in Play (BABIP measures how many balls in play against a pitcher go for hits. The average BABIP for pitchers is around.290 to.310 and pitchers have much less control over their BABIP than batters If a pitcher has a very high or very low BABIP, it means that whatever the reason for the spike, that player will regress back toward their career BABIP rate. BABIP rates are flaky and prone to vary wildly from year to year 2011 MLB leader in BABIP: Jeremy Hellickson with a.223 BABIP BackMore

Back Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) measures what a player’s ERA should have looked like over a given time period, assuming that performance on balls in play and timing were league average A walk is not as harmful as a homerun and a strikeout has less impact than both. FIP accounts for these kinds of differences, presenting the results on the same scale as ERA FIP does a better job of predicting the future than measuring the present, as there can be a lot of fluctuation in small samples. It is less effective in describing a pitcher’s single game performance and is more appropriate in a season’s worth of innings 2011 MLB leader in FIP: Roy Halladay with a 2.20 FIP

More Fielding Percentage (FP) a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball calculated by the sum of putouts and assists divided by the number of total chances (putouts + assists + errors) This is the fundamental point to accepting defensive statistics – they know very little and infer an awful lot MLB leader in FP: Nick Markakis with a FP

MoreBack Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) puts a run value to defense, attempting to quantify how many runs a player saved or gave up through their fielding prowess Like with any defensive statistic, you should always use three years of UZR data before trying to draw any conclusions on the true talent level of a fielder. UZR is park-adjusted, meaning it adjusts for the fact that fielders have to deal with odd quirks in certain ballparks 2011 MLB leader in UZR: Brett Gardner with a 25.2 UZR

Back Wins Above Replacement (WAR) Not technically a fielding stat, Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is an attempt by the sabermetric baseball community to summarize a player’s total contributions to their team in one statistic WAR basically looks at a player and asks the question, “If this player got injured and their team had to replace them with a minor leaguer or someone from their bench, how much value would the team be losing?” While WAR values are scaled equally for pitchers and hitters, the result is calculated differently for pitchers versus position players 2011 MLB leader in WAR: Jacoby Ellsbury with a 9.4 WAR