Baseball Statistics And Sabermetrics

By Author: Steven Hall
Total Articles: 1
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Sabermetrics have taken baseball statistics to new levels. Originally these hybrid analyses of the game of baseball were for the true fan(atic), but now major league teams are using them to help build winning teams.

Bill James, the father of Sabermetrics called them the search for objective knowledge about baseball now works for the Boston Red Sox as a consultant. Sabermetrics attempt to enhance our ability to see and understand what is really happening. These hybrid statistics attempt to measure what is really happening on the field.

Sabermetrics is an objective study of the game based upon the following principals:

Goal No. 1 is to win as many games as possible. Sabermetrics is interested in measuring each individual player's contribution to his team wins.

Batting average, maybe baseball's most known statistic misses a batter's power and his ability to draw walks.

A player should always be evaluated for what he produces, not for what the players around him contribute. Runs scored and RBIs can be a direct correlation to what your teammates do. The solution is to find a good statistic measure ...
... that removes outside effects over which the player has no control, such as the park. RBIs and runs scored are very much a measure of things a player can not control.

When we look at a player's own contribution to his total of runs scored we see that this can be measured by his ability to get on base (On Base Percentage) and to advance himself which can me measured by extra-base hits (Slugging Percentage), and by his stolen bases and caught stealing.

Although it does not look at stolen bases a very good method to judge the offensive contributions of a player is by adding Slugging Percentage and On Base Percentage (OPS).

For pitcher's win and losses is a poor judge of a player's value. These stats are directly related to the run support the pitcher receives.

Fielding average is also filled with flaws as the most important part of fielding is the ability to prevent hits. While it does show which players can handle their position it does not take into consideration range and the ability to take away hits..

Can Sabermetrics predict a player's future performance in the major league? How useful are a player's minor-league numbers in this prediction? Once you adjust a player's minor-league numbers for the difference between AA or AAA ball and the majors, you may have something meaningful.

These hybrid stats can bring a whole new experience of the game to fans and may make fans watch the game through a new set of glasses.