Measuring Democracy

Baseball is, in truth, pretty boring to watch (unless you are a die-hard fan of a specific team… and on that note, Go Bosox). But some of the most interesting parts of the game aren’t necessarily the play on the field, but baseball industry and its evaluation of players through statistics.

Stats are a great way to judge a player’s quality over the stretch of a season and career. Considering there are 162 games in a regular MLB season, it’s a proper sample size to get a good idea of the quality in a player. There are, however, different methods of approaching the raw numbers from a baseball season, which can have major impacts on how different teams value different players.

Consider, for example, batting statistics. Traditionally, the three core stats for batters were batting average (hits divided by at bats), run’s batted in, and home runs. For years and years, these stats were used by baseball scouts, managers, sports writers and fans to judge and compare players. But around the ’80s and ’90s, statisticians started to realize that these core stats were not necessarily the best way to measure a player’s individual production within an offense.

Take runs batted in, for example. RBI’s are credits given to a batter when a run scores as a result of his at bat (not including runs scored on errors or fielders choice). So, if Babe Ruth steps up to bat, and their are two men on, and Babe slaps a ball down the 3rd base line, the two base runners score, and Babe is given 2 RBI’s.

There are issues with the RBI as a standalone stat, as who is on base when any given batters steps into the box is largely a matter of circumstance. That is to say, Babe didn’t have anything to do with those prior two batters getting on base. If he played for a different team where the batters before him were not as productive, his RBI totals would likely be down.

According to a new method of analysis, called sabermetics, total RBI’s per team is a better judge of a teams overall offensive output, as more runs scored generates wins. For individual players stats sabermetrics uses other measurements, like on base slugging percentage to measure a players output. OPS uses a complicated equation that basically averages his ability to reach base (including walks, hit by pitchers) and his slugging percentage (total bases / at bats).

For the entire OPS equation, click here.

The Mecca of Sabermetrics: Baseball Prospectus.

Adrien Beltre’s 2010 MLB Stats (check out all the different way’s his output is represented).