Baseball Statistics - Use of Statistics

Use of Statistics

Throughout modern baseball, a few core statistics have been traditionally referenced —batting average, RBI, and home runs. To this day, a player who leads the league in all of these three statistics earns the "Triple Crown." For pitchers, wins, ERA, and strikeouts are the most often-cited statistics, and a pitcher leading his league in these statistics may be referred to as a "Triple Crown" winner (but normally he has won the Cy Young Award). General managers and baseball scouts have long used the major statistics, among other factors and opinions, to understand player value. Managers, catchers and pitchers use the statistics of batters of opposing teams to develop pitching strategies and set defensive positioning on the field. Managers and batters study opposing pitcher performance and motions in attempting to improve hitting.

Some sabermetric statistics have entered the mainstream baseball world that measure a batter's overall performance including On-base plus slugging, commonly referred to as OPS. OPS adds the hitter's on base percentage (number of times reached base by any means divided by total plate appearances) to his slugging percentage (total bases divided by at bats). Some argue that the OPS formula is flawed and that more weight should be shifted towards OBP (on base percentage).

OPS is also useful when determining a pitcher's level of success. "Opponent On-base Plus Slugging" (OOPS) is becoming a popular tool to evaluate a pitcher's actual performance. When analyzing a pitcher's statistics, some useful categories to consider include K/9IP (strikeouts per nine innings), K/BB (strikeouts per walk), HR/9, WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched) and OOPS (opponent on-base plus slugging).

However, since 2001, more emphasis has been placed on Defense-Independent Pitching Statistics, including Defense-Independent ERA (dERA), in an attempt to evaluate a pitcher's performance regardless of the strength of the defensive players behind him.

All of the above statistics may be used in certain game situations. For example, a certain hitter's ability to hit left-handed pitchers might incline a manager to increase his opportunities to face left-handed pitchers. Other hitters may have a history of success against a given pitcher (or vice versa), and the manager may use this information to create a favorable match-up. Broadcast commentators often refer to this as "playing the percentages".