06-28-2010, 11:36 AM
Because a pitcher's ERA can be greatly effected by the ballparks they play in or the league they play in (American league pitchers often have higher ERAs because of the DH), ERA+ was invented. I don't understand how it is actually calculated, but it is basically a way of standardizing ERA to account for variables such as ballparks. When you look at ERA+, 100 is middle of the road. Anything more than 100 is above average and anything below is sub par. It's a quick easy way of evaluating a pitcher.
Some stats I personally like are BABiP (Batting Average of Balls in Play) and line drive %(self explanatory I hope).
BABiP usually shows you if a hitter is getting unusually lucky. League average for BABiP is usually about .300. Anything more than that and the player is usually getting seeing eye singles and bloop hits. Below .300 and the player is probably hitting line drive rockets right at defenders. BABiP is a very flawed statistic though and doesn't take into account players like Derek Jeter. Jeter for his career has an unusually high BABiP. He isn't a constantly lucky player though, he just is very good and directing the ball and hitting line drives. That's why I also use line drive % along with BABiP.
Stat heads will evaluate the trajectory of all balls put into play. It can be either a ground ball, a fly ball, or a line drive. Line drives, of course, have an extremely high probability of landing for a hit compared to fly balls and ground balls. Therefor, hitters should aspire to have a high line drive %. 17 or 18% is considered about average for line drive %. 21% is considered above average.
When you pair these two stats together, they can be very telling. Take Geovany Soto last year. If you look at his slash line (AVG/OBP/SLG) he did not have a very good season. However, his BABiP shows when he put the ball in play, he had a .251 average. That's astoundingly low. Also, his line drive % was better than average. I'm having trouble finding it, but I believe it was something like 22%. It basically shows that Soto wasn't really as bad as his slash line would indicate, he was pretty damn unlucky last year. This Fangraphs article goes into it a bit. http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.p...w-on-soto/
Fangraphs is actually a very stat heavy site that you may want to look into. Not everyone is a fan of their site, but anyone would have to admit that it's interesting information.
Some stats I personally like are BABiP (Batting Average of Balls in Play) and line drive %(self explanatory I hope).
BABiP usually shows you if a hitter is getting unusually lucky. League average for BABiP is usually about .300. Anything more than that and the player is usually getting seeing eye singles and bloop hits. Below .300 and the player is probably hitting line drive rockets right at defenders. BABiP is a very flawed statistic though and doesn't take into account players like Derek Jeter. Jeter for his career has an unusually high BABiP. He isn't a constantly lucky player though, he just is very good and directing the ball and hitting line drives. That's why I also use line drive % along with BABiP.
Stat heads will evaluate the trajectory of all balls put into play. It can be either a ground ball, a fly ball, or a line drive. Line drives, of course, have an extremely high probability of landing for a hit compared to fly balls and ground balls. Therefor, hitters should aspire to have a high line drive %. 17 or 18% is considered about average for line drive %. 21% is considered above average.
When you pair these two stats together, they can be very telling. Take Geovany Soto last year. If you look at his slash line (AVG/OBP/SLG) he did not have a very good season. However, his BABiP shows when he put the ball in play, he had a .251 average. That's astoundingly low. Also, his line drive % was better than average. I'm having trouble finding it, but I believe it was something like 22%. It basically shows that Soto wasn't really as bad as his slash line would indicate, he was pretty damn unlucky last year. This Fangraphs article goes into it a bit. http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.p...w-on-soto/
Fangraphs is actually a very stat heavy site that you may want to look into. Not everyone is a fan of their site, but anyone would have to admit that it's interesting information.