7. Baseball Statistics

Top Offensive Baseball Statistics

Monday, February 1st, 2010

Fantasy Baseball is making baseball statistics more popular than ever. There are various offensive baseball statistics that baseball experts, baseball handicappers, fantasy baseball fans and major league organizations use to evaluate major leaguers, minor leaguers and draft choices hitting ability.

If you ever wanted to learn how to score baseball, it is essential to understand all of the offensive baseball statistics. But in order to evaluate the hitting ability of a player, these offensive baseball statistics are essential:

Batting Average (BA or AVG)
Batting Average is calculated by dividing hits by at bats (H/AB). When tallying At-Bats, do not include bases on balls (BB), hit by pitch (HP), sacrifice fly (SF), sacrifice bunt (SAC), interference (I), or obstruction (O). When scoring baseball, it is important that at-bats are calculating with these exceptions in mind

Home Runs (HR)
Hits on which the batter successfully touched all four bases, without the contribution of a fielding error. Almost all Home runs in major league baseball are hit over the outfield fence. Home runs not hit over the fence are scored as an “in the park home run” . When scoring baseball on a baseball scorecard, the in the park homer is denoted as “IHR”.

Runs Batted In (RBI)
Runs batted In is the number of runners who scored due to a batters’ action, except when batter grounded into double play or reached on an error. If a hitter gets multiple RBIs, the number of RBIs (greater than 2) this baseball statistic is entered into on the baseball scorecard (e.g. 2 RBI),

Slugging Percentage (SLG)
Slugging Percentage is a simple baseball statistic to calculate. It is total bases divided by at-bats.
((1B) + (2 x 2B) + (3 x 3B) + (4 x HR))/AB. Slugging percentage is derived from tallying the hits from the baseball scorecard

There will never be a consensus to what qualifies as “good” offensive baseball statistics. Below is a good benchmark of offensive statistics in major league baseball. These baseball statisitcs were gathered by analyzing the 2004 - 2008 major league baseball seasons.

Statistic Top5 Best
BA .321 .372
HR 37 58
RBI 124 156
SLG .571 .812

In conclusion, the incredible popularity of Fantasy Baseball has made Major League Baseball and baseball statistics more popular that ever. Learning how to score baseball is the first step to fun competitive hobby.

source: wikipedia.com

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Calculating On-Base Percentage From A Baseball Scorecard

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

It’s important to understand the various baseball statistics when learning how to score baseball. One of these baseball statistics is on-base percentage. (OBP) is a measure of a player’s offensive efficiency. On-base percentage is calculated by tallying a player’s at-bat from a baseball scorecard or baseball scorebook.

OBP calculates the number of times a batter reached bat safely. The following at-bat results from the baseball scorecard do not qualify as an “on-base” event: fielding error, fielder’s choice, dropped/uncaught third strike, fielder’s obstruction or catcher’s interference.

The formula for On-base percentage is calculated by recording every at-bat in the baseball scorebook and applying the following: (Hits + Walks + Hit-By-Pitch) / (At Bats + Walks + Hit By Pitch + Sacrifice Flys).

Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox is the all time leader of On Base Percentage with a .4817 OBP (1939-1942, 1946-1960). Barry Bonds has the single-season leader of OBP with a .609 in 2004.

Recording detailed and accurate data from a baseball scorecard are essential to accurate on-base percentage reporting. Keep in mind the various baseball statistics when learning how to score baseball.

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Calculating Slugging Percentage From A Baseball Scorecard

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Baseball statistics are important when learning how to score baseball. One of the important baseball statistics is Slugging percentage. Slugging percentage is a way to measure a hitter’s power when scoring baseball. The slugging percentage (SLG) is calculated by tallying all the hits from the baseball scorecard and dividing it by the number of at-bats that a batter has had for the entire baseball season.

Slugging percentage is calculated by determining total bases and dividing that by the number of at-bats. Singles (1B) count as one total, doubles (2B) count as 2 total bases, triples (3B) count as 3 total bases and homeruns (HR) count as 4 total bases. Walks are excluded from this calculation. First calculate the total number of bases then dividing that number by the total number of at-bats (AB).

((1B) + (2 x 2B) + (3 x 3B) + (4 x HR))/AB

Calculating slugging percentage on a baseball scorecard is a great way to measure a player’s overall offensive production. When scoring baseball, combining slugging percentage and on-base percentage show the whole picture of the offensive prowess of a hitter.

Recording detailed and accurate data from a baseball scorecard is essential to accurate slugging percentage reporting. Keep in mind the various baseball statistics when learning how to score baseball.

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Walks Plus Hits To Innings Pitched (WHIP)

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

The increased popularity of fantasy baseball has made the pitching statistic, walks plus hits to inning pitched (WHIP), one of the most commonly used baseball statistic in baseball usage. WHIP is a sabermetric measurement of the number of baserunners a pitcher has allowed per inning pitched. It is a measure of a pitcher’s ability to prevent batters from reaching base.

Over the last century, earned run average (ERA) has been the pitching statistic used to measure the runs a pitcher gives up. However, WHIP is becoming more important because it measures a pitcher’s effectiveness against the batters faced more directly. It is calculated by adding the number of walks and hits allowed and dividing this sum by the number of innings pitched; therefore, the lower a pitcher’s WHIP, the better their performance. One key distinction between WHIP and ERA is that the former will continue to rise as long as batters reach base. If an error is committed with two outs in an inning, any runs scored beyond that point in the same inning will be considered unearned and will not cause that pitcher’s ERA to rise. A WHIP of 1.0 or smaller over the course of a season will often rank among the league leaders in Major League Baseball.

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