The popularity explosion of Fantasy Baseball and the availability of every conceivable major league baseball statistic has allowed avid Fantasy Baseball leaguers to breakdown baseball statistics and come up with new measures to evaluate baseball talent, and BABIP is one of these Fantasy Baseball statistics derived from baseball scorecards.

Some fantasy baseball managers use BABIP as an indication of a pitcher having a fluky baseball season. Pitchers with an extremely high BABIP can be expected to improve in the following season, and those pitchers whose BABIPs are extremely low can often be expected to regress in the following season.

The most common calculation of BABIP is (H - HR)/(AB - K - HR + SF).

where H is hits, HR is home runs, AB is at-bats, K is strikeouts, and SF is sacrifice flies. This formula does credit hitters for hitting an inside the park home run (IHR). However, the rarity of IHRs do not skew the overall BABIP percentage.

Some baseball statisticians believe that BABIP can be a misleading statistics. Some believe that breaking down BABIP into delineated categories for line drives, ground balls and fly balls, lead to more precise correlations between player tendencies and at-bat outcomes.

There are other factors that some statisticians believe are essential to making BABIP a reliable baseball statistic for fantasy baseball. One of these is the effect of the homefield park dimensions.

There is no doubt that fantasy baseball statistic formula will continue to deviate. These breakdowns will no doubt increase the interest, popularity and controversy of these fantasy baseball statistics.

Learning about scoring baseball is absolutely essential for becoming a competitive Fantasy Baseball Player.

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.

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

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.

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.

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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Make sure to cross out the printed inning number on the column and replace it with extended inning number. Don’t forget to continue this for the rest of the innings.