Stats. Giggity!

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Is there a way to show league average BABIP from year to year

go to Baseball Reference stats, advanced batting, and it has league average BABIP.  Last year ofrhte NL it was .300.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/NL/2014-advanced-batting.shtml

[HalfSmokes]

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hibavg4.shtml
here's the list of averages by year - it looks like it's actually declining

[Mattionals]

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hibavg4.shtml
here's the list of averages by year - it looks like it's actually declining

That is batting average and not BABIP though.

[HalfSmokes]

That is batting average and not BABIP though.

Is there a way to show league average BABIP from year to year?  I would say that with the increase in strikeouts, there would be an increase in BABIP as well.  Basically, a guy from the low strikeout era put more balls in play, yet if batting averages have stayed the same, that would mean that BABIP as a whole should be lower.  In the high strikeout era, less balls are being put in play, but when they are, there is a better chance that the player makes it on base.

batting averages didn't stay the same, so there would be no reason to expect BABIP to necessarily be lower

[blue911]

Is there a way to show league average BABIP from year to year?  I would say that with the increase in strikeouts, there would be an increase in BABIP as well.  Basically, a guy from the low strikeout era put more balls in play, yet if batting averages have stayed the same, that would mean that BABIP as a whole should be lower.  In the high strikeout era, less balls are being put in play, but when they are, there is a better chance that the player makes it on base.

Basically to me, MLB has traded poorly hit balls for strikeouts.

You can look at yearly league stats on B-R's advanced league stats and go back or forward year by year. But in so far as one page having BABAIP listed year to year I'm not aware of any.

[Mattionals]

You can look at yearly league stats on B-R's advanced league stats and go back or forward year by year. But in so far as one page having BABAIP listed year to year I'm not aware of any.

A graph would be really nice.

[Vega]

One thing I've seen that irks me with some advanced stats folks is that they dismiss players who aren't baseball gods like their idol Mike Trout. It's like some of them can't understand that there are varying grades of quality of player and that it is okay if your fourth outfielder isn't worth a zillion wins.

[nobleisthyname]

One thing I've seen that irks me with some advanced stats folks is that they dismiss players who aren't baseball gods like their idol Mike Trout. It's like some of them can't understand that there are varying grades of quality of player and that it is okay if your fourth outfielder isn't worth a zillion wins.

I realize you only said "some" so maybe I just haven't seen it but if anything this is a fault that I usually find in people who favor traditional stats. I've found that people who embrace advanced stats recognize that there are multiple ways a player can contribute to scoring/preventing runs that only using traditional stats might not realize.

[blue911]

I realize you only said "some" so maybe I just haven't seen it but if anything this is a fault that I usually find in people who favor traditional stats. I've found that people who embrace advanced stats recognize that there are multiple ways a player can contribute to scoring/preventing runs that only using traditional stats might not realize.

IDK most people don't understand that WAR measures value. That a better player could have a lower WAR for reasons that they can't control.

Look at the difference between the Twins and t he Indians. Indians pitchers struck out 400 more batters. Which lessens the value the Indians defense by 28% as compared to the Twins. Who writes about that?

[Minty Fresh]

IDK most people don't understand that WAR measures value. That a better player could have a lower WAR for reasons that they can't control.

Look at the difference between the Twins and t he Indians. Indians pitchers struck out 400 more batters. Which lessens the value the Indians defense by 28% as compared to the Twins. Who writes about that?

I want you to be the commissioner of baseball.

[nobleisthyname]

IDK most people don't understand that WAR measures value. That a better player could have a lower WAR for reasons that they can't control.

Look at the difference between the Twins and t he Indians. Indians pitchers struck out 400 more batters. Which lessens the value the Indians defense by 28% as compared to the Twins. Who writes about that?

This is true, but I'm not sure it contradicts my post. There are more advanced stats out there than just WAR and one of the main tenets I hear from saberheads from places like Fangraphs is the emphasis that value is value, regardless of how it's achieved.

[blue911]

This is true, but I'm not sure it contradicts my post. There are more advanced stats out there than just WAR and one of the main tenets I hear from saberheads from places like Fangraphs is the emphasis that value is value, regardless of how it's achieved.

What they don't do is explain that value isn't the same as ability. Litchman does it but he's such an arrogant ass that he's hard to take for long. Cameron did a piss poor job of explaining why Alex Gordon had a higher WAR than Trout but wasn't anywhere near as good.

[blue911]

Traditional stats guys are just as bad if not worse. Hell some don't even understand the difference or misapply it.

[welch]

Just for the long view, take a look at the 1913 AL stats: http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1913-advanced-batting.shtml

(I picked 1913 because that year Clark Griffith managed the team to a respectable record: finished second at 90 - 64, as Walter Johnson hit about .261...and also won 36 games, lost 7 times, and had a WHIP of 0.78.

Maybe players had more fun in 1913? Nick Altrock pitched 9 innings, and would coach the Nats until the mid-50s. Clark Griffith pitched an inning, while catcher Eddie Ainsmith pitched 1/3 of an inning, and so did Germany Scheafer. A few years ago, we noticed that Scheafer appears at the extreme left and extreme right of a sweeping team photo that year...ran behind the photographer to get as the camera slowly swept left-to-right.) 

[Slateman]

Where can I look up the statistical probablity of scoring from a certain base in a certain situation?

IE, how often does a runner on 3rd with no outs score vs a runner on 2nd with two outs?

[Lintyfresh85]

Here's the list tracking from 84 to 94.

http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/users/brooks/public_html/feda/datasets/expectedruns.html

[JCA-CrystalCity]

slate - the stat you want is RE24 - run expectancy in the 24 base runner and out situations.

Second table here:  http://www.tangotiger.net/re24.html

[HalfSmokes]

http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/12331388/the-great-analytics-rankings# probably belongs here

[Mathguy]

Are you referring to me ?

One worthwhile criteria in statistics is the cause and effect criteria.  Just having a stat that looks good may not have any value without the cause and effect tied in.  Stats without the cause and effect are just known as spurious statistics.

Traditional stats guys are just as bad if not worse. Hell some don't even understand the difference or misapply it.

[houston-nat]

Seeing more pitches does not necessarily lead to a better offense.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Seeing more pitches does not necessarily lead to a better offense.

I wonder about the Lastings Milledge / Danny Espinosa effect.  It takes at least 3 pitches to strikeout.  Seeing a lot of pitches might promote offense if you have close to a 1:1 to somewhere less than a 2:1 K:BB as a hitter, but once you get to where a lot of the Nats hitters have been, 3:1 or worse, the number of pitches is not an indication of a good offensive approach.  The pitch count can be an indication of a swing happy, poor contact approach.  Milledge always had a high pitch count, but that was due to his Ks.  Even at his best, 2008, his K:BB was 2.5+ to 1, per BR, to support his 3.95 P/PA.  Other years were 3.8+ P/PA, with 3:5:1 K:BB.

High P/PA should give a mixed signal, which is what the link shows.

[KnorrForYourMoney]

Werth in the 2014 postseason: I'll take 30 pitches per PA and maybe nobody will realize that I just can't hit these pitchers.

[houston-nat]

FanGraphs has recalculated their WAR to include how often hitters ground into double plays. Starting today player WARs have been adjusted up or down to reflect their double-play tendencies.

[blue911]

FanGraphs has recalculated their WAR to include how often hitters ground into double plays. Starting today player WARs have been adjusted up or down to reflect their double-play tendencies.

I thought WAR was context neutral

5) Context neutral. For both pitchers and position players, WAR is entirely context neutral

http://www.fangraphs.com/library/war/limitations-war/

[houston-nat]

I thought WAR was context neutral



http://www.fangraphs.com/library/war/limitations-war/

They're using wGIDP? Which I guess is a new weighted double play thingamajig?