Baseball Statistics Articles | Gambling

By: Richard Bleuze

Statistics are very important to baseball, perhaps more than any other sport.  Since the flow of baseball has natural breaks to it, the game lends itself to easy record keeping and statistics.  This makes comparisons between players on field performance relatively easy, and therefore gives statistics about baseball more importance than in most other sports.

A team's General Manager and baseball scouts study player statistics in order to make decisions on the abilities of players.   Managers, catchers and pitchers study statistics of batters on opposing teams to figure out how best to pitch to them and where to position a player on the field. Managers and batters study opposing pitchers to figure out how best to hit against them.  Managers often base their personnel decisions during the game on statistics, such as choosing who to put in the lineup.

Throughout much of modern baseball, several core statistics have been traditionally used. RBIs, batting average, and home runs are the most commonly referenced  statistics. To this day, a player who leads the league in these three statistics is referred to as the  "Triple Crown" winner. For pitchers, ERA, strikeouts, walks, and wins are the most cited traditional statistics. A pitcher that manages to lead the league in these statistics is also referred to as a "Triple Crown" winner.

Among statistics that measure a batter's overall performance is on base plus slugging (OPS), which is one of the easiest to calculate. It 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 can be useful when determining a pitcher's level of success also.  Opponent on base plus slugging (OOPS) is becoming a popular way to evaluating a pitcher's actual performance. When analyzing a pitcher's statistics, some useful categories to consider include: strikeouts per nine innings, strikeouts per walk, walks plus hits per inning pitched and OOPS (opponent on-base plus slugging).

Also important are all of the above statistics in certain in-game situations. For example, a certain hitter's ability to hit left-handed pitchers might incline a manager to give him more chances to face lefties.

Finally, in taking all of the above in consideration, one might also consider the statistic of  that batting averages are inflated by artificial turf because the ball moves so much faster and therefore ground balls get through the infield more easily - just food for thought!

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