Stats

[Kent814]

I was just wondering which stats lead to the most wins, be it pitching, hitting, or fielding. I know OBP and SLG for hitting and FIP for pitching. But are there any others i should know of?

[TomVeal]

If there were a straightforward answer to that question, we wouldn't have the endless proliferation of ever fancier VORP's and WAR's and wRC+'s and wlZPx's and so on. Part of what makes baseball fascinating is the immense array of interacting factors that determine victory or defeat.

And while typing this message, I've thought of new grist for the SABR mill: To complement Fielding-Independent Pitching, shouldn't there be Pitching-Independent Fielding, which would help in guesstimating how much better infielders would do to improve a mediocre pitching staff?

[ryanivr]

Originally Posted by Kent814

I was just wondering which stats lead to the most wins, be it pitching, hitting, or fielding. I know OBP and SLG for hitting and FIP for pitching. But are there any others i should know of?

FIP is a good place to start for pitching. For hitters, try wOBA instead of OBP and SLG. SLG gives incorrect weights to the four outcomes that go into it (1B=1, 2B=2, 3B=3, HR=4), where wOBA fixes that and also includes on base. wOBA is the way to go.

On defense, some quick places to look...ZR for individual players. You can look at your team-wide pitcher BABIP to give you an idea of how often hits into the field of play (meaning K's, BB's, and HR's are taken out of the equation) are converted into outs. This will vary based on what kind of pitching you have in terms of flyball vs groundball pitchers. Groundball pitchers will have a higher BABIP, flyball pitchers will have a lower BABIP, generally.

Team defensive efficiency also does this as well.