hits + at bats + BA + OBP = confusion

[baseball_newbie]

Ok basically im a long term fan of football manager and like to try out their new games so thought id try OOTP.

I'm a commplete newbie to baseball, i do understand the basics of how the game works, but all the abbriviations and baseball jargon has completley lost me.

I'm sure there will be moreb ut for now just these 4 which seem to link together, at bats, hits, batting average and on base percentage.

The more i research online the more confused i get there seems to be differeing explanations out there which arent helping at all.

Can someone please please help newbie understand?

[GCCWolverine]

Batting average = hits / at bats - the percentage of times that a batter gets a hit.

On Base Percentage = (hits + walks + HBP) / (at bats + walks + HBP) - the percentage of time a batter successfully gets on base. Since walks and HBP's don't count as official at bats, they are added both to the number of at bats to get the total plate apperances, and also to the number of hits to get the number of times the batter successfully gets on base.

Still a bit confusing, I know, but hopefully this helps.

[Raidergoo]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...all_statistics

Here's a start. . .

Second tip, On base % is very important, as it measures more than just batting average.

[baseball_newbie]

ok because i read somewhere that the BA is an older statistic and OBP is a newer more truer stat to how good a batter is. This is a little more clear now tell me if im right or wrong,

but its truer because it also includes fielders choice to get rid of a particular batter using walks and such?

a hit is every time a batter hits safely and makes it to first base, dicounting fielding errors.

And at bats is similar but includes when they get out so shows every time they are at the plate, still discounting walks and such.

am i getting any closer? lol

[KBLover]

Originally Posted by baseball_newbie

but its truer because it also includes fielders choice to get rid of a particular batter using walks and such?

OBP is considered more true because a hitter's main job is to get on base. If he happens to bring in other runners in the process, awesome, but for the majority of the time, getting on base means a success for the hitter. Since OBP measures that rate, it's become quite popular, and it also includes any hits the hitter gets, so it accounts for both of the main ways hitters reach base.

Of course, in some areas in the lineup, you want to concern yourself a lot of a hitter's power. Slugging Percentage (SLG) attempts to measure that by taking the rate of bases earned per AB. The best possible a 4.000 (A HR every time at the plate!), though realistically, anything over .500 is pretty darn good.

Another stat you'll hear a lot of if you explore baseball stats more is OPS (On-Base-Percentage Plus Slugging Percentage). This takes both rates of OBP and SLG just straight adds them up. It has no "in game" relation in the sense of it being a "rate of..." or "percentage of..." type stat (unlike AVG, OBP, SLG) but is used to try to compare how hitters have done, overall, in their two prime concerns: getting on base and hitting the ball hard.

Originally Posted by baseball_newbie

a hit is every time a batter hits safely and makes it to first base, dicounting fielding errors.

A batter also don't get a hit if he reached first base but another runner is put out by force play (Fielder's Choice, i.e. they chose to get another runner out instead of the batter going to first base) or if the defense turns a double play and he happens to reach first while they are doing it.

Originally Posted by baseball_newbie

And at bats is similar but includes when they get out so shows every time they are at the plate, still discounting walks and such.

Yep. At bats (AB) are all plate appearances (PA) except hit-by-pitches (HBP), Walks (BB), sacrifice flies (SF), reaching on errors, or sacrifice bunts (SH).

[baseball_newbie]

ok thats certainly made things much more clearer to me...thanks for the help everyone

[1998 Yankees]

The web site that Raidergoo mentioned is good; another good source for a beginner is at Baseball Almanac:

http://baseball-almanac.com/bstatmen.shtml.

Even these sites may not have all the statistics and abbreviations included in this game, however! For that, you might want to download the game guide - there's a 14 page appendix at the end of it for this purpose. Good luck with VORP!

[baseball_newbie]

i do have the guide im slowly working my way through it didnt get that far lol...another thing on the team information screen it has 2 stats "record vs left handed SP" and "record vs right handed S" i cant find these anywhere, i figured it could be starting pitcher and slugger.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by baseball_newbie

i do have the guide im slowly working my way through it didnt get that far lol...another thing on the team information screen it has 2 stats "record vs left handed SP" and "record vs right handed S" i cant find these anywhere, i figured it could be starting pitcher and slugger.

Are you sure you are reading that right? I see on the team's Home Page, Team Information, two items called Record versus LHP and Record versus RHP. This is just your team's won and loss record broken down by the left- or right-handedness of the opposing pitchers who were "pitchers of record," that is, they were assigned the win or loss against your team by the official scorer. For more on that, see Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitchers_of_record

Raidergoo was right about Wikipedia; IMO it grows and gets better everyday. No charge to use and based on the collective wisdom and good will of mankind. Refreshing.

[baseball_newbie]

sorry that page is coming from a screenshoto n the guide, im trying to learn before i go in there but maybe it would be best to do both

And yes i use wikipedia a lot i agree its brilliant, but it was certain pages on there that confused me

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_jargon

the explanations of BA and OBP are quite confusing on that particular page

[baseball_newbie]

Am I right that depth charts, are where you set your defensive postions and substitutes against a team with a right handed or left handed pitcher with or without designated hitter?

[KBLover]

Originally Posted by baseball_newbie

Am I right that depth charts, are where you set your defensive postions and substitutes against a team with a right handed or left handed pitcher with or without designated hitter?

You can't set defensive subs directly. What you're doing in the depth charts is choosing who will start the game at that position. If you want another player to start the game at that position, but only do so sometimes (like if main starter is tired, or hurt, or just to get a look at the other guy) then the depth chart can do that as well. That's where the "every X games" comes into play. That's useful to make sure the player will start at least that often. For example, if you have two players of very similiar ability at the same position. You might want to start each a significant amount of time, which should help keep both fresh.

If you never want the player to start at that position, you can set that too. The player would come in only as a defensive sub (if the AI chooses him) or otherwise be availible off the bench as a pinch hitter, in case of injury, etc.

You can set the depth charts for each lineup, they can all be different, and you can have each line up favor hitters that like to face a certain hand of pitcher. For example, if you see a guy that's 40 vs RHP and 70 vs LHP, this is a guy you'd want to put into your vs LHP lineups, but maybe just spot-start in your vs RHP lineups.

[baseball_newbie]

ok i understand that much now. I guess im just not understanding the point of them.

For baseball do you just choose your defensive players and thats all that plays or do you pick people who are purely there to bat as well. If so, surely they are the ones you would want to set against different sided pitchers, or maybe im just getting it completley wrong

[treedom]

Originally Posted by baseball_newbie

ok i understand that much now. I guess im just not understanding the point of them.

For baseball do you just choose your defensive players and thats all that plays or do you pick people who are purely there to bat as well. If so, surely they are the ones you would want to set against different sided pitchers, or maybe im just getting it completley wrong

The defensive players are the same players who bat. If you want someone else to bat for a player, that player has to come out of the game for good, and the new player (pinch-hitter as he is called) has to take the field (well, unless you go and take him out of the game too after he takes his swings). The only exception to this is when the DH (Designated Hitter) rule is in play. The DH bats for the pitcher. You can set that in your league preferences...in real life one of the major leagues uses it and one doesn't.

[baseball_newbie]

ok got it...thanks so much again for helping me out everyone. I'm starting to get somewhere towards understanding the basics of this baseball lark

[baseball_newbie]

Ok my question this time.

I'm confronted with all these different stats for different things what id like to know is, what are the most important stats, for pitching, batting, and fielding, and what sort of figures are good for these stats?

[treedom]

For batting, post #5 gives a good rundown of the main things you should be looking at. Pitching is a little more tricky, because a lot of the stats are influenced by the defense behind the pitcher, or, in the case of Wins, even the offense. HRA, BBs and Ks are three that you can safely evaluate a pitcher on though, as the defense has no effect on those. Fielding is really tough as it's harder to represent skill statistically. I usually just look at ratings for that.

As for what figures are good for those stats, that's a very relative thing, based on your league settings. Look at your league leaders and league averages and compare to those.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by baseball_newbie

Ok my question this time.

I'm confronted with all these different stats for different things what id like to know is, what are the most important stats, for pitching, batting, and fielding, and what sort of figures are good for these stats?

Here's what I look at most in-game, and my perspective is Major League Baseball (MLB) and modern era (post 1900):

BATTING

AB (at bats) - a benchmark that indicates the relative significance of other batting statistics. 10 home runs in 50 AB's is impressive; 10 home runs in 500 AB's is mediocre.

H (hits) - 200 hits or more in a 162 game season is excellent.

HR (home runs) - 20 for a season is noteworthy, 30+ is considered power hitting, 40+ is premier.

RBI (runs batted in) - the golden number here is 100 for the season.

BB and K (walks and strikeouts) - an indication of the batter's "eye" and patience. MLB records for a season: 232 walks (of which 120 were intentional) and 195 strikeouts.

AVG (batting average) - this is the key stat for batters; .225 or less = bad; .225 to .250 = acceptable if good defensively or produces decent HR/RBI; .250 to .275 = respectable; .275 to .300 = good; .300 to .325 = very good; over .325 = spectacular.

OBP (on base pct: (Hits + Walks + Hit By Pitch) divided by (At Bats + Walks + Hit By Pitch + Sac Flys)) and SLG (slugging avg: Number of (Singles + [2 x Doubles] +[3 x Triples] + [4 x Home Runs]) divided by At Bats) - important for indicating how often the player gets on base other than by hits, primarily walks (OBP), and how powerful a batter he is (SLG). Both of these can be compared to a player's AVG; for example, a batter whose OBP is close to his AVG hardly ever walks. The best OBP's are usually in the high .400's; the fellow above with the record for walks in a season also had the highest OBP ever the same year: .609. Similarly, a batter whose slugging average is close to his batting average is a singles hitter. Outstanding SLG's are above .600, maybe over .700. The fellow that I mentioned with the BB and OBP records also holds this one (different year), but I am tired of talking about him.

SB and CS (stolen bases, caught stealing) - shows how good a base stealer the player is. CS lends some relativity; if the two numbers are equal or CS is much higher than SB, well, maybe that player is not so good at stealing bases because he gets caught much of the time, maybe he tries too often or is bad reading the pitcher. MLB season SB record: 130.

PITCHING

IP (innings pitched) - a benchmark of relativity (see AB above).

W (wins) - 15 wins in a season is noteworthy, 20+ is premier.

L (losses) - the same numbers in reverse (and undesirable of course).

SV (saves) - usually important only for closers; 30-40 is noteworthy, 40+ is premier.

BS (blown saves) - the amount of times closers failed to earn a save in a save opportunity; few or none if possible.

K (strikeouts) - a dominating starter will have 200 or more in a season, a great pitcher more than 300. MLB season record: 383.

ERA (earned run average: (Number of Earned Runs x 9) divided by (Number of Innings Pitched)) - this is the key stat for pitchers; over 6.00 = bad; 5.00 to 6.00 = respectable; 4.00 to 5.00 = good; 3.00 to 4.00 = very good; under 3.00 = spectacular.

AVG (opposing batters average) - obviously, the reverse of batter's batting average is true in terms of desirable pitcher's opposing batting average.

WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) - goes beyond AVG to show how good the pitcher's control is in addition to how many hits he gives up; you generally want your pitchers to have WHIP's lower than 1.50.

HR/9, BB/9, K/9 (home runs, walks, strikeouts per 9 innings pitched) - all additional clues as to the type of pitcher you are looking at; does he give up a lot of home runs and walks, is he a strikeout pitcher?

FIELDING

TC (total chances) - a benchmark of relativity (see AB above).

PO, A and E (put outs, assists and errors) - more of PO and A and less of E; indications of fielding ability.

PCT - (fielding percentage) - this is the key stat for fielders; 1.000 is perfect (consider the TC, however); excellence varies by position; outfielders are expected to be in the high .900's while infielders may be considered very good in the lower .900's.

RTO and PB (runners thrown out and passed balls) - stats for catchers only; more of the former and less of the latter.

These are what I use. Other folks will have different opinions on what stats they like and what numbers constitute good and bad performances. YMMV.

[baseball_newbie]

Thank you both, just what i was looking for, has helped me give something to aim for and at least know what decent is.

Who was that player? and who are some good players ican do some research on? The only players i really know are babe ruth, and those ive seen in the 1 or 2 games ive watched recently. WHo are the legends of the game?

[treedom]

This may help...it's a link to the career and season leaders in all the major stats. Plus, if you click on a player, it brings up his career stats.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/