What is Sabermetrics? Some Stuff You Should Know
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While we're not the foremost experts on the topic, it's important that we share with you something that you may or may not be familiar and how we analyze and view baseball.
Neither of us ever knew what exactly Sabermetrics was until we read books like Baseball Between the Numbers. Before that, the lingo and the content on websites like Lookout Landing and USS Mariner seemed like a foreign language. But after reading and learning about the concepts that make up Sabermetrics, our whole view of the game of baseball changed for the better, and we think that yours might as well.
It's important to at least be acquainted with these terms and concepts as we might reference or use them as reasoning in the future (and the past). So, according to our trusty Wikipedia guide, Sabermetrics is defined as:
the search for objective knowledge about baseball." Thus, sabermetrics attempts to answer objective questions about baseball, such as "which player on the Red Sox contributed the most to the team's offense?" or "How many home runs will Ken Griffey, Jr. hit next year?" It cannot deal with the subjective judgments which are also important to the game, such as "Who is your favorite player?
Here are basic concepts you should know, if you want reasoning, click on the corresponding link. I'm going to paraphrase from what I can discern:
Evaluating Pitchers:
W-L record, ERA, and WHIP are flawed statistics because they take into account things that are not within the pitcher's control, such as defense, and in the case of W-L, offense. A pitcher can't help it if his defense is terrible or amazing.
Better statistics to use: FIP (available at fangraphs.com) or tRA (available at statcorner.com)
These stats take out things that are outside the pitcher's control and properly weigh stats like line drive percentage, strikeout percentage, ground ball percentage, home run percentage, and other batted ball or "raw" statistics in order to provide a clear picture of how that pitcher has done regardless of the defense behind him.
Evaluating Pitchers:
W-L record, ERA, and WHIP are flawed statistics because they take into account things that are not within the pitcher's control, such as defense, and in the case of W-L, offense. A pitcher can't help it if his defense is terrible or amazing.
Better statistics to use: FIP (available at fangraphs.com) or tRA (available at statcorner.com)
These stats take out things that are outside the pitcher's control and properly weigh stats like line drive percentage, strikeout percentage, ground ball percentage, home run percentage, and other batted ball or "raw" statistics in order to provide a clear picture of how that pitcher has done regardless of the defense behind him.
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