STATISTICS FOR HITTERS & PITCHERS

As you all know by now, we are living in an era of overloaded statistics (sabermetrics) in baseball!  Some of the stats are certainly interesting, but way too many of them are ridiculous.  I really hate it when we are trying to watch a game on TV and the announcer(s) begin throwing out one stat after another.  Many times, we have to have grids on our screen on top of the live image of the game.  Over 20 years ago, most of us sought out much simpler stats.  For a hitter, we initially looked immediately at their batting average, homeruns, and RBIs and, secondarily began looking at SLG (Slugging Percentage) and O.P.S. (On-Base plus Slugging Percentage).  For a pitcher, we usually looked at their Wins/Losses, E.R.A. (Earned Run Average), strikeouts, and walks.  Baseball cards still offer such stats with some extra categories, but thankfully haven’t gotten ridiculous {yet}.  Besides, a card would never be able to fit all of the stats currently bandied unless it was done on with the tiniest font!

In some of my past articles, I have mentioned a pitcher’s W.H.I.P (Walks & Hits per Inning Pitched) and in my previous article earlier this week, I introduced W.P.A. (Win Probability Added) for the first time in my writings.  Now, it’s time to emphasize why I think both identify a lot to any baseball fan:

Let’s begin with the pitcher’s W.H.I.P.  As most of you know, pitchers of this generation fall into 3 main categories:  starter, middle reliever, and closer.  A stat such as E.R.A. is not a one-size-fits-all piece of information.  Many relievers (especially closers) come into a game and have to deal with runners already on base.  If the middle relievers or closers do in fact give up some such runs, the inherited runners are not charged against their own personal E.R.A.s.  Hence, an average  middle reliever or closer has a major advantage of sustaining a low E.R.A. which can be deceiving.  A starting pitcher’s wins and losses can sometimes be very misleading.  Ask Jacob deGrom who hasn't gotten a win as often as he should have (only 77 wins with 53 losses) due to a weak bullpen during most of his pitching years as a Met; yet he still achieved a W.H.I.P stat of 1.01.  That scenario helps demonstrate that W.H.I.P. offers a more accurate evaluation of a pitcher.  Whether they’re a starter, middle reliever, or closer, they each individually control the amount of their own personal walks and hits, so no real outside factors distort their W.H.I.P stats.  It's ironic to me, by the way, that W.H.I.P. is becoming more commonly today because I actually used to analyze pitchers by looking at their Walks and Hits per innings pitched (along with their E.R.A.) well over 25 years ago!

As far as hitting stats are concerned, I’m not going to tell you that homeruns, R.B.I.s, batting averages, SLG, and O.P.S. don’t matter because they do!  My reasoning for also loving W.P.A. (Win Probability Added) is that it "collectively" offers a quick glimpse of “one” stat instead of multiple stats; plus, it has more centralized focus of what the hitter truly fails at or succeeds at when the games matter the most, again without outside distortions.  If a hitter has played in the Majors for at least 4 seasons, it's a very useful and defining barometer tool to use.  One of the negatives of it beyond that need is that it's not commonly used by baseball journalists nor is it quickly accessible when reviewing players' stats.  It's, instead, usually buried near the advanced batting stats.

Judging a player's value when the game really matters is a great evaluation of any offensive player.  For instance, last week Joey Gallo hit a two-run homerun when the Yankees led the game in the ninth inning by 7 runs.  That's a demonstration of how misleading it can be if someone was just examining homeruns.  Plenty of players also drive in runs when the game is a slaughter, but often fail when you need a 2-out hit or sacrifice fly.  Yankees’ fans know all about clutch hitters, especially in the playoffs/World Series with Reggie Jackson (Mr. October) and Derek Jeter (Mr. November). 

Neither the W.H.I.P. nor the W.P.A. are perfect stats, but they are usually great single-point indicators of a player. To best use these 2 stats, in my opinion a W.H.I. P. below 1.2 is typically a very good pitcher while one who pitches below the 1.02 calculation is phenomenal!  For the W.P.A. stat, my opinion is that any hitter who achieves a 2.00 often in a season or any hitter with a total number above 5.00 is a very good hitter.  If a player’s stat exceeds a total of 20.00, then he's excellent (and I want him on my team immediately as long as he's under 35 years old)!  Current Yankees who exceed the 20.00 are Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton.

To demonstrate my points of these two stats further, here are the Top 25 Leaders of each:

W.P.A. Leaders (as of 7/22/22)

01) Albert Pujols (69.95)

02) Miguel Cabrera (59.04)

03) Joey Votto (51.63)

04) Mike Trout (47.41)

05) Paul Goldschmidt (41.92)

06) Freddie Freeman (36.54)

07) Bryce Harper (33.89)

08) Anthony Rizzo (31.67)

09) Andrew McCutchen (31.18)

10) Giancarlo Stanton (28.14)

11) Nelson Cruz (25.13)

12) Josh Donaldson (24.83)

13) Christian Yelich (24.01)

14) Mookie Betts (23.21)

15) Nolan Arenado (22.63)

16) Matt Carpenter (21.09)

17) Robinson Canó (19.81)

18) Starling Marte (18.58)

19) Justin Turner (18.07)

20) Justin Upton (17.85)

21) José Abreu (16.64)

22) Michael Brantley (16.62)

23) Kris Bryant (16.22)

24) Carlos Santana (15.73)

25) Charlie Blackmon (15.54)

26) Aaron Judge (14.75)

27) Jose Ramirez (14.26)

28) Eric Hosmer (14.22)

29) Juan Soto (14.15)

30) J.D. Martinez (14.09)

(By the way, Babe Ruth’s W.P.A. was 111.41!!!)

W.H.I.P. Leaders (as of 7/22/22)

01) Shane McClanahan (0.80)

02) Tony Gonsolin (0.84)

03) Justin Verlander (0.88)

04) Corbin Burnes (0.90)

05) Sandy Alcantara (0.90)

06) Aaron Nola (0.91)

07) Miles Mikolas (0.96)

08) Alek Manoah (0.96)

09) Joe Musgrove (0.97)

10) Triston McKenzie (0.98)

11) Gerrit Cole (0.98)

12) Yu Darvish (0.99)

13) Nestor Cortes (1.00)

14) Tyler Anderson (1.02)

15) Julio Urias (1.02)

16) Jordan Montgomery (1.05)

17) Luis Garcia (1.06)

18) Max Fried (1.06)

19) Zac Gallen (1.08)

20) Frankie Montas (1.08)

21) Zack Wheeler (1.08)

22) Pablo Lopez (1.09)

23) Robbie Ray (1.09)

24) Cole Irvin (1.10)

25) Logan Webb (1.10)

 

(By the way, Mariano Rivera had exactly a 1.00 W.H.I.P.)