[the 'stache]

Good post, Tim.

Within the last year or so, I've started delving into player statistics again. I can't begin to tell you how many hours I spent on statistical analysis when I was growing up. I'd get my baseball cards, and start drawing out spreadsheets long before there were home computers to do it. I was doing Excel spreadsheets before Office existed. There are a bunch of new ones that I'm having to learn with the advent of sabermetrics. But I still find the old school stats are quite useful, and of those, OPS + is my favorite. It takes into consideration how often a player gets on, either by a hit, walk or getting hit by a pitch. It also mixes in their power. And then it adjusts for the ballparks that particular players has been playing in. I like OPS + because to have a high score, you have to excel as both a power hitter and as somebody who gets on base. And I would want my lineup filled with as many high OPS + guys as possible. Those are the complete offensive forces. I want hitters that can drive in runs with their power, or get on base if a pitcher isn't giving them anything to hit. It's not as broad based as something like WAR, but whenever I want to compare players within an era, or across eras, it's usually my starting point.

I still love batting average. It's fallen out of favor with a lot of statisticians, but I think that's a mistake. If a hitter's job is to get on base, yes, OBP is the ultimate measure of how effective a player is doing their given job. But I want to see the batting average component. To me, it's a pure metric. Before one starts tossing in things like BABIP, AVG calculates how well a player sees the field, sees and adjusts to the ball, and is able to deliver the ball where there's no fielder. And I want hitters with high averages because that tells me that they are effective with the bat. A player can draw walks for a variety of reasons. Power hitters might get more walks, if they are patient, because a pitcher doesn't want to get burned. So, that pitcher might throw around the outside of the strike zone. They may also get pitched around with runners on base. But in those instances where a pitcher goes after the hitter, I want somebody like a Clemente, or a Gwynn, or a Gehrig-guys that hit for pure average. Ted Williams drew a lot of walks. I mean walks made up for 138 points of his OBP. But the man could flat out hit, as shown by his career .344 average.

Originally Posted by timn1

with you about the relative imptce of OBP-- players between 1960 and 1995 were disadvantaged in that regard. And I wouldn't advocate kicking any of those guys out of the HOF.

However, my initial point was to undermine another poster's obsession with Dunn's low batting average. BA has to be the most overvalued stat in BB history.

In the final analysis, no single stat (OBP, BA, SLG, HR total) is enough to evaluate a player's overall career. I happen to think SLG and OBP are the most crucial ones, but even then Dunn doesn't make my HOF despite his undeniable skills in those areas. There is something to be said for all-around skill a la Molitor, Yount, Bench, Winfield, etc etc.