Individual’s productivity in any working environment is measured by tracking that person’s performance. People work differently depending on the environment they are based in. Individuals who work on a commission based salary tend to work harder and efficiently than an individual who is working for no salary or someone who works for the government. The best industry that monitors one’s productivity is baseball. It uses a wide range of statistical tools to analyze one’s performance in the game. Statistics plays a very important role in baseball than any sport because it has structured flow; and therefore, it often leads itself to relaxed record keeping and statistics (Kornspan 17). This paper shall discuss the real reasons why statistics play a crucial in statistics than any other game.
Since the invention of baseball, the goal of a team has been to score many runs, to achieve, a measure for that was developed. Statistics in baseball is used to determine the pay of each player that participated in the game because the game rather focuses on individual effort rather than team effort. Statistics determine the individual’s salary and, hence, it is very vital information for the game. Statistics is also applied in summarizing the game performance and also evaluating players (Costa et al. 16). A team is often declared a winner based on the statistics that is presented from the game. The game has normal breaks and players perform independently and other than sets that are seen in other games. The sport, thus, depends on easy record keeping and statistics. The statistics in professional football has been kept from the time the National League and the American League was created. These baseball bodies are part of the Major League Baseball.
Statistics that are accessible separate from the Major League Baseball are from the Negro Leagues and the National Organization of Professional Base Ball Players league. Though there is a major setback from those leagues because it has not been determined if there is consistency in record keeping, the standards that are used to calculate the results and accuracy cannot be determined because it varied from league to league. Hendry Chadwick coined the concept of keeping records of player's achievement in a game in the 19th century (Costa et al. 24).Hendry came up with predecessors to the modern day statistics based on his experience from the cricket sport. He devised methods of calculating run scores, batting averages and the runs allowed per game. Traditionally, the batting average and the run average earned dominate the attention in the statistical baseball world. However, there are other ways of developing baseball statistics using sabermetrics, that is, it creates statistics from the measures of a player’s superior breadth performance, and the fields play variables.
In the past, it was hard for a regular fan to get baseball statistics until HyTurkin, who was a researcher in the field of baseball, published the book, The Complete Encyclopedia of Baseball in 1951. For the first time, a computer was used to compile Baseball Statistics by Macmillan and printed a book called Baseball Encyclopedia. (How Statistics Illuminate Individual and Team Performances 44) It was well-known as the Big Mac, and it became a customary baseball reference Encyclopedia up to 1988 when Warner Books produced another book called Total Baseball developed using a more sophisticated technology. Upon its publication, several phantom players for instance Lou Proctor was removed because he did not belong to the official record books.
Core statistics such as Batting average, home runs, and RBI are some of the few traditionally referenced throughout modern baseball. Up to date, it is the rule that the player who manages to lead the league with all the three statistics earns a “Triple Crown” (Kornspan 31). The other most common cited statistics are the wins, strikeouts, and ERA for pitchers. The pitcher that tops the game with the three measures of statistics is also declared a winner and is given a “Triple Crown.” These major statistics and other game factors including opinions have been used widely by general managers and base scouts to have an understanding of the value of the player in the game (Costa et al. 30). A pitching strategy and defensive positioning the field managers, pitchers and catchers have utilized these statistics for batters of the opposing teams. The batters and managers study the contrasting pitcher motions and performances in the efforts to increase hitting.
The introduction of saber metric as a statistic in the game of baseball has improved the measure of the overall performance in the game. It is useful when analyzing performances that include on base plus slugging (OPS), (Chandler and Stevens 51). Though it is argued that formula for OPS is defective, others say that on-base percentage (OBP) should be given more weight, though the weighted on-base average (WOBA) has been applied in an attempt to correct this mistake (Deconstructing Major League Baseball 56). OPS have been known to be useful especially in determining the levels of success of a pitcher. An upcoming popular tool known as "Opponent On-base Plus Slugging" (OOPS) is continuously being used to determine the actual performance of the pitcher during the game. Other useful statistics for analyzing the pitcher’s statistic to be considered include the walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP) strikeouts per walk (K/BB), and Home runs per nine innings (HR/9) (Deconstructing Major League Baseball 56).
Figure 3: Sampled result; the number of strike outs per 9 innings the same years that runs scored, batting averages, and home runs increased, pitchers faced a dreadful time pushing hitters to strike out from: ("Aluminum and Composite Bats: Performance Standards in College Baseball")
More prominence has been put to make certain that Defense-Independent Pitching Statistics are used, as well as the Defense-Independent ERA (dERA) in the attempt to make certain that performance of the pitcher is evaluated irrespective of the defensive player’s strength behind him(SABR, Baseball Statistics And Computing par 3). These statistics, in general, are used in certain situations of the game especially among the game managers to enable him to determine which players to face certain pitchers who are excellent in the game (Kornspan 35). A good example is, maybe the ability of the hitter to knockout the pitchers who are left-handed could enable the manager to design, by for instance increasing the opportunity which he can use to face the left-handed pitchers.
In essence, Baseball statistics have been used by managers to create an advantageous match-up, by for instance studying statistics to determine the success history of a certain player in the match. He, in turn, uses this player to face a certain pitcher who is a potential threat to the game (Kornspan 40). This match-up is often referred to as “playing the percentages” by the broadcasters of the game.
If statistics in baseball is effectively utilized, it can be used to add nuance to the understanding of what happens in the field as the game progresses. For instance, if a statistician just writes that a certain player had ERA+ of 200 or a figure greater than that, for some seasons, the statistic presented lacks information regarding how that player performs in the game (Chandler and Stevens, 63). The person reading the statistic might want to know more about the ERA+ and the frequency other pitchers had similar seasons. If thirty-four matches have been played in a row, and the pitchers had twenty or more stats with an ERA+ of 200 or more, it means the player in our case had fifteen percent of these seasons (Chandler and Stevens 64). The fact that he won in 219 games only, his career could get more attention than his achievement that is the measure of his effectiveness and dominance in the game.
A saber metric baseball statistic known as Wins above Replacement (WAR) has been developed to analyze the contributions of a player to the team in one statistic (SABR, Baseball Statistics par 3). The tool is all-inclusive in evaluating the players, and it gives a good reference point for comparing players in the field. The tool is also used to calculate the chance of a team winning perhaps one of the players is injured during the game and a replacement is made. It compares the win capabilities of these two players and comes up with the value of a certain player in the game (Costaet.al 37). The tool is not precisely an indicator of the player’s contribution in the game but rather a good approximate of his value. Some statistical analytical tools have been used, but it has shown to have imperfections, hence, leaving WARS an essential approximation tool for the game. WAR’s is a metric tool that determines the player value with a different skill set, hence, allowing comparisons across teams, leagues, year and era.
Figure4: WAR by position for national league teams, 2015 Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-baseball-advanced-stats-cubs-htmlstory.html
Another metric tool that is new in the baseball sport is Stat cast. It is a unique software that analyzes the individual player performance in the field. It analyzes every move the player makes as he plays, therefore, eliminating errors that are made when it is done manually (Tribune par 1). The tool is useful and the statistics that it generates measures not only the value of the player in the game but also the unique athletes that player possess (Chandler and Stevens 78). Thus, it gives the manager the opportunity to analyze the special skills each player uniquely possesses that cannot be analyzed manually.
In conclusion, different methods of collecting baseball statistics are being invented every day as the technology advances. There will be a time, where the traditional methods of collecting baseball statistics will only be used as a reference to the new innovated methods. Over dependence of the traditional statistical evaluations are biased and since human beings record what is happening chances of making an error is great. There is also a tendency that the person recording the statistic favors another team rather than the other. We cannot pardon all these acts because it has cost many players their career. On the other hand, these statistics that focuses primarily on value may not be very effective in evaluating a player, because different people have different skills and capabilities. Therefore, it is important the devices that will be used to enter data to focus more than just value but the unique skill each player possess.
Works Cited
Chandler, Gabriel and Guy Stevens. "An Exploratory Study Of Minor League Baseball Statistics". Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports 8.4 (2012): n. pag. Web. 60-97
Costa, Gabriel B, Michael R Huber, and John T Saccoman.Understanding Sabermetrics. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2008. Print.11-30
"Deconstructing Major League Baseball, 1991-2004: How Statistics Illuminate Individual And Team Performances". Choice Reviews Online 44.07 (2007): 44-3599-44-3599. Web. 40-44
Kornspan, Alan S. "A Historical Analysis Of The Chicago Cubs’ Use Of Statistics To Analyze Baseball Performance". NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture 23.1 (2014): 17-40. Web. 14-33
"SABR, Baseball Statistics, And Computing: The Last Forty Years | Society For American Baseball Research". Sabr.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
Tribune, Chicago. "Moneyball, Anyone? How Cubs Rank In Advanced Sabermetric Stats". chicagotribune.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.
