I was working a tradeshow booth today and thinking about the whole baseball stats arguments that explode around here from time to time. (yes, was very bored in the booth).
I realized that after being around here since May, this is how I tend to look at a players offensive stat line when it is flashed on the jumbotron at the stadium. These are in order.
(1) BA: Gasp....but I still want to know the average percentage likelyhood of a player putting wood on the ball, putting it in play and getting at least to 1B safely.
(2) SLG: if he makes it to 1B I want to know the relative likehood of him making it an xbase hit.
(3) OBP: while this includes hits, I use this to guage the general likelhood of a player making it on base via a not hit (ie walk)
(4) I've found myself quickly adding OBP and SLG in my head when a players stats are flashed on the jumbotron to get a rough guage of his offensive worth. (please be at least in the high .700's) I do this since they don't list OPS on the score board.
(5) I'll check out runs to see how many times the player has made it home once getting on base to get a quick and dirty idea of speed, and the likelyhood of seeing this guy score (assuming those batting next get their job done)
(6) RBI: I know it's linked to the skill of those in front of him and the line up construction but I still want to know how many times he's driven in a run or if I should get up and get a soda if someone is on base and he's at bat.
I don't know. I'd like to think this is a good ballance in the use of tradional and "newer" stats. I've probably mixed some terms or still have something out of wack but it seems to be where I am at right now.
I guess I am posting this because it's an evoution in my thinking about stats, while still using and not dimissing the "tradional" numbers. I guess this is partly a thank you for some different ways to think about the game, and partly a "here's what I've done with it" sort of post.
I'm not sure why I am really even posting this but like I said, I was bored today and thought I would share some of the madness.