Baseball stats - which ones are "important"

The Game Room
1

I’m sure there’s not really any answer here other than “that’s just the way it’s always been” or something along those lines, but… I’ve always been curious about how it is that some baseball stats are the important ones that everyone cares about and pays attention to, and others just aren’t.

For instance, if batting average is this hugely important stat for batters, possibly the most important one, why isn’t opponents’ batting average anywhere near the top of important stats for pitchers? It seems like whatever The Stat is for batters, then the opposite of The Stat should be important for pitchers.

And why are walks ignored by both the most important offensive (batting average) and pitching (ERA) stats?

2

I’ve long thought that a pitcher’s BA should be an important statistic and used to compute them as you know hits allowed and at bats against.

But walks do figure into ERAs at least as much as hits do. It’s not direct of course, but walks but runners on base just like hits.

3

Baseball Prospectus tracks opponents’ average, on-base percentage (OBP), and slugging percentage for pitchers - see for example Roger Clemens (scroll down to the advanced stats).

For batters, OBP is generally considered a better metric than batting average. While some organizations track opponents’ OBP, there’s a more common pitchers’ stat called WHIP - walks plus hits per inning pitched - that’s a good surrogate as well. There’s a huge world of baseball stats and analyses out there (that’s what Nate Silver did before he got into polling data). Check out Sabermetrics for details.

4

For pitchers, the most important stats are K/9, BB/9, and HR/9. For most pitchers, their batting average on balls in play is pretty static between .290 and .310, so the key is to limit the balls in play and the ones over the fence.

For hitters, it’s a bit more complex, but basically everything except runs and RBI have some merit. Walks/on base, and slugging are two of the most important.

5

Well; in 1959 Harvey Haddix pitched 12 innings of perfect baseball and gave up 1 hit (home run) in the 13th. I think his opponent’s batting average was .026 or 1 for 38. Lou Burdette, on the other hand, had an opponent’s batting average of .255 or 12 (singles) for 47. Braves won 1-0. While a high batting average for your team is promising and desirable it does not guarantee you will score a lot of runs. At the same time a pitcher who gives up a lot of hits may just be taking advantage of certain quirks in the opponents’ lineup or pitching around specific hitters or making sure that a hitter hits the pitch he wants them to. Obviously, as a pitcher, you don’t want a hitter to ever get a hit but the ability to scatter them is not imaginary. Some pitchers are just great at it, a la Lou Burdette.