Computers are wonderful.  You can dump in a bunch of numbers and crunch them until you’re dizzy.  That is what is happening with baseball.  I know the commentators need to fill dead air, but shouldn’t there be some kind of regulator on the spigot.

“Bob, this is the 36th time that Wiffowitz has come to the plate with a man on first base and less than two outs.  And, he has only advanced the runner seven times.”  I quickly grabbed my calculator and determined that good old Wiffo has only advanced the runner 22% of the time.  What does that mean?  Who cares?  If Wiffo had bunted everytime, he would have advanced the runner probably over 80% and would be headed for Triple A ball.

I was watching a commercial for a smart phone and they were telling about how you could take all these photos and put them right on Facebook.  Thankfully they ended the commercial by saying that just because the smart phone gives you the power to do things doesn’t mean its a good idea.  Unfortunately the commercial came too late for Anthony Weiner.  But the message is not too late for baseball announcers.  Fine, you have all these idiotic stats, but is it a good idea to numb us with them?  “Jones is batting .317 in his last seven games” (I guarantee that he isn’t hitting .317 in his last eight games, or for that matter, the season).

Every player has a batting average.  That’s nice to know.  And it might be helpful to know his average against left handed pitchers and right handed pitchers.  I would also like to know if his average goes up or down when runners are in scoring position.  But please don’t tell me what his batting average is when the count is two balls and one strike.  Enough already!

I was listening to a commentator talk about our local team.  He mentioned that if the team only walked three or less batters, their earned run average (ERA) was 2.9.  But if the team walked four or more (9 is more than 4), then the ERA jumps to over 4.5.  I thought about that.  By the use of statistics, he had discovered that putting more men on base resulted in more men scoring.  Heavy stuff.

They now keep track of a player’s home run ratio.  It tells us whether a player hits a home run every 15th time at bat (on average) or, perhaps, every 32nd time.  I guess if Sluggo hits a home run every 15th time and he hasn’t hit a home run in his last 27 times, then the announcer can let us know, “He’s due.”  The truth is that Sluggo is probably in a slump.  But home team announcers are reticent to say that.  They will probably say, “He’s due.”

They have recently come up with a new stat.  OPS stands for On Base plus Slugging.  If you just think of a players on-base percentage (hits, walks, hit by pitch) divided by times at bat, you have half the formula.  The slugging percentage is total bases divided by times at bat.  You add the two stats together and you get OPS.  It must be significant because the all time OPS leader is Babe Ruth.  And they named a candy bar after him.

I’m for coming up with one more stat.  Let’s select the warning track power leader.  This would go to the guy who hits the most balls that are caught on the warning track (OK, we need to count the balls that hit on the track and are not caught).  To select the player with the best warning track power, we will have to deduct home runs from his total.  A player with true warning track power doesn’t hit home runs.  This is a work in progress.  I haven’t ironed out all the issues.  So far, I only have the abbreviation – WTP.

Written by PJ Rice on www.ricequips.com