OBI% has just passed BABIP as my current statistical fascination. Basically, OBI% is what percentage of runners on base (ducks on the pond, if you will, and I hope you will) the batter knocks in. Generally, a rate above 20% puts you among the league leaders in OBI%.
While BABIP is informative because it can, to some extent tell you how "lucky" a hitter has been so far with hits falling into play, OBI% seems like it could tell you how "RBI lucky" a player had been so far that year. Of course, OBI% alone doesn't tell you that. Maybe Robby Cano has only driven in 12.6% of the ducks on the pond this year, but is that high or low? Unfortunately, BP doesn't list OBI% on PECOTA cards, so it takes season by season sorting to find out career rates. In Cano's case, his OBI last year was 15.99%. In 2005 it was 13.26% So yeah, he's down this year. Of course, he had what will probably be the luckiest season of his career last year with an obscene .363 BABIP. Of course he's gonna drive in a higher percentage of runners if he actually, you know, gets more hits.
I guess OBI% is just too linked to everything else. The better the OPS, the better the OBI%. So I guess OBI% doesn't really tell you anything different than BABIP.
Well that was some fun alphabet soup. Hope this didn't undermine your enjoyment of baseball, and the human factor therein.
1 comment:
I got a couple things for you:
1.) A new fantasy team name perfect for a Beatles-lover, but you have to be in an NL or Mixed League and own Ricky Weeks: "While My Guitar Ricky Weeks"
2.) An idea for a weekly section on this blog. How about a section called "On the Juice?" where you pick a major league player and discuss whether or not he's has been on the juice. Let's throw out some random speculation. Subject One: Eric Gagne. Was/Is he on the juice?
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