Smart baseball : the story behind the old stats that are ruining the game, the new ones that are running it, and the right way to think about baseball /

For decades, statistics such as batting average, saves recorded and pitching won-lost records have been used to measure individual players' and teams' potential and success. But in the past fifteen years, a revolutionary new standard of measurement, sabermetrics, has been embraced by front...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Law, Keith, 1973- (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: New York : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2017]
Edition:First edition.
Subjects:
Table of Contents:
  • Part one. Smrt baseball
  • Below average : the fundamental flaws of batting average
  • Pitcher wins : one guy gets the credit for everyone else's work
  • RBI : baseball's unreliable narrator
  • Holtzman's folly : how the save rule has ruined baseball
  • Stolen bases : crime only pays if you never get caught
  • Fielding percentage : the absolute worst way to measure defense
  • Bulfinch's baseball mythology : clutch hitters, lineup protection, and other things that don't exist
  • Part two. Smart baseball
  • OBP is life : why on-base percentage is the measure of a hitter
  • The power and the glory : slugging percentage and OPS
  • wOBA/WRC : the ultimate measure of the hitter (until the next one)
  • ERA and the riddle of pitching versus defense
  • WPA : measuring clutch, if you must
  • The black box : how baseball teams measure defense today
  • No puns intended : going to WAR to value the whole player
  • Part three. Smarter baseball
  • Applied math : looking at Hall of Fame elections using newer stats
  • No trouble with the curve : how scouting works, and how the statistical revolution is changing it
  • The next big thing is here, the revolution's near : MLB statcast
  • The edge of tomorrow : where the future of stats might take us.