? for all the high school & college baseball experts....

[coastratdog]

What is the best measure of hitter? "Moneyball" says it's the "on base" ave. Most people think it is the traditional batting ave. What about a ratio of walks to something or K's to something? What is a"slugging" percentage? Is there a ratio of times the ball is hit in fair territory to something? And last what do college coaches look for?

Thanks
TJC

 

[MSUArrowCS]

But when it comes to the stats:

Slugging is total bases (TBs) divided by ABs, so it's like a batting average with hits weighted by how many bases you get. When you compare it to batting average, you can get an idea of how much power a guy has.

On-base percentage is already factoring in walks, because it's hits, walks, and hbp divided by plate appearances instead of just ABs. So it gives you an idea of what kind of eye a guy has.

One reason OBP comes up so much in the Sabermetrics and the "moneyball" approach is because it's a big factor in Bill James' "Runs Created" stat, which combines OBP and SLG%. Another more commonly reported combo of these is OPS, which is just OBP + SLG. High-ranking OPS players tend to be regarded as some of the best hitters in baseball (Jose Bautista, Miguel Cabrera, Ryan Braun, Matt Kemp, and Prince Fielder were the top 5 in 2011).

 

[DirtyLopez]

we are going to be facing better pitching and we won't get as many walks or hbp's. You better have some players who can stand in the box and swing the bat with a little authority. At this point, it doesn't look like we have enough of that.

 

[mstatefan88]

As a team through 6 games we already have 15 HBPs, and Trey Porter has 5 of those. That's an average of 2.5 HBPs per game, and there is no way we will see that pace keep up during SEC play. We also have 22 walks through 6 games, which is almost 4 a game.

I haven't been able to goto or watch any games, so I can't tell if the HBPs are something we are doing by crowding the plate a bit, or if the opposing teams pitchers just haven't had great command so far. Either way, we have a total of 37 BBs or HBPs through the 1st 6games, which is just over 6 times a game we are getting on base by some means other than a hit. That'scrazy.

 

[DirtyLopez]

first time, just so I could see what our young players look like. To this point, I'm a little disappointed. They could get better as we go along, but at this point I just don't see enough of them that make you say to yourself "this guy can swing the bat".