OPS , RISP .. Stats and when are they Important ?

[BQ Moderator]

We all know that baseball is one of the most Statistic intensive sports in the world. If you check the MLB website, it seems players have stats for an incredible array of situations.

For Juniors up to a certain age, I would say most stats are irrelevant for the kids. It's all about development and most stats pre maturity are not worth the time to record as kids can be playing on the same team but over 12-18 months different physically.

But looking at the older teenage and senior stats, there is a huge focus on batting average, Home Runs and RBI ( Runs Batted in )

If I was to pick my best batters, those stats are indeed a good indicator as is base running speed and situation knowledge but I would also give good weight to OPS ( On Base + Slugging Percentage )

And my favourite is RISP ( Runners in scoring position hits) One of the best ever Aussie MLB hitters was very good at RISP batting, yet there are no awards for it even in MLB ?

A high RISP percentage shows the ability to help your team when needed and show both leadership and baseball strategy knowledge rather than worry about personal batting average or Home run goals.

Baseball is a team game, yet so much emphasis on personal stats.

What do you think coaches?

[Ryn]

Yeah I don't have much of a problem with any of that. The only reason I probably wouldn't look at RISP % as much is that it's just as important for a hitter to get on base as well - not just knock runners in. A guy with a .300 OBP bit a RISP % of 70% or more, really isn't that great of a contributor to your offense.

RBI's and Runs are extremely contextually dependent, so aren't a true indication of hitting ability at all.

For me, OPS and OBP are the two big ones (as far as basic statistics go).

[bokasaaya]

RISP is a stat they look at very closely for the MVP awards in MLB.

I think RISP OBP and OPS are all pretty useless without each other. All need to be included with each other in order to really see how good a hitter is.

The other thing to consider is every batter in the lineup has a role to play. This is where different stats are important for different batters. i.e leadoff hitters tend to be judged by their OBP while sluggers tend to be judged by OPS and RISP.