Three Sabermetrics You Should Know

If you don’t know exactly what you’re looking at, sabermetrics can be confusing or intimidating. Here are some sabermetrics you need to know with (hopefully) simple explanations.

WAR

If you’ve seen “Baseball Tonight,” chances are you’ve heard the term WAR. It stands for Wins Above Replacement, and it’s a tool that sums up in one number exactly how valuable a player is to your team. We first need to understand “replacement level” and what exactly that is. A replacement-level player is generally thought of as a player who could be called up from triple-A and put into the lineup right away. There are some landmarks that can indicate where a player is based on their WAR. The following is for position players, as starting and relief pitchers have a different standard for WAR.

  • Starter: 2+
  • Good player: 3-4
  • All stars: 4+
  • MVP: 6+

WAR has been the focus of the Mike Trout-Miguel Cabrera American League MVP debate for the past two years. Trout has posted 10 or better WAR both seasons, which is incredible. Cabrera hasn’t been far behind either, posting 6.8 and 7.6 WAR in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

Sure, Cabrera’s WAR both years was pretty impressive, and it was probably worth winning the MVP. Trout, however, was better, and sabermetricians in general will vote for him every time. WAR is not perfect, but it is a valuable tool. If you are learning sabermetrics, it is a good tool to start with.

Players can have WAR below 0. For example, if Atlanta Braves fans are wondering how poorly BJ Upton played last season, the answer is -0.6 WAR. In theory, the Braves could have brought in a triple-A player and been better off.

Isolated power (ISO)

Bottom line: isolated power = slugging percentage – batting average

What ISO effectively does is knock singles out of the slugging percentage. Slugging percentage is the stat that many people will mention in reference to how powerful a player is.

There is a bit of an issue here with slugging and really what makes ISO a better indicator of power. The following are stats for Atlanta’s Chris Johnson and Detroit’s Prince Fielder (last year, since he now plays for Texas) from last season.

  • CJ: 34 doubles, 12 home runs, .321 AVG, .457 slugging, .136 ISO
  • PF: 36 doubles, 25 home runs, .279 AVG, .457 slugging, .178 ISO

As you can see, Fielder is the better power hitter, but you wouldn’t know just by looking at his slugging percentage. That 42-point difference in ISO shows in his batting averages. Based on the ISO, we can say that Fielder has above average power, while Johnson is just below average.

Fielding Independent Pitch (FIP)

FIP is basically what a pitcher’s ERA “should have been” over a given period of time. Essentially, pitchers can’t control what happens once a ball is hit, and that’s what FIP ​​counts. FIP looks at what a pitcher can control: strikeouts, walks, home runs, and hit pitches.

FIP is a good predictor of what a pitcher can do in the future. It’s on the same scale as effectiveness, so less than 3.00 is very good, 4.00 is average, and 5.00 is not that good.

So if a pitcher’s ERA is 4.50 and his FIP is 3.80, you can see he’s had a bit of bad luck and his ERA should drop again soon. Likewise, if your ERA is 3.80 and your FIP is 4.50, don’t expect that performance to last for long.

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