All this talk about MVP's, Cy Youngs and voting has got me thinking as to what numbers people actually use to determine value as a baseball player. I always hated Wins and Saves because they are meaningless, and I hate batting average because it's so misleading. So what do you use to evaluate a players worth? OPS, VORP, Runs created, what?
BA, OBP, SLG, OPS+, RCSometimes I'll thrown in Plate Appearances because it's important to see how many chances a player had to produce.
How do they calculate VORP? Is it subjective in any way? It seems like theres some kind of bias thrown in when I look at the numbers.
>>476465Postion Players: OPS and various Sabermetric statistical analysis (which validates Pujols as NL MVP)Pitchers: WHIP, ERA, SO and IP (so the CY Youngs were right this year)
>>476475It can be very subjective cause it can discredit a player who plays exceptional first base and can hit: while an outfielder who doesnt cover the field properly, but hits will probably have a higher VORP
Wins, Saves and to some extent RBI are worthless.I have a man-crush on WHIP for pitchers, and Doubles for hitters.
>>476497Which is why WARP1 is better.
>>476542Win.Anyway, you should evaluate players as throroughly as possible, but if you're looking for JUST ONE stat that is easy to find and freely available. . .Hitting Rate: wOBAOffensive Rate: EqAHitting Total: Runs CreatedOffensive Postion Value: VORPDefense: +/-Total: WARP
>>476688As far as pitching. . .Rate: tRACounting: pRAATotal: WARP