MLB’s new math causes brain freeze
There was a time when Major League Baseball fans consumed numbers like a cold one.
An acquired taste, maybe, but you did not have to be a rocket scientist to know that RBI is the abbreviation for “runs batted in,” or that ERA is a pitcher’s “earnedrun average.”
It’s not that simple anymore.
The old abbreviations haven’t changed, but the new acronyms have diehard fans as baffled as the casual ones.
Not ready for WAR, FIP, BABIP, wRC-plus and DRS?
You should be, writes Ryan Lewis of the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal.
“If you’re someone who has loved baseball for decades and wants to continue to follow it like you have, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that notion,” Lewis writes, “but the understanding that these numbers are there and are changing the game and how teams make decisions is essential. It can no longer just be ignored.”
The Beacon Journal even provided its readers with a primer, a key to understanding the advanced metrics of baseball. Here’s some advice: Sip, don’t chug:
WAR
(WINS ABOVE REPLACEMENT)
“A way to take into account all facets of the game (hitting, defense, base running, etc.) and measure a player’s total value in how many wins he means to his team in a season compared to an average replacement player, such as a minor-leaguer. If a player has 3.0 WAR, he has contributed three wins to his team above what a replacement player would have.”
FIP (FIELDING INDEPENDENT PITCHING)
“Along the lines of ERA, this takes a team’s fielding out of the equation and measures a pitcher’s run prevention if he had a league average defense behind him by valuing outcomes that don’t rely on defense, like strikeouts, walks and home runs. It is essentially what a pitcher’s ERA should be.”
BABIP (BATTING AVERAGE ON BALLS IN PLAY)
“This is a player’s batting average on only the balls he puts into play that can be fielded. It is often used to predict future performance based on this number being above or below the league average which is about .300. If a hitter has a lowerthan-normal BABIP but is still hitting pitches hard and hitting line drives, it’s a likely indicator that he has been unlucky and is bound to improve.”
Gulp.
Bow after wow
The Miami Marlins paid tribute to Ichiro Suzuki by giving him a collage of photographs showing each of his first 3,000 hits.
Suzuki, 43, reached the milestone last season and was honored before Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The ceremony included Japanese home run king Sadaharu Oh offering congratulations in a scoreboard video, and Suzuki responded by bowing toward the scoreboard.
“It’s the most emotional I’ve ever seen him,” Marlins president David Samson said.
The collage, more than 8 feet wide, took months to assemble.
Suzuki originally was to have been honored late last season, but the ceremony was postponed following the death of Marlins pitching ace Jose Fernandez.
To update, Suzuki has 3,034 hits in a big-league career that started in 2001 with the Seattle Mariners, when he arrived from Japan with much hoopla, and he has not disappointed.