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Harmon Killebrew On David Letterman!?

With the appearance of Joe Mauer last week on Jimmy Fallon, I was reminded of another episode of a famous Twin who appeared on late ni...

A Brief And Damn Near Worthless Sabermetric Glossary

Simpson's homage to Lord William
Please check back with this page. I'll keep adding definitions as I educate myself in their usage! 


WEIGHTED RUNS CREATED (wRC) is an improved version of Bill James’ Runs Created (RC) statistic, which attempted to quantify a player’s total offensive value and measure it by runs. In Runs Created, instead of looking at a player’s line and listing out all the details (e.g. 23 2B, 15 HR, 55 BB, 110 K, 19 SB, 5 CS), the information is synthesized into one metric in order to say, “Player X was worth 24 runs to his team last year.” As used in "1987 World Series: The Twins Cop A Break And Miss Jack Clark."

BLACK INK TEST: statistics marked in bold, black ink denote league leading totals for player in a given year, career. At the "Tony Oliva: Traveling The Rutted Road To Glory" post, for instance, you'll see plenty of black ink totals in the chart - the phrase "black is beautiful" definitely applies here. 


It is scored as follows:
      Batting Statistics
    • Four Points for home runs, runs batted in or batting average
    • Three Points for runs scored, hits or slugging percentage
    • Two Points for doubles, walks or stolen bases
    • One Point for games, at bats or triples
"Somebody's gotta do the heavy lifting!"
    Pitching Statistics
  • Four Points for wins, earned run average or strikeouts
  • Three Points for innings pitched, win-loss percentage or saves
  • Two Points for complete games, lowest walks per 9 innings or lowest hits per 9 innings
  • One Point for appearances, starts or shutouts




GREY INK TEST: same idea as black ink score, except that it counts appearances in the top ten in the league,
Scored as follows:
    Batting Statistics
  • Four Points for home runs, runs batted in or batting average
  • Three Points for runs scored, hits or slugging percentage
  • Two Points for doubles, walks or stolen bases
  • One Point for games, at bats or triples
    Pitching Statistics
  • Four Points for wins, earned run average or strikeouts
  • Three Points for innings pitched, win-loss percentage or saves
  • Two Points for complete games, lowest walks per 9 innings or lowest hits per 9 innings
  • One Point for appearances, starts or shutouts

PITCHER GAME SCORE
The "25 Best Pitched Games By Twins Pitchers" post used this metric.

I'd check it out, some might surprise you!

CALCULATE
1) start with 50 points
2) Add 1 point for each out recorded - so, three points for every inning pitched.
3) Add 2 Points for each inning pitched that is completed after the 4th inning
4) Give 1 point for each strikeout.
5) Subtract 2 points each for every hit allowed.
6) Subtract 4 points for each earned run allowed.
7) Subtract 2 points for each unearned run allowed.
8) Subtract 1 point for each walk.

This was redone by Tom Tango for MLB (see below), and it differs significantly in that it tends to award points more liberally. I discovered this after posting my Ervin Santana report on April 15, 2017, when I followed MLBs lead and posted a 98 score for Santana's start versus the White Sox. Meanwhile, I was unaware that Baseball Reference used another methodology

Game Score formula (updated by Tom Tango)
  • Start with 40 points
  • Add 2 points for each out recorded (or 6 points per inning)
  • Add 1 additional point for every strikeout
  • Remove 2 points for every walk allowed
  • Remove 2 points for every hit allowed
  • Remove 3 points for every run allowed (earned or unearned)
  • Remove 6 additional points for every home run allowed

Rtot -- TOTAL ZONE: TOTAL FIELDING RUNS ABOVE AVERAGE
As used in the "Twins Shortstop RX..." post

The number of runs above or below average the player was worth based on the number of plays made.

This number combines the Rtz, Rdp, Rof, Rcatch numbers into a total defensive contribution.

See the glossary section for a more complete explanation.

RF/G -- RANGE FACTOR PER GAME

(Putouts + Assists) / Games Played

Range Factor simply stated is the number of plays MADE per game at the fielding position. It is better than Fielding Average in several respects: It can be calculated for almost any player this century and it takes into account the fielder's own ability to get to a batted ball - rewarding the more gifted players at each position. Positions can only be successfully compared to the same position on the field when using this statistic and early in the season numbers are often skewed as players chances are not yet normalized.

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