Glossary of Stats

This page contains a very brief rundown of the stats that I will be using most often on this blog, covering these following sports (listed in alphabetical order) -

• Baseball

• Cricket

• Field Hockey (Coming Soon)

• Ice Hockey (Coming Soon)

Some of the stats are ones that I've come up with myself, while others are lesser known stats that I personally prefer using over some of the more common ones that you see.

I will be assuming that a lot of the abbreviations I'm using are common knowledge, but if you're unsure about any of them, visit the recommended link(s) that I have provided along the way.

BASEBALL STATS

Batting/Offense

Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP) : (H - HR) / (AB - K - HR + SF)

A measure of how often a ball in play goes for a hit.

Base-Stealing Index (BS Index) : 100 x (Stolen Base% + Take-Off Rate)

A measure of overall base-stealing ability. This stat should only be used for players with a take-off rate of 15% or more.

Isolated Power (ISO) : SLG - AVG

A measure of power, it calculates how many extra bases a player averages per at bat.

Gross Production Average (GPA) : ((OBP x 1.8) + SLG) / 4

A stat that measures a player's overall performance with the bat. It is basically a more refined version of OPS, with OBP given more weight. This will be my go-to stat for evaluating batters in the ABL.

On-Base Percentage (OBP) : (H + BB + HBP) / (AB + BB + HBP + SF)

A measure of how frequently a batter reaches base.

Stolen Base % : SB / (SB + CS)

A measure of a player's rate of success when they attempt a steal.

Take-Off Rate % : Total Stolen Base Attempted (SB + CS) / (1B + 2B + BB + HBP)

A measure of how often a player attempts to steal when they reach first or second base. A drawback with this stat is that it doesn't account for when a player enters the game as a pinch-runner and it also doesn't account for whether the next base is unoccupied or not. But for the most part, this stat does the job.

Pitching/Run Prevention

Defense-Independent Component ERA (DICE) : (Formula Below)

3 + (((13 * HR) + (3 * (BB + HBP)) - (2 * K)) / IP)

A sabermetric pitching stat that attempts to more accurately evaluate a pitcher by removing defense as a factor and focusing only on outcomes that are within a pitcher's control.

Earned Run Average (ERA) : (ER / IP) * 9

A measure of how well a pitcher prevents runs from scoring.

Opponents On-Base Percentage (oOBP) : (H + BB + HBP) / Batters Faced (BF)

A measure of how often a pitcher allows opposing batters to reach base. Personally my go-to stat for evaluating pitchers as it is not dependent on the sequencing of plays, like ERA is.

Strikeout Percentage (K%) : Strikeouts (K) / Batters Faced (BF)

A measure of how often a pitcher strikes out a batter.

Catcher Caught Stealing % (CCS%) : CS / (CS+SB)

A measure of how often a catcher throws out a base-stealer.

Defensive Efficiency (DER) : 1 - (H + E - HR) / (BF - (BB + SO + HBP + HR))

A team stat that measures the rate at which balls put into play are converted into outs. 

Fielding Rate per 9 Innings Fielded (FR/9) : (TFR / Innings Fielded) * 9

A measure of a player's fielding ability. TFR stands for "Total Fielding Rate". I've taken the factors used by Total Baseball in its calculations for Fielding Runs and instead of expressing the final number as Runs Saved, the output of FR/9 is essentially a tweaked version of Range Factor. The formula for TFR differs for different positions.

Catcher Total Fielding Rate (TFR) : (*Adjusted PO* + DP + (2 * A)) - (E + SB + (PB / 2))

First baseman TFR : (2 * A) - E

Second & Third basemen and Shortstop TFR: (PO + DP + (2 * A)) - E

Outfielders TFR : (PO + (2 * DP) + (4 * A)) - E

The abbreviations above are: "PO" is Put-Outs, "DP" is double-plays, "A" is Assists, "E" is Errors, "SB" is stolen base and "PB" is passed ball.

The "*adjusted PO*" found in the calculation for a catcher's TFR is the estimated putouts that the catcher should be credited with, taking into account the strikeout rate of their team's pitching staff.

I do acknowledge the severe limitations of trying to measure defense in this way but given the lack of any other data to work with, I feel this is the best stat available to measure defense (along with the eye test, of course).

The basis for my calculations for TFR is found HERE , in the section explaining "Fielding Runs" 

For a more comprehensive look at baseball stats and their abbreviations, visit FanGraphs and look through their glossary section.

Cricket Stats

Batting Stats

Batting Average (Avg.) : Runs Scored / Dismissals

Strike-Rate (SR) : (Runs Scored / Balls Faced) * 100

Survival Rate : Balls Faced / Dismissals

Batting Index (BI) : ((Batting Average x 2 ) + (Survival Rate x .85) + Strike Rate) / 3

A measure of the overall batting performance of a batter.

Batter Value (V) : Batting Index * Batter's % of Total Team Runs

A measure of the value of a batter to his team. You can use this to compare players with similar batting indexes and see which one provided the most value to their team.

*Data for Balls Faced are only available from 1991-onwards on ESPNCricinfo, so Strike-Rate, Survival Rate & Batting Index can only be calculated for players who played from 1991 onwards. 

Bowling Stats

Bowling Average : Runs Conceded / Wickets Taken

Bowling Strike-Rate : Balls Bowled / Wickets Taken

Economy Rate : (Formula Below)

Runs Conceded / Overs Bowled OR (Runs Conceded / Balls Bowled) x 6

Bowling Index : Bowling Average x Bowling Strike-Rate

A measure of a bowler's overall performance.

Bowler Value: Bowler's % of Team Balls Bowled / Bowling Index

A measure of the value of a bowler to his team. Use this to compare two players with similar bowling indexes to see which one provided more value to their team.

Simplified 'Weight of Wickets' (Adjusted Wickets Taken)

Below are the 'weights' that I have assigned to particular spots in the batting order - 

Spot in the batting order : Weight of their wicket

1 - 3 : 1.25

4 - 5 : 1.10

6 - 7 : 1.00

8 : 0.90 

9 : 0.80

10 : 0.70

11 : 0.65

The weights add up to a total of 11. You can use the sum of a bowler's 'Adjusted Wickets Taken' divided by their total number of wickets taken to calculate the average 'weight' of the wickets they take.