Ouch Plays Help Fantasy Baseball OPS
Part Two of our look at the under-appreciated hit by pitch statistic in fantasy baseball focuses on those players who will help your team on base percentages thanks to their willingness to “take one for the team.”
While WHIP doesn’t accurately count hit by pitch into its ratios, OPS (on base plus slugging average) does do it right. A hit by pitch counts towards a hitter’s on base percentage and is therefore accurately portrayed in those fantasy baseball leagues who use on base percentages or OPS categories.
If you want to look at an old school player who is willing to take one for the team, look no further than the best second baseman in baseball, Chase Utley. Its not surprising how often Utley gets hit by pitch given where he stands in the batters box; his toe is barely in the deepest part of the box and closest to home plate. Utley has led the majors in hit by pitches for the past two seasons. Chase got plunked 27 times last year in the Phillies championship run which is two more than Utley amassed during the 2007 season.
While Utley and Ryan Braun are tied for the National League lead thus far in 2009 with 5 hit by pitches, they are running behind Carlos Quentin of the White Sox and Kelly Shoppach of the Indians who have both been bruised 8 times this season.
Active Hit by Pitch Leaders
Jason Kendall, Brewers - 235- Carlos Delgado, Mets - 172
- Jason Giambi, Athletics - 161
- Alex Rodriguez, Yankees – 141
- Derek Jeter, Yankees – 140
All-Time Hit by Pitch Leaders
- Hughie Jennings – 287
- Craig Biggio – 285
- Tommy Tucker – 272
- Don Baylor – 267
- Ron Hunt – 243
Hughie Jennings of Boston was hit by pitch 51 times from ’94 through ’98 (that’s 1894 and 1898 if you don’t recall Hughie). Ron Hunt led the league in hit by pitches from 1968 through 1974 and was hit 50 times in 1971. Craig Biggio was a more modern day warrior; Biggio led the league in HBP’s five times and is second on the all-time HBP list.
May 13th, 2009 at 8:38 am
HBP should count towards WHIP statistics.
But really, there are many other even more aggregious stats that are not calculated properly.
Errors by a pitcher causing a run should be considered an earned run, misplayed flyballs should be an error and not a triple, a ground out to move a player from 2nd to 3rd with less than 2 outs should be scored the same as a sacrifice fly, a baserunning error causing an out should be scored the same as a caught stealing and my favorite stat that I cannot find anywhere – batting average with 2 outs and runners in scoring position…this statistic truly separates the best players in the game like Manny, Albert and Youk from the Grady Sizemores and the Jack Custs.
May 13th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Ohhhh…I almost forgot….throwing(4) consecutive low outside breaking balls to Albert Pujols should be left to the official scorer to decide as to whether it is an intentional base on balls vs an earned walk. Managers “order” the pitcher to effectively walk Pujols thus any runs scored from an unearned intentional base on balls should NOT be counted towards the pitchers ERA, WHIP or debateably Alberts Runs totals…but now I am getting anal again.
May 17th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Thanks for the comments JCM. I agree with almost all of them, except for the error by the pitcher. ERA is a judgement of a pitcher’s pitching ability, not his fielding ability. Therefore, although the error is his fault, that should count against only his fielding prowess, not his pitching ability.
I also think that a “mental error” like throwing to a base where a runner is obviously going to be safe should be counted as an error against the fielder.
I also think there should be a “team error” concept. This would be used in a situation where two players watch a routine fly ball drop between them. Or, maybe we could give each fielder a “half error;” after all, in football, they often divide tackles in half for each player.
May 20th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Point well taken ballparkbob…but I would disagree with you.
The pitcher ultimately is evaluated on how effective he is in preventing runs to score. Feilding errors on the field are not attributable to the pitcher because he has no discretionary control over the defense behind him. However, he certainly has ultimate control over his own actions and decisions. A fielding/mental error by the pitcher is his own deficiency and should count against him in calculating earned runs.
(Bad cliche alert) I guess we can agree to disagree.
May 20th, 2009 at 11:41 am
One other point I neglected to mention (and then I will shut up, I promise)…using your logic where a mental error on behalf of the pitcher SHOULD NOT penalize his ERA but only his fielding percentage…would you also beleive the inverse to be true – that if the pitcher had made a most amazing defensive fielding effort to prevent a run, then he should be charged an EARNED RUN even though one was not scored because his fielding prowess should not be taken into account?
The last two words of the acronym ERA is “RUNS ALLOWED” and an error on the pitcher causes the run to be “allowed” by the hurler.
I’m done.