Beyond Batting Average

by Lee Panas

Over the past few decades, a multitude of advanced hitting, pitching, fielding and base running measures have been introduced to the baseball world. This comprehensive sabermetrics primer will introduce you to these new statistics with easy to understand explanations and examples. It will illustrate the evolution of statistics from simple traditional measures to the more complex metrics of today. You will learn how all the statistics are connected to winning and losing games, how to interpret them, and how to apply them to performance on the field. By the end of this book, you will be able to evaluate players and teams through statistics more thoroughly and accurately than you could before.

Genres: Baseball

152 pages, Paperback

First published May 2, 2010

Reviews

[Jimlaudie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really great resource for understanding a multitude of baseball stats in the sabermetrics realm. I'd read others but nothing that was this detailed and concise. The early chapters set the stage well regarding the weaknesses in batting average and ERA/W/L for pitchers. Starts to read like a reference book after that and I can see myself coming back to it in the future for specific questions on different measures. Helped make me a more knowledgeable baseball fan.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

For fans who want to learn more about new sabermetric statistics, "Beyond Batting Average" is a great resource that can easily be followed by any student of the game. Panas discusses hitting, pitching and fielding measures in detail. Readers will learn about isolated power, win probability added, FIP, BABIP, range factor, zone rating, and much more. Panas concludes with a chapter on total player contribution, where he breaks down stats like win shares and wins above replacement (WAR).

What Panas does particularly well is explain complicated concepts in simple terms. By tracing the evolution of statistics in each category he progressively builds the reader's knowledge. He also recognizes that while each new stat serves a particular purpose, some of the less complicated ones will serve most fans just fine. There is value in stats like OPS that can be calculated without advanced algorithms.

[Brian Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. The formulas and calculations are really clear and easy to follow. Recommended for anybody learning sabermetrics and baseball statistics.