Cleaner than OPS?

[Crash2303]

I have been on a recent statistic binge. I realize OPS is a solid way to judge overall hitting- so I get its recent appeal. However, wouldn't a cleaner way of articulating it be, (TB + BB) divided by ABs instead of murking it up by essentially adding BA twice and thus slightly watering down power hitting? I might call it: Hitters Avg. So for instance 2009 #s would be:

HA OPS

Fielder- .789 vs 1.014

Braun- .641 vs .937

Cameron- .590 vs .795

Lopez- .518 vs .810 (full year)

Kendall- .407 vs .636

Notice, that Lopez' OPS is higher than Cameron's, but is vice versa on the newstat. Also, how OPS really helps Braun, whose power numbers were down last year, but whose batting avg. was higher. I am curious to know your opinions as i think this is a superior way to measure overall hitting- especially ranking cleanup hitters- and know this site to be full of knowledgeable stat analysis.

[logan82]

OBP is generally thought to be worth about 1.8-2 times as much as SLG so OPS undervalues OBP. I think your statistic is going the wrong direction. I am sure there are other people who can give you a much better explanation.

[1992casey]

The problem I have is that I never know when it's best to divide by at bats, plate appearances, or something in between (such as AB + outcome A + outcome B - outcome C).

 

As for the stat in the lead, my first reaction is that hit batsmen should count the same as walks.

[Baldkin]

If you're adding in walks, you need to divide by PA's instead of AB's, otherwise a guy who goes 0 for 1 with 10 BB (For example) would have a HA of 10.0.

 

OPS does a darn good job because it does sort of "double value" batting average. Where OPS lacks is that it doesn't count OBP enough... and your stat seems to count it even less.

[rluzinski]

OPS is a very flawed stat and one that I don't really use at all anymore. Yes, it's tons better than BA/HR/RBI but there are many superior alternatives. A nice, simple way to estimate offensive production is to find the run value of each batting event (positive for walks and hits and negative for outs) for a given year and sum the results for each player. It's called "Linear Weights". You end up with a context neutral, "runs produced" stat. You can either divide that by outs or PAs to turn it into a rate stat.

 

Here's a linear Weights Primer:

 

http://www.tangotiger.net...php?title=Linear_Weights