can some of the stat geeks explain some stats to me?

[billyhallfan]

I've been trying to learn these, but can't figure it out:

 

VORP

FIP

 

everyone says that they are some of the best stats in baseball, but I can't put a finger on them yet...

 

Thanks in advance,

Brian

[endaround]

VORP stands for Value Over Replacement Player. This is a mark of offensive value over the idea of a replacement player, basically a player thats somewhere about 70% below the average for a position. The idea is a replacement player is the typical AAA veteran who's 27-32 years old and can be had for league minimum. VORP tells you how many runs better (or worse) a given player is than a replacement player at that position. Its calculated by BP and since they went more pay, not really paid as much attention to because its hard to get at.

 

FIP stands for Fielding Independent Pitching, Its based on the idea that a pitcher has little control over what happens when a hitter puts a ball in play. The pitcher mostly controls the K rate, BB rate, and HR rate. FIP tells what a pitcher's ERA would look like if the BABIP behind them were at league average.

[billyhallfan]

thanks, so is there formulas for those, or does a certain site calculate them?

 

Thanks again...

[sbrylski]

thanks, so is there formulas for those, or does a certain site calculate them?

 

I don't use VORP much, but FIP is a great stat:

 

FIP = [13*HR + 3*BB - 2*K] / IP + ~3.2

 

Not the easiest to calculate, so its much easier to look it up at a place like Fangraphs.com. The 3.2 is a league factor that makes the average FIP equal to the average ERA, so it changes slightly every year.

 

FIP takes out the BABIP and LOB% that can inflate or deflate a pitchers ERA. A pitcher really has not control over those things, therefore he depends on luck.

 

Bush's ERA is 6.13, but his FIP is just 4.17.

[1992casey]

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a player thats somewhere about 70% below the average for a position.

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endaround, do you mean 70% of the average? 70% below the average would seem quite low.