I always have this slight concern that if I post less or don’t post for a few days suddenly all the East Windup Chronicle readers are going to dry up and blow away. Maybe it’s valid maybe not. But one thing for sure — Justin, who runs the On Baseball On the Reds site doesn’t have to worry about this. Due to what I think are school-related responsibilities, he’s had just a few real posts in the last month. But then he comes back with something like Why do I keep using OPS? (plus a couple more) and it feels like he never left.
Basically this is a non-Reds related post defending his own use of OPS (OBP + SLG) which he says isn’t a perfect statistic when compared to some of the the others, but in his mind it gets the job done. To prove his point he pulled MLB team offense totals from 2005-2007. He then measured how the various statistics stood up to scoring runs.
For example, assuming that 1.000 indicates a perfect relationship between runs scored and the statistic in question, batting average yields a 0.7244. On-base percentage yields a 0.8340. Better, right? Using slugging that number jumps up to 0.8421.
OPS is 0.9231. So in going by this we can say OPS tells us 92% of what’s going on in terms of run production. Some statistics score better, but as Justin points out OPS is in wide circulation.
2 responses so far ↓
1 jinaz // Jun 9, 2008 at 7:26 am
Justin, who runs the On Baseball On the Reds site doesn’t have to worry about this. Due to what I think are school-related responsibilities, he’s had just a few real posts in the last month. But then he comes back with something like Why do I keep using OPS? (plus a couple more) and it feels like he never left.
This cracked me up. I’m hoping that I’ve been posting just enough to assure people that I still exist so they keep checking back. I defend my dissertation on Tuesday, so one way or another (either because I passed and will shortly be done, or because I failed and am doomed for unemployment), life should get a bit more open with respect to my blogging habits!
Thanks for continuing to check back though. I do try to keep up on your blog as well–you definitely see far more Reds games than I do, so it’s great to hear your perspective on what’s happening in RedsLand. The link the other day to that old Herrera article was great too. And it’s always interesting to see the other stuff you guys post from the other side of the world.
-justin
2 Shinsano // Jun 9, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Thanks Justin. It’s good to know you won’t be letting life get in the way of blogging — I know it can be tough. Seriously though, I always think Reds fans are pretty lucky to have you writing about the team.
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