Baseball stats???

[Willie Bee]

Just wondering what stats everyone uses when handicapping an individual game? Is it mostly the 'normal' ones, for example looking at hitter vs. pitcher performances, recent outings by a pitcher (pitch count in most recent start), maybe umpire trends? Or do any of you really get down and dirty in some of the stats like runs creates, line drive percentages for hitters, ground ball to fly ball ratios for pitchers, and a myriad of other stats that you can find these days?

Interested in knowing in case there are some stats we might add to matchup reports here at SBR.

[chipski]

i wish i was that deep to do all that man !
would be nice to factor in all that but i dont .

[SlickFazzer]

Keep to the simple stats,then get a good feel for the current teams performance, play teams in the -125 to +150 range.

Grind out a profit.

All that complicated stuff will drive you nuts.

[Willie Bee]

Chipski, if you're a stats junkie like me (even though I don't necessarily believe everything SABR tries to sell me), you should check out Hardballtimes.com if you haven't already. I think a lot of the stats really only come into play for the hardcore fantasy player, but there is some useful info if you're teetering on a game sometime.

I prefer to use basic info when I look at a game, starting with a pitcher's recent performance and how he's fared against the lineup he's most likely going to face. I look at weather and umpires, too, but only after I've looked at the other things.

[chipski]

cool , thanks WB .

[element1286]

Big fan of using the right/left splits. I use LD% sometimes, and use OPS for the hitters. Sometimes use the batter/pitcher and home/road if there is enough samples, and they are extreme differences.

[fifawcs]

I like the Right/left splits. Home/away is good sometimes. The team's BA at home and away. The Starting Pitchers, the Bullpen, The team BA the past 7, the team performance the last 7. Hitter vs. Pitcher I don't use as much anymore since there are a lot of pitchers who have modified their stuff and faced teams while they were not as effective, or vice versa.

[Willie Bee]

Big fan of using the right/left splits. I use LD% sometimes, and use OPS for the hitters. Sometimes use the batter/pitcher and home/road if there is enough samples, and they are extreme differences.

You know what I would love to see element? I'd like to see the correlation between LD% and pitchers' GB/FB ratios. I've yet to find anywhere that has this info.

Take a full-time player like Todd Helton, for example. He rates up there with a 25%-plus LD% mark. How do players who are in the 20%-plus range in the column fare against a guy who is an extreme ground ball pitcher like Roy Halladay and how does he rate against a fly ball pitcher such as Daisuke Matsuzaka?