Impact Stat with Salary = PRODUCTION COST!

Hello baseball fans and fellow stat heads!

2 visualisations today:

1) PRODUCTION VALUE
Click on the image below to see the real 2009 PRODUCTION VALUE of you favourite MLB players. I've calculated this using The Impact Stat as described on this blog vs Player's Salary.

Who is of better value? Derek Jeter or Adrian Gonzalez? Pujols or Mauer?

Go ahead, click the image below and take a look for yourself!



2) VALUE QUADRANT
Any of you in a pool, looking to sign a free agent or make a trade this off-season? If you want to know where the real value players are click on the Value Quadrant below. Players in the top left are the ones you're looking for!



Comments are welcome!

Thanks - Aneez
aneezkanji@hotmail.com

Coming Soon...

I'm adding salary data to The Impact Stat. We'll soon see where the real value in MLB players is.

In the meantime, stay tuned, and browse my past posts.

Aneez

Impact Stat at the end of 2009

It's that time of year again when I crunch through the season end MLB numbers and evalute the best batters in the Majors! The new vizualisations are courtesy of Tableau. I hope you enjoy them. Onto the numbers...

Once again the Impact Stat has clearly highighted:

- why Mauer and Puljous should be MVP in each league.

- why those up for consideration don't really stand a chance. (Sorry Jeter!)

- a few surprises from a Prince to a Gonzo!

- Adam "no heart" Dunn - Could he really be in the top 10 across both Leagues?!

Let's start with mile high pop-up view of all the batters with 502 at bats (minumum requirement for batting title) in 2009...

Notes:

i) The blue and red vertical lines represent a .264 and .385 average

ii) The curve on left (grey/blue) is each player's Batting Average

iii) The end points on the right represent total Impact

iv) The colour transition on each line is where OBP occurs

As you look at the image below you'll see right away that a few Impact lines extend much further that the others. At the top is Mauer, a few rows down is Puljous leading the MLB in Impact! Check the detailed image extract further down to see how Jeter, Prince, A Gonzales, and Dunn have done.

(click on each image to enlarge)

The image below show just a few of the players above. Email me for a full list @ aneezkanji@hotmail.com

Ok, so now we know we now how the top players in terms of At Bats did, but it begs the question of how each performed. Here is an image for your viewing pleasure and it includes ALL at bats for the year. It is organized in the same manner.

You'll notice that in terms of Impact, the teams you would expect to make the playoffs have done so. The only expection being the mighty Phillies.

Note: i) Impact by team doesn't take into account team's pitchers who obviously contribute to a successful playoff run.

...and finally, a map showing Impact, just because I could! (Size = Impact, Colour = Win percentage. Red < .500; Green > .500 (the darker the shade, the further to the end of the scale.)

Hope you enjoyed that, let me know your thoughts, feedback, any errors you spot, and if you want to know about any other players!

Thanks - Aneez

Impact Stat @ the 2009 All Star Break !

It's that time of the year again where I run The Impact Stat for MLBers! (As always refer to the methodology page for calculations)

For the All Star break, I've looked at players who have had at least 250 total plate appearances up to this point, along with each team's performance, plus a look at the Toronto Blue Jays line-up.

Here goes...

(Click on each image to expand)

Players by Average - This image shows the Top 30 players by Batting Average (AVG blue dots), along with their On Base Percentage, (OBP, red dots) and their IMPACT stat in the white bars. It's obvious to see that MVP candidate A Puljos is not only leading in OBP but also way ahead in IMPACT with an average of .544! That means he makes a positive contribution (IMPACT) better than every 2 plate appearances!

Players by IMPACT - This image shows the Top 30 players by IMPACT with A Puljos leading the way. The best way to read this is to look at the gap between OBP (red dots) and the top of the IMPACT bars. The bigger the gap, the better the IMPACT (A Puljos, C Jones). Those who have an IMPACT lower than OBP have not contributed in the form of positive outs like Sacrifice Flies or Sacrifice Bunts (K Youkilis, C Utley).

Team IMPACT - The teams below are organized by win percentage. Washington on the left and MLB leaders Dodgers on the right. As you can see the teams on the right have the highest batting averages, high OBPs, but also have high IMPACT stats which means they have the ability to keep the lineup moving and generate runs. This is most evident as the Top 5 teams OBP is even higher than most other teams IMPACT as a whole!

Toronto Blue Jays - As a lifelong Jays fan, I always look at how the team is doing. I've taken a look at the Jays who have had at least 250 visits to the plate. The graph below shows the players in order of AVG. The player with the best IMPACT is surprising!

It's Lyle Overbay! He has the lowest AVG of the 8 players, however his IMPACT is helped by his high OBP and additional positive outs. Marco Scutaro is also up leading the team in IMPACT. It's interesting to see the Alex Rios has a lower IMPACT than his OBP!

Please share any comments you may have!

Thanks - Aneez

Impact Stat 2008: Toronto Blue Jays

The 2008 Toronto Blue Jays listed below.

David 'Ecks-Factor' Eckstein lead the Jays in Impact in 2008, and also had a decent Batting Average to back that up. His CH5 was also an impressive .106, leading the team of active players!

Matt Stairs, the Jays player with the biggest 2008 CH5 was traded to the Phillies late in the season and was instrumental in helping the team win the World Series.

Other notes on this team:
-V Wells who was injured for 1/3 of the season was still in the Top 5 of overall Impact and most traditional batting stats.
- A Rios, who had a great BA of .291, only had a .056 CH5 which placed his total Impact for the team in the bottom half of all players.

Go Jays in 2009!

Impact Stat 2008: by Team

Below is the 2009 Impact Stat and CH5 (Net Impact) by team.

The strongest team at the plate in terms of traditional stats were the Texas Rangers leading the way in BA, SLG, and OPS.

I've highlighted the 2 teams who played in the World Series, both had below average batting stats, however with CH5 they had just about average batting stats, and almost identical Impact Stats! You'll notice that these teams did not have the highest Impact Stat, that honour went to the Boston Red Sox with .378 Impact.

You'll also notice that the 2008 World Series Champions had the highest Net Impact in the majors! The Clubhouse High 5's were certainly in season in 2008 for the Phillies!

Impact Stat 2008: by Player

Posted below are the top 40 players in MLB by Impact Stat. I've also included a new stat called 'Net Impact' which is the Impact minus Batting Average. This tells you the positive outcomes of a plate appearance aside from a hit. Some baseball fans I've spoken to refer to 'Net Impact' as the "Clubhouse High 5", so I'll refer to it as the 'CH5' from time to time as well.

The green highlights below show stats in the top 10 of the category, the gold highlights show the top stat in each. As you can clearly see Albert Pujols is head and shoulders above everyone else in both BA and Impact. What I found most interesting was his CH5 (Net Impact). Even though his BA is top of the league, his CH5 is also at the top of the table as well with a CH5 of .170, meaning when he didn't get a hit, he still contributed to the team in a positive way more so than everyone else in the Majors!

The only expection is Adam Dunn who had a CH5 of .177. His BA was a mere .236, if this could be bought up a few points, Adam Dunn would be a very valuable addition to any team!

(P/PA is pitches per plate appearance, I've included it for my own interest.)