Why Statistics are Better for Baseball than for Any Other Sport

There are many fundamental differences among the four major sports in the United States. Therefore, it is easier to predict future player performance in some than others. Baseball is by far the most statistic-heavy sport because of its one-on-one nature. The hitter faces off against the pitcher with very little influence from the other players. The pitcher and catcher decide upon a specific pitch and it is thrown. Then the batter attempts to hit that ball if it is close to the strike zone. It is relatively simple and for that reason, we can measure how a player fares with many numbers.

My favorite statistic for predicting player performance is BABIP (batting average on balls in play), which concentrates on how a batter fares when putting the ball in play (i.e. not hitting a home run or striking out during an official at bat). A typical BABIP is .300, accounting for only baseballs that are played by fielders. This allows us to isolate how fast a player is as well as how “lucky” he is when putting the baseball is in play.

While fielding metrics are relatively new to the baseball community, it is important to highlight how fielding can affect the game. Most people focus on the hitter and pitcher, but fielding is a large part of the game that is typically ignored. Even though fielding seems to be a variable that makes baseball more complicated, it still does not make predicting player performance as difficult as it is with basketball, football or hockey. In each of the three sports, football and hockey especially, every play is dependent on a large number of factors. For instance, in football, there are eleven players on the field for each side and almost each one has an impact on each play. In addition, with hockey, anyone trying to shoot on net has to deceive the goalie. The goalie is a huge part of the game and has to treat every shot differently because of the seemingly unlimited ways to score a goal. There are many methods behind analyzing sports, but you can be rest assured that with baseball, most of the statistics are reliable predictors of success.