Free The New Ballgame: Understanding Baseball Statistics for the Casual Fan by Glenn Guzzo

straight season with at least 80
extra-base hits. One hundred extra-base hits? Pujols reached 99 in 2004. Hank
Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Ted Williams never got close. But
Colorado's Todd Helton has done it twice (in 2000 and 2001). Lou Gehrig did
it twice (in 1927 and 1930) and Gehrig topped 80 an amazing 10 times.
Walks (W or BB)
    On-base percentage is overtaking batting average in significance, but it rarely
appears on scoreboards. Patience is a virtue: Players who walk often have the
highest on-base percentages. Look for players whose walks are at least 10%
of their total at-bats (average is 8-9%).
Stolen bases (SB) and caught stealing (CS)
    Stolen bases are thrilling plays. A speedy runner's presence on first base can
distract the pitcher, catcher and infielders enough to help the batter. And yet
in 2006 only 85 players (fewer than one in ten) stole at least 10 bases, while
202 hit at least 10 home runs. Most players do not steal any bases in a season.
They might be too slow, in the lineup for their slugging instead of their speed,

76 • The New Ballgame
    or it might be that they play for slugging teams in hitter-friendly ballparks,
where multi-run innings occur often enough to make the risk of an out on the
bases too costly.
    Speed alone is not enough. Savvy and timeliness matter. Repeated studies have shown that, on average, stolen bases produce more runs only when
the baserunning thieves are successful more than two-thirds of the time. In
2006, the average success rate was 71%. So note how often a player is caught
stealing before judging his effectiveness.
    A smart baserunner can steal 15, even 20 bases in a season on quickness and guile. But once you see that a player has stolen 25 or more bases,
you know that he is legitimately fast. Today, it takes about 60 stolen bases (in
some earlier eras considerably more, in some others considerably less) to lead
the league, but there are few contenders.

    There are many slang terms for home runs, including the archaic
"long ball" and "round-tripper." The term "four-bagger" has survived
surprisingly long. Use the hipper "clinger" to create a more up-to-date
impression.
    In conversation, Runs Batted In or RBI is sometimes shortened to
"ribbies."
    If a player is hitting below .200, he might be said to be hitting "a buckninety" or "a buck-seventy-five," but the buck stops there. A player
hitting .200 or higher simply is hitting "two-fifty" or "three-twenty."
    George Brett, the Hall of Fame third baseman who hit .305 over a
21-year career from the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s, coined
a phrase still popular: If you're hitting below .200, you're "below
the Mendoza line." That refers to wimpy-hitting shortstop Mario
Mendoza-career average .215. In the long list of Sunday statistics
published by newspapers, players are ranked in order of their batting
averages. In Brett's day, Mendoza's stats often were the last line
published.

PITCHING STATISTICS
Wins and Losses
    Like batting average for hitters, wins is the shorthand to describe the value of
starting pitchers.
    "He's a 20-game winner" says less about the player's actual statistics
than his status as an ace of the pitching staff. A 15-game winner is a guy you
want-good and reliable, but not a star. A ".500 pitcher"-a pitcher who loses
as many as he wins-is what you settle for when you can't find someone
better.
    With 20 wins being a benchmark for a season, you can see why 300
career wins is a sure ticket to the Hall of Fame. That's the equivalent of fifteen
20-win seasons. Most of the pitchers in the Hall have not achieved 300 wins.
    The pitchers who have reached 300 wins often have taken long routes.
    Don Sutton won 324 games, more than most Hall of Fame pitchers, but
won 20 in a season only once. His career, mostly with the Los Angeles Dodgers, was unusually long-23 years.
    Greg Maddux, still active in 2006, had won 333 games for the Chicago
Cubs, Atlanta Braves and Los