Ted Lilly, Ryan Theriot Traded
On Saturday, just hours before the trade deadline expired, the Cubs traded Ted Lilly and Ryan Theriot to the Dodgers for Blake DeWitt and several pitching prospects.
This move comes as no surprise, as the Cubs have more or less been out of the race in the NL Central for over a month. Lilly wasn’t likely to be back next season and Ryan Theriot is a 30 year old, light hitting second baseman that is going to start costing more money. The Cubs saved a bit of money with this deal and didn’t lose much in appreciable talent. DeWitt is, at worst, worth about as much as Theriot is, and at best is a very solid second baseman.
This is a good move by Jim Hendry that helps the Cubs next year.
Kelly Johnson to the Cubs?
There are rumors going around that the Diamondbacks are looking to trade second baseman to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for shortstop/second baseman Ryan Theriot and reliever James Russell. (more…)
Re-Visiting the Derrek Lee Contract
The Cubs signed Derrek Lee to a five-year $65 million deal in April 2006. It looked like a reasonable deal at the time, but unfortunately the Cubs have not gotten their money’s worth. (more…)
Understanding Sabermetrics: OPS+
This is the first in a series of articles that will outline various Sabermetric statistics. Some of you may say that Sabermetrics don’t matter and that it’s just a bunch of gibberish from a bunch of guys with too much time on their hands. Well, these posts aren’t for you. That said, there is a lot to be learned about baseball from Sabermetrics and for those that are interested in expanding their view of baseball, this series if for you.
This article’s focus is on OPS+, sometimes called Adjusted OPS.
What It Is.
Most baseball fans probably know what OPS is and that it’s component parts are On Base Percentage and Slugging Percentage. Many fans probably don’t know that OPS can be misleading in its “raw” state. Players that play in Cincinnati or Texas shouldn’t be held to the same standard as players who play in Seattle or San Diego. Therefore, OPS needs to be park adjusted. That’s step one. Step two is adjusting for the league the player plays in. Despite the fact that they are both playing major league baseball, the American and National leagues can be very different, at times, due to the DH rule. On top of that, hitters in the AL don’t face many pitchers from the NL during the regular season and vice versa, with the obvious exception being during inter-league play.
It is important to make these adjustments in order to get a more accurate look at how a player stacked up to someone playing in another park or another league.
How It’s Calculated.
Here’s how it’s done, for the statisticians out there:
OPS+ = 100 [(OBP/*lgOBP)+(SLG/*lgSLG) - 1]
So, OPS+ is essentially the player’s On Base Percentage divided by the park adjusted, league average On Base Percentage. Then, do the same for Slugging Percentage, subtract by 1 and multiply the resulting number by 100 and you have your number.
The number that comes out of this formula will be based on an average of 100, meaning an average baseball player will have an OPS+ of 100. Every point above or below that is one percentage point better or worse than average. For a reference point, Albert Pujols’ OPS+ in 2009 was 188. So, he was 88% better than average.
Why It Matters.
The easiest proof that OPS+ is better than OPS, alone, is found by looking at a leaderboard for OPS and comparing it to the OPS+ leaderboard. A lot of the names are the same, but in different orders. A guy like Adrian Gonzalez is going to be punished by OPS because he plays in the least hitter friendly park in baseball. But, when his numbers are adjusted based on the criterion outlined above, he becomes even more of a superstar than he already was before.
OPS+ matters because it offers a more accurate ranking of a player’s offensive contribution. That said, OPS+ is not the best offensive statistic out there. In more installments of this series, I’ll explain why.
Gorzelanny Living Up to His Potential
When the Cubs acquired Tom Gorzelanny from the Pirates last year he was viewed as a throw in and John Grabow was viewed as the bigger prize. Things have changed since last season. (more…)
