The fact that we are even being mentioned is huge...this team has grit. We can get it done!
The fact that we are even being mentioned is huge...this team has grit. We can get it done!
“Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.”
Lou Holtz - Football Coach
"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have." - Thomas Jefferson
"Bring back the rotary phone so we don't have to press 1 for English."
www.casadice.com
Need the bats we saw agaist USM on friday, not the ones we saw on Saturday and Sunday.
Too true. Gotta have the sticks come alive against Rice. Margin for error against them is slim.
Rice team ERA- 3.23
Tech team BA/BAPS- .286/.711
Tech team ERA- 3.56
Rice team BA/BAPS- .267/.616
Tech fielding %- .975
Rice fielding %- .973
Tech team WHIP- 1.30
Rice team WHIP- 1.25
From these stats, it can be inferred that Tech hits a little better, but Rice pitches a little better. Both field rather cleanly and are both in the top 40 in the country in keeping runners off base. Going to be a hell of a series. On paper, the two teams looks really even. That's why they play the games though!
To truly evaluate hitters, you really need to go beyond just BA and OBP (which is very easy now with sabermetrics), but for the sake of this discussion we'll assume those are the only 2 stats available. OBP shouldn't be seen as a superior statistic to BA; it should be seen as a complement so that you can take a batter's walk rate into account, which BA does not do.
While walks are valuable relative to outs, they are the least valuable outcome for a batter that reaches base. Singles and walks are equal in the sense that they both get the batter only to first base, but with a walk, the batter can only advance the runners ahead of him by one base. With a single, he has the chance to advance the runners further than one base, and he typically will with a nicely-placed hit to the outfield.
With that being said, I could argue that the player with a lower OBP in your scenario is probably better for his team offensively because he successfully puts the ball in play more often (higher BA) and therefore does a better job overall of advancing runners. That player would likely have more RBI as well. The first player in your example is really just a bad hitter, but he walks a lot. "Player 1" is probably a leadoff guy because of his high OBP, while "Player 2" probably hits somewhere between second and fourth.
I absolutely see what you are saying and honestly this subject is based off of opinion. In my opinion, the job of a hitter is to get on base as much as possible which I believe will lead to more runs. If you look at a team like the Chicago Cubs, they are 10th in MLB in BA, but first in OBP, and are 2nd in MLB in scoring runs. Very few teams posess enough power in the middle of a lineup to offset a bad OBP. OBP has been what Tech has thrived at all year, they have more BB/HBP than K's which is absolutely outstanding and has lead to more runs scored this season than any season I can remember since the new bats were put in place. The more a team gets on base, the more pitches a pitcher throws, the closer you are to getting to a teams middle relief pitching which is almost always the weakest arms. Again, this is just my opinion.
Your point certainly has merit to it, especially when you begin to take pitch counts into account. Low BA/High OBP guys have value in a lineup, usually at the top where they have low risk for hitting into double plays or stranding runners, but a high chance of scoring with decent batters behind them. The guys with higher BA are more useful throughout the middle of the order because they do a better job at actually bringing the runners home. The bottom line is that the best value comes from a guy with a good BA and a high walk rate. To use your player examples again and assuming no single player has both the highest BA and OBP, your best value hitter would be "Player 3" with somewhere around .275 average and .345 OBP.
Like I said before, you really need to go beyond BA and OBP to truly evaluate hitters, but that whole discussion of sabermetrics can be saved for another day and thread.
Southern Miss loses to Fla International; any effect on the standings?
5/19/16 at Florida International * Miami, Fla. L, 6-5 (10)
Marshall could end up being #1. Southern Miss won the series if it's a tie. Last week's FAU/Rice rainout could be huge loss for one of those teams.
Team Conference Wins Conference Win % Games Back Overall Wins Overall Win % Streak Marshall 21-8 0.724 - 32-18 0.640 W 2 Southern Miss 20-8 0.714 0.5 36-16 0.692 L 1 Florida Atlantic 20-8 0.714 0.5 36-15 0.706 W 3 Rice 19-8 0.704 1 32-18 0.640 L 3 Louisiana Tech 17-11 0.607 3.5 35-16 0.686 W 1 Old Dominion 14-15 0.483 7 31-22 0.585 L 2 Florida International 13-15 0.464 7.5 26-27 0.491 W 4 Charlotte 11-16 0.407 9 22-29 0.431 L 1 UAB 11-17 0.393 9.5 20-33 0.377 W 1 Western Kentucky 10-19 0.345 11 24-29 0.453 L 9 UTSA 7-20 0.259 13 16-34 0.320 W 1 Middle Tennessee State 5-23 0.179 15.5 20-34 0.370 L 1
Marshall & FAU already won today.
Charlotte & UAB are fighting for last spot. Today's game was PPD due to weather. They'll have DH tomorrow.