Is it true that baseball is a game of statistics?

Can you give me an example where baseball statistics are misleading, and why?

Is it true that baseball is a game of statistics?
Saves stats can also be misleading, as can holds. Theoretically, a closer could give up 2 runs every time he comes into a game, have an ERA of about 18, and still be 20 for 20 in save opportunities.


Holds are the same - if a pitcher comes in with an 8 run lead, and gives up 7 runs, they give him a hold.


The other time is when they are based on too small a sample.An example might be when someone says that a particular hitter does well against a pitcher - he's hitting .600 in his career with a SLP of 1.200, but it turns out he's faced him in two games, and gone 3 for 5 with a home run.





EDIT:


I humbly stand corrected. Scratch it, and just use the same argument I used against the save.
Reply:Statistics surely help preserve the game for different generations.





In an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a brilliant engineer was talking to Wesley about recreating classic ball games. Wesley assumed through the holodeck and the engineer said something like "no my boy, in my mind, using recorded statistics on hits, at bats, pitches, fielding, I can recreate the game in my mind and is as enjoyable as any holodeck recreation"





Some stats are a bit misleading. A pitcher with a great ERA may be a great pitcher, or an average pitcher with a lousy defense.


Stolen bases (high or low) could be as much a manager/general manager's philosophy.





Wins, as someone mentioned can turn a good pitcher into a Cy Young contender because of Wins.





Strikeouts and no hitters has, MANY MANY TIMES, convinced people that a pitcher is the best of all time because they don't look at the other factors, like 2795 walks.





Stats do help in objectively measuring people rather than relying on a few snipits on the highlight reel.
Reply:I think that "Birds on the Bat" is correct that baseball is a game of inches, but much of the strategy does revolve around playing the numbers baseball statistics are much deeper than most sports. You can track stats for every different combination of runners on base, innings, verses right or left handed hitters, etc etc.





I agree that wins/losses for a pitcher is misleading because it is affected so much by your team's offense and because a win can be taken away from a pitcher after he's already been removed from the game. This is why people tend to focus more on ERA then on W/L.





Another stat that I've never liked too much is slugging percentage. I think you need to look at first at batting average, then at slugging percentage. A home run hitter can have a high slugging percentage but a low batting average. I'd rather have a .300 hitter with no power than a .220 hitter who can hit 40 home runs but he strikes out most of the time.





I've also never liked the category of saves for pitcher. Why is it that a guy who pitches 3 outs in the 9th without blowing a 2 run lead gets credit for a save, but a guy who comes in with runners on in the 7th gets out of a jam and goes 1-2-3 in the 8th gets no credit? (technically I guess he gets a "hold" but when was the last time you heard anyone talk about how many "holds" a relief pitcher had?)





Edit:


Of course as I'm talking about how nobody really looks at "hold" stats, Fozzy mentions it in the answer just above mine.
Reply:Baseball, unlike any other sports has based its rich tradition and history statistics. The numbers .406, 56, 755, 18, 2130 more than 2632 are as deeply embedded into our society as any event from an American History book.





I suppose if we look hard enough we can find that all stats are misleading to a certain degree. The "true meaningful stats" are only found during critical moments in a game. Example: it's one thing to hit a home run when you team is up or down by 10 runs but it's the home run that wins the game that counts. That goes for any type of hit. A pitcher can be shelled but if he leads after 5 innings he can still win. ERA's mean nothing if the pitcher goes 22-5 for the year.





Just an observation but winning has always been the bottom line in any sport. The only stat that counts for a player is how many rings did he win during his career.
Reply:Here is my best shot at it, if a player piles up numbers to reach a certain plateau like say Barry Bonds going for 40-40 by stealing bases in blowout games (did this to your Dodgers by the way!), that can be misleading, to me a players stats should be made in an effort to help the teams cause not to gain personal noteriety. When you look at a stat sheet though it will never say "SB (when it mattered)" it only says that he stole two bases in a game. In the record books though we look at numbers as concrete, we decide that our eyes decieve us and the numbers must truely tell the story. You hear of the greatness of a player from the past and think...well the numbers show him as average but people who watched the person play say that he was a faboulous selfless player that did anything for the team...Dom Dimaggio is an example of that, everyone who played with him in Boston said that he should have gotten more respect, we look at the numbers and they scream good but not great but the people that watched him say different.
Reply:There are so many stats that are misleading. An example would be "Wins" for a pitcher. Maybe the pitcher's offense has really dug him out of a hole or the opposite...they don't hit at all when he pitches. So a guy like Ryan Dempster (no offense) has 9 wins and Roy Oswalt has 5 or 6...Oswalt is way better but Dempster has the better offense.





And it's not a game of stats. It's a game of inches.
Reply:Batting average is slightly misleading. You could get on base on an infield hit that they might rule an error, and your batting average goes down. You also could hit a rocket to the outfield and the defense makes a great play. THe least misleading stats are on base % and slugging % because they show how valuable you really are to your team.
Reply:"Statistics are like lampposts: Use them for illumination, not for support."
Reply:Batting average- if a guy is a pull hitter and the defense always has a shift on him, he'll have a lower batting average eventhough he makes good contact.
Reply:Every sport is a game of stats!!!!
Reply:yeah
Reply:No! Baseball is not a game of statistics!! It is a game, however, with statistics. Just about anything these days, that a player or pitcher or umpire does on the field is being tracked and written down or transcribed in to a computer. The real trick is to decipher this mountain of information and find the meaningful statistics that can actually give you insight into what is really happening that makes a difference in winning or losing games. There are several websites that are trying to do this. I don't know how much headway these sites are making but, I do believe they are trying.


I agree that the present day save rule is stupid.


It used to be different and that artificial abomination of a hold stat wasn't needed.


Goose Gossage and Dick Radatz and Sparky Lyle and Joe Page et al, were all true relief pitchers and usually came in with game on the line.


A closer is exactly that, a "get three outs specialist" and who usually enters in the ninth inning with no one on and who only has to get three outs. Big Deal. What he should get is credit for a close, neither a win, or a save.


Padding your statistics by deliberately doing and getting equal credit for hitting or pitching or base running in a meaningless blowout type game is just poor sportmanship. Some one is watching and may some day have a chance to vote up or down such a player for the HOF. That goes for other types of cheating also. The sports writers and the fans don't forget such things, Which might explain why seemingly qualified candidates for the HOF are not voted in.