Baseball Beyond Batting Average

Mark and Andy fight the final battle of the WAR--offensive WAR. This Baseball Reference stat assigns a value to everything a position player does besides play defense. Although there are some confusing/debatable aspects to the metric, it does a good job of highlighting the players who have contributed the most on offense over the years. The hosts discuss the light cast by oWAR on players ranging from J. J. Hardy to Bill Bergen to Babe Ruth, and everyone in between. The show concludes with one of the most competitive and well-played rounds of Roll The Stat, the ridiculously addictive stat guessing game you've heard so much about.

Finally, an answer to the question, "Why are Mike LaCoss's WAR totals so different between FanGraphs and Baseball Reference?" Around this scalding-hot topic, Mark and Andy engage in a discussion about pitching WAR in general: How it's calculated, its pros and cons, and which pitchers rate as the best according to the stat. As always, the episode concludes with a round of Roll The Stat, the best baseball-stat-guessing game on any podcast anywhere. And if you hear any noise toward the end of the show, it's just me and the boys' static poppin'.

Mark and Andy start off the new year with their longest and funniest podcast yet--all in the name of explaining this thing called WAR. They start off with just the defensive component, called dWAR. While they can't explain every detail of every calculation, they attempt to show why the stat is useful and what it purports to measure. Of course, they run down the lists of baseball's best and worst fielders using dWAR as their guide, and wrap it up with a spellbinding contest of Roll The Stat, the most fun baseball stat guessing game ever known to man. Who knew advanced baseball metrics could be so fun?

Mark and Andy take a break from the normal focus on individual stats to roll out their first awards show. The hosts give their take on the existing traditional awards in each league, and then introduce their own awards, including The Bergen Award, The Alfredo Griffin Award, and The Ken Phelps Award, among others. Andy also challenges Mark to a new game--Which Was Bigger?--that you can play along with. The baseball season may be over, but the BBBA season never stops.

"Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing." So why not have a stat that tells you how much closer each play gets a player's team to winning? WPA attempts to do just that. While it may oversimplify things, attributing everything to the batter and the pitcher, it does do a good job of telling the story of what happened in the game. Mark and Andy break it down, figure out what a good WPA is, and tell you the players who have accumulated the most WPA in a career, a season, and even a game. To wrap it up, of course, they play Roll The Stat, the stat guessing game that determines who the real experts are. Maybe this time it's you.

After a brief hiatus, Mark and Andy are back to talk about how we take a position whose job it is to prevent runs and measure it with a stat in which more runs is better. Pitching Runs is actually not very complicated, but it is interesting nonetheless. Which pitchers throughout history have fared well according to this metric? Who has been slighted by the Pitching Run? Why is Mike LaCoss so fascinating? Learn the answers to these questions and then play along in a game of Roll The Stat, the stat guessing game that will demonstrate your newfound expertise.

Scoring runs is the ultimate offensive goal in baseball. We have a stat that can tell us how many runs a hitter's efforts contributed to his team above the average. It's called different things, including wRAA and Rbat, but they essentially mean the same thing. Our hosts take a long, sometimes serious, look at the stat, how it's calculated, and which players measure up using this metric. By the end of the episode, you'll feel smart enough to beat Mark and Andy in a round of Roll The Stat. Try not to brag too much, they're sensitive guys.

A baseball player's worth on the basepaths has for years been measured solely by his ability to steal bases. Baserunning Runs attempts to account for everything that happens after a batter leaves the batter's box, from stealing bases to taking extra bases to advancing on balks. Mark and Andy break it down for you in a simple way and find a stat that is intuitive and satisfying. Play along in a round of Roll The Stat, the stat guessing game, to test your newfound expertise. You'll never look at stolen base totals the same.

Baseball fans are always looking for the next great metric to evaluate players, but what about the truly terrible ones that have been around for a while? What's so bad about wins and saves anyway? Mark and Andy examine the rules surrounding these stats, delve into their history, and list leaders and losers. Finally, the show culminates in another round of Roll The Stat, the stat guessing game that will have you reaching for your abacus. Become an expert and beat the hosts!

OPS+ is a league-adjusted, park-adjusted version of OPS that Baseball Reference uses. Its formula is a little tricky and it has its drawbacks. But, all in all, it's an improved version of the flawed OPS stat that gets thrown around so much. Your hosts Mark and Andy dissect the stat and look at the OPS+ leaders and losers throughout history, and the best hitters for each franchise according to the metric. There are plenty of jokes and Heinie-humor to go around. And don't forget to stick around till the end to play Roll The Stat, the baseball stat guessing game. Can you beat the hosts? (Probably.)