The Top 5 Twins September Call-Up Options

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, USAFChief said:

Batting average is neither outdated nor imprecise.

It should absolutely be part of the evaluation of hitters. Not the only thing, but part. In fact, I'd say a slash line of BA/OBP/SLG is a better snapshot of a hitter than wOBA, which hides, rather than illuminates hitting ability. And OPS, for example, wildly overrates someone like Gallo. A .300 hitter with Gallo's OPS is a much better offensive player. Much much better.

And WPA? LOL. Junk.

 

Wpa is literally RBI, only fancy. It is exactly what you argue for all the time. I'm really baffled by this statement. 

 

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/i-think-win-probability-added-is-a-neat-statistic/

[NeverSeenATwinsPlayoffWin]

3 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Batting average is neither outdated nor imprecise.

It should absolutely be part of the evaluation of hitters. Not the only thing, but part. In fact, I'd say a slash line of BA/OBP/SLG is a better snapshot of a hitter than wOBA, which hides, rather than illuminates hitting ability. And OPS, for example, wildly overrates someone like Gallo. A .300 hitter with Gallo's OPS is a much better offensive player. Much much better.

And WPA? LOL. Junk.

Kind of interesting that you mention OPS when I never mentioned it in my comment (I am in agreement that it naturally overrates slugging due to the fact that slugging is almost always a higher number than OBP). wOBA is actually a weighted average, which is why wOBA is much more precise than OPS, as it weighs offensive contributions more fairly. I am curious to hear why you feel wOBA "hides" offensive ability despite the fact that it accounts for XBH, HBP, intentional vs non-intentional BB, and uses PA instead of AB as the denominator. wOBA gives a much better snapshot of total offensive production than a traditional slash line, as 1) it is just one number and is easier to compare, 2) the denominators of the slash line are inconsistent, and 3) slugging disproportionately weighs XBH to offensive production (a triple is not 50% better than a double, on average, nor is a double twice as good as a single). 

WPA is not a great stat for hitters (as mentioned above, it's basically just RBIs with a college degree), but in my view, it is the best stat for relievers. Giving up 6 ER in one inning does not matter in the top of the 9th of a game your team was already losing 11-1. However, giving up one run in the bottom of the 9th in a tie game is much more damaging, yet ERA would not be able to tell this story. It's the reason why Jhoan Duran's 2022 season (1.86 ERA) is substantially better than Matt Wisler's 2020 season (1.07 ERA). Duran accumulated a WPA of 4.6 (in 67.2 innings), while Wisler's figure was only 0.7 (in 25.1 innings). ERA does not include strand rate, unearned runs (there still is some blame for the pitcher), or leverage. 

Again, it's the same message from me. Instead of using more accurate numbers that take many factors into account and weigh them properly, you chose to use unweighted and less holistic statistics because you are unhappy with the fact that some nerd is able to make more informed opinions on the game of baseball.