The Odd Stat of the Week

Issue: Can we get some more weird baseball stats?

Short Answer: I can make that happen.

Reasoning: Baseball, more than any other sport, is a game of stats.  If you would like to know how often Joey Votto got a base hit, on a 2-2 count, against right-handed pitchers, during night games, on Tuesdays in April, I pretty much guarantee you could find it.  Or, at least, that someone out there is keeping such a stat.  Most novice baseball fans may think the stat keeping is a bit out of hand.  It isn't.  Baseball (kind of like poker) is about the maximization of odds.  See, in a game where if a hitter succeeds 3 out of 10 times, he ends up in the Hall of Fame, stats matter (could you imagine an NBAer shooting 30% from the field, or an NFL QB completing 30% of his passes?).  Baseball is a game of failure, so, managers must put their teams in the best possible situation in order to succeed, and stats help them do that.

Not only are there a million stats out there, some of them are tough to decipher.  Most baseball fans have heard of the stats, but few can tell you what they actually mean.  Take for example:

• Batting average - This stat tells you what percentage of the time a player actually gets a hit.  However, when figuring out batting average, only "at-bats" are used, not "plate appearances."  Walks, hit by pitches, and sacrifices (bunts and flies) count as "plate appearances" but not "at-bats."  Therefore, if a player has 100 "plate appearances" with 25 walks and 25 hits, the player has a batting average of .333 (25 hits in 75 at-bats).
• On-base % - This stat tells you what percentage of the time a player actually reaches base.  Here, all "plate appearances" (not just "at-bats") are used.  Using the example above, the player has an on-base % of .500 (50 times on base in 100 "plate appearances").
• Slugging % - This stat tells you how many bases the player averages per "at-bat" (notice I didn't say "per plate appearance").  The highest slugging % a hitter can actually have is 4.000, if, in fact, he hit a home run every single time he came to the plate.  If a hitter managed a single every single time up, his slugging % would be 1.000 and his batting average would be 1.000 (oh, and he would be the greatest player of all time).  All one must do to figure this stat is add up a player's total bases (1 for a single, 2 for a double, 3 for a triple...do I need to continue?) and divide that number by the total number of "at-bats."  Right now, Troy Tulowitzki is leading the National League (I would have done the Major League leader, but it's Alex Rodriguez and I don't want to say anything good about him) with a .729 slugging % (10 singles, 5 doubles, 1 triple, 7 home runs = 51 total bases/70 at-bats = .729), which means, in essence, that every time Tulowitzki comes to the plate, he will get his team almost 3/4 of a base.  Yeah, baseball is weird.

I tell you all of the above for educational purposes (not real sure I managed that, but, oh well), and to set up the Odd Stat of the Week.  When I first heard the stat, I couldn't believe it.  On Monday, April 18, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Philadelphia Phillies went into extra innings.  After no score in the 10th or 11th innings, the Brewers came to bat in the top of the 12th.  This is what happened:

1. Rickie Weeks walks;
2. Carlos Gomez sacrifice bunts and a throwing error allowed him to reach and Weeks moves to third (official score says, even though there was an error, Gomez is still credited with a sacrifice);
3. Ryan Braun hits sacrifice fly to center, Weeks scores;
4. Prince Fielder hit by pitch, Gomez to second (wild pitch then moves Gomez to third and Fielder to second);
5. Casey McGehee intentionally walked;
6. Yuniesky Betancourt sacrifice fly to left, Gomez scores;
7. Mark Kotsay intentionally walked.

That's right, 7 hitters, 2 runs, 0 official at-bats.  Remember folks, walks, hit by pitches, and sacrifices do not count as official at-bats (plate appearances, yes, at-bats, no).  Those who know and love baseball, know how quirky 7 straight hitters coming to the plate without an official at-bat is.  For those that don't know and love baseball, take it from me, this is crazy.  For the record, the 8th hitter of the inning, Jonathan Lucroy, singled to right scoring Fielder but McGehee was gunned down at the plate to end the inning.  The stat line for the Brewers 12th: 1 hit, 1 at-bat, 3 runs.  I love baseball.