The New Ballgame: Understanding Baseball Statistics for the Casual Fan (13 page)

Stats are the language of baseball.

Before the first pitch on August 27, 2005, announcers Kenny Albert and
Tom Hutton have established the story line for this game between the Florida
Marlins and the Chicago Cubs at Chicago's Wrigley Field. The teams might
be mediocre-neither is playing like a team that expects to be in the postseason-but today's pitchers are cast as the leading men in a classic struggle
between experience and youth.

The Cubs are starting Greg Maddux, the 39-year-old master whose 315
wins in 20 seasons is 16' best of all time. The Marlins answer with 23-yearold upstart Dontrelle Willis who, up to this point in his third big-league season, has won 41, including 17 this season. Both are superior athletes-they
hit and run better than most pitchers and both are superior fielders. Each is a
classic example of the most talented kid in the neighborhood who gets to be
the pitcher.

Eight times Albert and Hutton will tell us of the statistical milestones
Maddux has reached due to longevity-his 15 wins or more in 17 consecutive seasons, his 14 Gold Gloves as the league's best fielding pitcher, and, of
course, his 315 wins. Eleven times they will tell us that a win today will be
number 18 this year for Willis-which will tie him with Carl Pavano for the most ever in a season by a Marlins pitcher and will tie him this season with St.
Louis' Chris Carpenter for the most wins in the National League.

Neither Albert nor Hutton mention it, but the story has more depth.
Maddux pitches with economy of motion and precision that understate his
competitiveness and cast him as the prototypical mentor. Willis is all animation-swiveling body, big leg kick, whipping pitches with the exuberance of
youth. Maddux is a right-hander, Willis a lefty. Maddux is white, Willis black.
This could be Anthony Hopkins teaching Antonio Banderas to be Zorro. In
any case, the stage for a pitching duel is set.

Both pitchers are quick workers, and when the expected duel develops,
this becomes a fast game-just two hours, twenty minutes-that involves no
pinch hitters, no pinch runners, and only two relief pitchers. Given less time
and less opportunity to present a deluge of statistics, Albert and Hutton overcome this obstacle with the ease of a 1-2-3 inning.

Even before Florida's Juan Pierre gets into the batter's box as the game's
first hitter, the broadcast provides us with twenty-five statistics. Some have to
do with the Maddux-Willis theme, but the stats set the stage with these props,
too:

• A graphic shows us stats for Marlins sluggers Carlos Delgado (25
home runs, 90 runs batted in) and Miguel Cabrera (27 and 90). Hutton adds that Delgado has hit 30 homers in eight straight seasons.

• Maddux' 19 wins vs. Florida for his career is more against the Marlins than any other pitcher. He is 1-1 vs. Florida this year. He has a
2.75 ERA lifetime against Florida.

• A standard graphic any time a pitcher enters the game: A vertical stat
grid showing this year's numbers for Won-Lost record (10-10), ERA
(4.56), starts (27), complete games (1), innings pitched (189 2/3),
hits allowed (185), walks (29) and strikeouts (104).

• Juan Pierre has a six-game hit streak, hitting .440 with 4 RBI and 8
runs in those games.

• Nomar Garciaparra is making his first start ever at third base, making him the 103rd Cub player at that position since the departure of
Cub All-Star Ron Santo.

On a cloudy Saturday afternoon in Chicago, it's clear that Albert and
Hutton expect a baseball-savvy TV audience. They offer no qualitative comment on any of these stats, except for Maddux' status as the number one
Marlins killer. We are supposed to understand that Delgado and Cabrera are
likely to reach the nice 30-homer and 100-RBI milestones, that Delgado's
streak of 30-homer seasons is long, that Maddux' 2005 stats are well below
his customary standards, that Pierre is suddenly very productive in a belowaverage season, and that Santo last played for the Cubs in 1973.

The first inning gives you a good idea of stats' role in this broadcast.

A standard batter graphic greets Pierre's first plate appearance: His season-to-date batting average (.265), home runs (2), and runs batted in (36), the
Triple Crown stats. This is displayed for every batter all game. After the first
time through the batting order, a second stat line shows what each batter has
done so far in today's game. Albert adds a bonus for Pierre's first time up: He
is "a .348 career hitter against Maddux, 8 hits in 23 at-bats."

Pierre takes first base after being hit by a Maddux pitch. Now that
the game is afoot, we're immediately informed by Albert that "Pierre has
44 steals, three in the last two games after going 12 games without a stolen
base." Good timing: Pierre swipes second and we learn that this theft ties him
with the Mets' Jose Reyes for the NL lead at 45.

We're on alert again: Marlins number two hitter Jeff Conine had three
hits yesterday and drove in three runs. When he sacrifices Pierre to third base,
Maddux fields the bunt flawlessly and we're told, "When you've won 14
Gold Gloves, you're not going to mishandle that."

That brings up Cabrera. His sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Pierre,
Albert notes, gives Cabrera 91 RBI for the season. The Marlins lead 1-0.

The bottom of the first starts with a weather stat: It's 77 degrees.

Then the line on Willis: "In three career starts here at Wrigley Field,
Willis has allowed only two earned runs in 19/3 innings." The vertical stat
graphic on Willis' season in progress:

The stats earn no comment from the announcers. You are supposed to
recognize that the record, ERA, CG (for complete games) and hits-plus-walks
per innings pitched are all considerably better than average.

Another graphic showing the Cubs' lineup highlights right-fielder Jeromy Burnitz. In his last seven games, he has hit .345 with 2 home runs and
10 RBI.

As leadoff hitter Jerry Hairston Jr. steps to the plate, we're told for the
third time that a win today will tie Willis with Pavano for the club record with
18 wins.

Hairston grounds out so promptly that number two hitter Todd Walker
is up before the broadcast can show us the graphic of the Marlins' defensive
alignment. Now we know that the Marlins rank fifth defensively in the NL
(though without explanation that this is determined by team fielding percentage). Curiously, though, Alex Gonzalez has committed 15 errors, the most by
an NL shortstop.

There's a reason why the left-handed hitting Walker is in the lineup
against Willis, who can be very tough on lefties: Walker is 2-for-3 in his career against Willis. Walker promptly singles to right.

Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee is up now. He's had a huge season. Despite going "0-for-4 yesterday with a couple of strikeouts" he's second in the
NL with 37 home runs and 91 RBI. But Lee, in a mild slump, hits a routine
fly out to right field.

Catcher Michael Barrett is batting fourth for the Cubs. That's unusual.
"Barrett is in the cleanup spot for the third time this season," Albert notes.
Baseball's team statisticians track everything. They provide a thick packet
of data to all media at the game. Barrett hits a groundball to shortstop that Gonzalez fields routinely and flips to second base for the fielder's choice that
ends the inning.

So far, we have many more stats than pitches. This continues for nine
innings. Maddux' fortunes show us how the statistical line becomes the story
line:

Maddux retires the Marlins 1-2-3 and Albert declares "A seven-pitch second
for Greg Maddux." We're supposed to know that this is highly efficient work
and a good sign that Maddux might pitch deep into this game.

This half-inning illustrates how stats are such a fixture in TV games that they
get on the air even when the timing for presenting them is irrelevant to the
game.

All this with Marlins catcher Matt Treanor at bat:

A graphic shows that Maddux' 315 wins places him 16t" all-time and
that Phil Niekro, who is number 15, has 318. Among active pitchers, Maddux
trails only Roger Clemens.

However, Albert adds, "Over his last 11 starts, Maddux has gone just
3-6."

Tom Glavine, who pitched for years as Maddux' teammate in Atlanta,
is pitching for the Mets now. He's going for win number 273 today in San
Francisco. Maddux won his 3 00t' game in San Francisco last August. Ali, the point: Since 1991, Maddux has won the most games-255-and Glavine is
number two.

None of this has anything to do with Treanor. Remember, Maddux and
Willis are the leading men in this show.

This continues with the Cubs at bat in the bottom of the third inning.
With top Cubs hitter Lee up, the camera switches to a close-up of Maddux
in the dugout. Now we learn that he is "the all-time leader in putouts by a
pitcher." This is about as obscure as stats get. Any fan who cares about pitcher
putouts has been well concealed.

We are alerted that since Juan Encarnacion's single, the Marlins' only hit
so far, Maddux has retired eight batters in a row. Oops. Encarnacion drills a
double to left field. Easley follows with a bunt between the pitching mound
and third base. Maddux is on it decisively with intent to throw to third. But
Garciaparra is not prepared and both runners are safe. It's Garciaparra's first
game as a third baseman, the announcers remind us, after playing 1,024
games at shortstop.

It's a tough spot for Maddux-runners at first and third and none out.
He gets Gonzalez to pop out. The broadcast producers then twice interrupt the
tension building in this inning.

First, they decide to show a video highlight from St. Louis, where
part-time outfielder So Taguchi has hit a two-run single to put the Cardinals
ahead. We're told that Taguchi "now has 44 RBIs," as if this ordinary number
achieved by a minor player is anything but meaningless at this late stage of
the season.

Then we get a graphic that had its place last inning alongside an interview with Marlins Manager Jack McKeon, who is nearing his 1,000' win:

MOST MANAGERIAL WINS