Or when you need to get a run in from 3rd with less than two outs!
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None of which can be discerned from OPS, but can be from OBP and SLG. Which is why OPS is pointless as an evaluation tool.
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How often does that happen though? Four, five times a game? Eh?..ohâŚ
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Agreed. The stats that are combined in OPS (OBP and SLG) are what matters as an evaluation tool.
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If you want to know how much run production a guy will help generate, and for some stupid reason you could only know one of his OBP, his SLG, or his OPS, and nothing else about him, then you should ask for his OPS.
But thatâs a ludicrous scenario and not something anyone should care about.
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So I have to askâŚwhat is the âproper usageâ of a stat if not for evaluating players?
I donât think a statistic should be used if itâs not a good evaluation or comparison tool. OPS just became popularized by sabermetric people who probably got tired of just mentioning OBP and SLG independently.
It wonât tell you what kind of hitter he is, but a guy with an .800 OPS is a pretty useful guy.
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As far as I know, most teams donât really use result based stats much at all when evaluating players. They use stuff like statcast data. Swing speed, exit velocity, zone rate, etc. for hitters. Spin rate, velocity, vertical approach angle, etc. for pitchers. For projecting forward especially.
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Ok. I was just curious when you said âOPS has value as a stat if used properlyâ. Iâm wondering what you think that proper usage would be.
So is a guy with a .350 OBP and a .450 SLG.
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Quick conversational shorthand for overall production, and little more.
I think thatâs overstating it. They use statcast data like that quite a bit, especially when coaching/developing guys, but I donât think itâs accurate to say that performance isnât considered much when deciding which guys to acquire, divest, or where to slot in the lineup.
Deciding which player should be hitting 2nd and which 9th in your lineup should never be a quick conversation.
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Itâs hard to find a guy with an .800 OPS with OBP/SLG splits that disqualify him from being considered âuseful.â But your point very much stands; for anyone who wants to perform any analysis deeper than ranking a list of guys by OBP, it loses its value.
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Itâs more than coincidental that the best offensive players have the highest OPS. Itâs a useful to stat determine who has the best combined OBP and SLG. I wouldnât use OPS to decide a line up but I would use OBP and SLG to help with that process.
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This has long been my issue with OPS. It gives you less information than looking at OBP and SLG and you canât even get OPS without first knowing OBP and SLG. So whatâs the value in adding them together to give a cloudier picture of the player?
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Why the fuck would you want a pony?
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JERRY: I know, I hated those kids. In fact, I hate anyone that ever had a pony when they were growing up.
MANYA: âŚI had a pony.
(The room is dead quiet)
JERRY: âŚWell, I didnât really mean a pony, per se.
MANYA: (Angry) When I was a little girl in Poland, we all had ponies. My sister had pony, my cousin had pony, âŚSo, whatâs wrong with that?
JERRY: Nothing. Nothing at all. I was just merely expressingâŚ
HELEN: Should we have coffee? Whoâs having coffee?
MANYA: He was a beautiful pony! And I loved him.
JERRY: Well, Iâm sure you did. Who wouldnât love a pony? Who wouldnât love a person that had a pony?
MANYA: You! You said so!
JERRY: No, see, we didnât have ponies. Iâm sure at the time in Poland, they were very common. They were probably like compact carsâŚ
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About the only time I think OPS serves any real value on its own is as a quick snapshot if the OPS gap is substantial (at least 100 points or more between two or more hitters). That would tell me that one hitter is much more impactful than the others.
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