OPS+ and pitchers in the NL

[dl4060]

Here is something I have been wondering about. In the NL, with the pitchers batting, would that not tend to skew OPS+ numbers? If pitchers get 1/9 of the atbats, or 1/11 because of pinch hitters, that means that people like Pujols are compared to a league where the average will be dragged down by the pitchers, and will thus make the best players in the league look better than they actually are. It would be interesting to see some stats which adusted for this. In a sense, the value of the runs Pujols creates is greater, because those runs are created in a run scarce environment, but it would still seem to me that NL stars get a boost in their relative stats because they are to some extent compared to pitchers. It would be interesting to see numbers generated only for everyday players, with the pitchers adjusted for.

[Tango Tiger]

Pitchers get 6 or 7% of the PA, not 11%. The OPS of a pitcher is about 50% that of a regular player.

Just as an illustration, if your nonpitchers are .760, your pitcher is .380. This will give you an overall average of .735. So, the nonpitchers get a 3.5% boost.

Then again, with interleague play, it's not like it's 6-7% for the NL, and 0% for the AL, but probably more like 5% for the NL and 2% for the AL, making the comparison levels off by maybe 2%.

So, if Pujols has an OPS of 170, maybe that should be 166.5.

i.e., don't sweat it.

[Ubiquitous]

Most if not all OPS+ numbers are without the pitcher line anyway so there is no real worry about the pitchers effect on OPS.

[digglahhh]

Most if not all OPS+ numbers are without the pitcher line anyway so there is no real worry about the pitchers effect on OPS.

Yeah, its unfair for Jose Reyes to have to compete against guys like Jason Marquis, Dontrelle Willis, Carlos Zambrano and Mike Hampton.

Damn you Jose- just WALK!!

[dl4060]

Most if not all OPS+ numbers are without the pitcher line anyway so there is no real worry about the pitchers effect on OPS.

Thanks for the info. I suspected it might be calculated that way, but I was not sure.

[argh]

ugh, dup post...

[argh]

Most if not all OPS+ numbers are without the pitcher line anyway so there is no real worry about the pitchers effect on OPS.

Can you elaborate on this? I thought all OPS+ was a straight up ratio of a park-factor adjusted OPS of an individual batter with the league OPS with no further adjustments.

e.g, something like (ops*some_park_factor)/league_ops

[Ubiquitous]

Not much really to elaborate on. OPS+ generally uses a hitters line without the pitcher.

Also OPS+ generally is not computed as one. Meaning it isn't OPS/lgOPS. ITs OBP vs parkfactored lg OBP plus SLG vs parkfactored LGSLG.