Sunday, September 16, 2012
Leaders in GPA
Posted by Glenn DuPaulIn 2003, former THT writer Aaron Gleeman, invented a statistic called Gross Productive Average. The statistic was meant to be a better version of OPS, by using:
- A simple acronym (GPA)
- A scale close to batting average, which is easier for the casual fan to interpret than OPS
- Weighting on-base percentage onto the same scale as slugging percentage
Ive always been a big fan of GPA because it’s easy to calculate by hand (OBP*1.8+SLG)/4)), and it is actually does a better job than the widely accepted OPS. There are better metrics out there for evaluating offensive performance, like wOBA, TAv and wRC+. But I think a “transitionary” older statistic like GPA still could be relevant.
Colin Wyers, another former THT writer, told me on Twitter that he still thinks there’s a place for the older statistics (like GPA), because they are easy to work with and can teach a lot when played around with. But at the same time, he wasn’t sure that they should appear on leader boards (GPA is not currently displayed on any internet leaderboard).
Colin’s probably right. If wOBA, TAv and wRC+ are better than GPA and are already on leader boards, then there’s probably not a place for it. But I decided it would be fun, and could also demonstrate some differences between OPS and actual run creation, if I created a GPA leader board, for this season.
Mike Fast did this before with kwERA, another simple and underrated statistic.
When calculating GPA I didn’t adjust for park, which the original GPA does, because I wanted to keep things as simple as possible. Also, I’m not a huge fan of park factors at the moment.
I listed the top 20 hitters and bottom-five hitters through Saturday (minimum 400 plate appearances, below:
| Name | GPA | OPS |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Joey Votto | 0.355 | 1.046 |
| 2. Andrew McCutchen | 0.326 | 0.977 |
| 3. Miguel Cabrera | 0.324 | 0.983 |
| 4. Ryan Braun | 0.322 | 0.978 |
| 5. Mike Trout | 0.320 | 0.962 |
| 6. Buster Posey | 0.320 | 0.953 |
| 7. Edwin Encarnacion | 0.313 | 0.947 |
| 8. Prince Fielder | 0.310 | 0.917 |
| 9. Giancarlo Stanton | 0.307 | 0.948 |
| 10. Josh Hamilton | 0.307 | 0.944 |
| 11. Melky Cabrera | 0.305 | 0.906 |
| 12. David Wright | 0.304 | 0.896 |
| 13. Robinson Cano | 0.301 | 0.909 |
| 14. Adrian Beltre | 0.300 | 0.913 |
| 15. David Murphy | 0.299 | 0.884 |
| 16. Carlos Gonzalez | 0.299 | 0.894 |
| 17. Allen Craig | 0.298 | 0.903 |
| 18. Joe Mauer | 0.298 | 0.861 |
| 19. Matt Holliday | 0.298 | 0.891 |
| 20. Dexter Fowler | 0.298 | 0.878 |
Bottom Five:
| Name | GPA | OPS |
|---|---|---|
| Casey Kotchman | 0.211 | 0.618 |
| Justin Smoak | 0.200 | 0.589 |
| Cliff Pennington | 0.199 | 0.580 |
| Clint Barmes | 0.196 | 0.576 |
| Brendan Ryan | 0.195 | 0.554 |
Glenn is an Economics major at Lehigh University. He works as a Research & Development intern for Baseball Info Solutions. He also writes about sabermetrics for Beyond the Box Score. You can follow him on twitter @Glenn_DuPaul or email him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
I care for such info much.
Muy bien escrito el post, gracias