What is the most overrated stat in Baseball?

Question

And why? Actually, could you give me two? The most overrated for a batter, and the most overrated for a pitcher? Thanks!

Answer 1

The homerun and strikeout

Sammy Sosa: 602 Career homeruns. People have accused him of steroids, but he might get into the HOF, just because of that "magical number". News flash: Career .274 hitter, lifetime OBP .344. This basically means he wanted the homerun, and nothing else. I was watching something on ESPN, and most of his homers were in pointless situations, like his team was up by a lot, or down by a lot.

Everyone always says,"Gee, only 10 homeruns this season?" about every guy. Well, if he's driving in runs, it doesn't matter to me. Like, all the radio and TV personalities are talking about how Papi and Manny aren't producing for the Sox. It's mainly,"Not a lot of homeruns." Aren't they still driving in runs? Well, not really, but as long as a guy is driving in runs, that's all that matters to me.


As for the pitcher? The strikeout. If he doesn't have a lot of strikeouts, people just don't care.

Nolan Ryan: 5,714 career K's. He's the all-time leader in K's. He's also the all-time leader in BB's with 2795. Yes, he was a great pitcher, but people forget that about him.

On ESPN highlights, they show a guy hitting a homer, or getting a strikeout. Never a stolen base, a forgotten stat. I read in "Juicing the Game" by Howard Bryant, that there was a commercial with Mark McGwire I think, about how "chicks dig the long ball". Baseball has basically said "the homerun is cool, and nothing else." I'm sick of everything being about the homerun!

Answer 2

The most overrated stat for batters is the RBI. It's just as much a factor of the players ahead of you as it is your ability to drive them in. There have been many players who had 100 RBI seasons and actually had a horrible team at the plate. In 1997, Joe Carter drove in 102, and had a negative VORP (value over replacement player), which implies anyone who would have batted cleanup in that lineup could have driven in 100 runs.

The most overrated stat for the pitcher is a close tie between W-L and ERA. But, I'll discuss wins and losses, because of how many factors are out of the pitcher's control.

For a pitcher to get the win, he needs to allow less runs than the opponent, and to keep it, the bullpen can't relinquish the lead for the rest of the game. So, if a pitcher throws a quality start, but his offense can't get any production going, the pitcher cannot win, in fact, he is likely the losing pitcher.

And, if he does leave the game with a lead, the book isn't closed... if the bullpen allows even the tying run to score, the win is gone.

This works both ways. If a pitcher leaves the game trailing, but the offense can get the lead back before the next pitcher comes in, despite the fact that the pitcher didn't directly do anything. All this is amplified in the AL, where the pitcher doesn't even contribute offensively.

Looking at last night, Scott Baker went 8 innings, allowing 3 hits, 1 walk, and one run. He got the loss. Dan Haren went 5.1 innings before being pulled, allowing 8 hits, 2 walks and 5 runs. He got the win. Does that mean Haren's start was better than Baker's? Jeff Weaver pitched an 8 inning gem, but got the no decision, because the game was tied when he left.

Those are my selections for overrated stats. They're triple crown stats that rely heavily on things the player can't control.

Answer 3

I would have to say that number of homeruns is way overrated for batters. A power hitter, like say Barry Bonds, is usually bad at other aspects of hitting. Batting average, on-base percentage, and RBI's is much more useful.

For closers, number of saves is overrated. Two closers could each have twenty saves but the one that did it in twenty-one attempts is much better than the one that did it in thirty attempts. Save percentage is much more useful.

For starters, the strikeout is given too much attention. While having ten strikeouts a game is nice, it doesn't really tell you how good of a pitcher you have. Opponent batting average, ERA, and WHIP all say a lot more about the quality of pitching.

Answer 4

Hm.. good question. Honestly I'd say Home Runs for batters. I mean, they do bring people out to the park, but if you're a "home run or bust" hitter, then you're probably doing more damage than good. For a pitcher would be strikeouts. Yes, I know they're a good thing to have but just because you average 1 strikeout per inning doesn't mean you're not giving up (excuse the double negative) alot of walks, hits and runs. The most underrated would be the WHIP because if you're giving up alot of walks and hits per inning, you're probably not doing so well in the ERA and Wins department.

Answer 5

Pitcher

Wins...they never truly show how good a pitcher is...a pitcher may win 20 games and have an era over 5 since the offense is so good and they score enough runs to help him win the game

For hitters I would say average...yea some guys might have like a .320 average but how good is that if they don't come thru in the clutch...like when guys are on base and his team is trailing by 2 and bottom of 9th and he strikes out...

Answer 6

HITTERS: the average; there are other better ways to evaluate a hitter such as on base and slugging.

PITCHERS: the wins, if you look at a pitcher with an ERA of 5 but a record of 5-1 and another wih an ERA of 3 with a record of 3-5, you can evaluate the pitcher with the lower ERA can be better. they can have less run support.

Answer 7

Wins and losses! Just kidding, it just seems like it sometimes with baseball's obsession with stats.

I would say home funs for offense, since a lot of times home run hitters are pretty bad at other things, like getting regular hits.

For pitchers, saves, since it depends on the number of opportunities. Save percentage is much more meaningful.

Answer 8

Batting: on base percentage. People can get hit with the ball, walk a lot, and a lot of other things to get on base besides getting a hit. That's why Barroid Bonds Has the highest OBP.

Pitching: Losses. A pitcher can pitch a great game and still not get the win or they could get a no decision because the bullpen blows it for them.

Answer 9

Quality starts for pitchers: I understand that giving up only 3 runs in 6 innings is a good start, but it doesn't take in to account number of pitches, hits, walks, ball/strike ratio. So it's kind of silly.

Runs scored: The only reason a runner scores is because the guy behind him gets the hit. Face it, we don't need it to see how good a hitter is, because the batting average and on base percentage tells us that.

Answer 10

saves has been watered down in the last 20 years.
MVP is more of a popularity contest than a stat