Pirate sabermetricians are going to like the new Pittsburgh Pirate GM. During a Q & A, Neal Huntington showed off his baseball smarts:
The Pirates upper management has widely ignored OBP (on base percentage) in the past. How important will OBP be in player evaluation under your leadership?
— Eric S., Pennsboro, W.VaWe are going to utilize several objective measures of player performance to evaluate and develop players. We’ll rely on the more traditional objective evaluations: OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage) , WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched), Runs Created, ERC (Component ERA), GB/FB (ground ball to fly ball ratio), K/9 (strikeouts per nine innings), K/BB (strikeouts to walks ratio), BB%, etc., but we’ll also look to rely on some of the more recent variations: VORP (value over replacement player), Relative Performance, EqAve (equivalent average), EqOBP (equivalent on base percentage), EqSLG (equivalent slugging percentage), BIP% (balls put into play percentage), wOBA (weighted on base average), Range Factor, PMR (probabilistic model of range) and Zone Rating.
That said, we will continue to stress the importance of our subjective evaluations. Succinctly stated, we believe that a combination of quality objective and subjective analysis will allow us to maximize our probability of success and to make the best possible decisions
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Considering what the Pittsburgh fans have had to deal with in the recent past (and believe me, I know. We’ve hear about from Bucs fan Todd V on The Baseball Zealot), they have to me drooling with anticipation. This guy sounds like he has a head on his shoulders.
/hat tip Baseball Musings
Bottom line, if the player is cheap he’ll be signed. That’s really all that matters to this organization.