My Ideal Metric - TOTAL bases

[NeckDownAllStar]

Ha, definitely not. I’m curious what he’s looking at here. I’d like a little more explanation of this data.

A career in computer network administration resulted in me becoming somewhat proficient at writing computer scripts to manipulate text data.

I wrote a script to download a series of web pages like the example links below, with which I have no doubt you are already familiar:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=duranja01&year=2024&t=b

https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BOS/2024-batting.shtml

Thus, over the past few months I have been downloading the HTML pages of BBRef’s Batting Splits and Team Baserunning/Misc data. Typically, I will feed a list of all MLB players in a given year to my script that will generate the web link. Below is Devers’ splits for 2024. If you look closely, the link differs from Durans’ above only in the unique player ID.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=deverra01&year=2024&t=b

I put a “sleep“ function of a few seconds in the code as it generates web links and downloads the HTML data so it does not slam the crap out of the BBRef web site. Then I let it run slowly all night.

I have done this for all players and all teams since 1988 (when Count/Balls-Strikes data became available as my initial unfruitful project was related to pitch counts) – and also for selected years/teams before 1988.

For example, 1950 interest me because the 1950 Red Sox scored 1,027 runs – the most since Lou Gehrig got sick. The 1999 Indians were the other team to score over 1,000 runs (1,009) post-Gehrig but the Sox had no DH, nor much in the way of applied chemistry, and Ted Williams played only 89 games because he broke his elbow during the All Star game. So, I study that team a bit.

I have downloaded a lot of data from BBRef – just the Batting Splits are close to 59,000 files and 27 GB of data. The base running data is smaller. I have also downloaded some Plate Discipline data from Baseball Savant – but it is a good bit tricker to parse and it is only available from 2015 on.

I then create scripts to parse those HTML files, extract the data I want and write it to .CVS files that a spreadsheet can open.

For example the 2024 Batting Splits CVS file has 290 columns with headings like:

Year,Team,Player,Season Games Played,Season Games Started,Season Plate Appearances,Season At Bats,Season Runs,Season Hits,Season Doubles,Season Triples,Season Home Runs,Season Walks,Season Strike Outs...

Bases Empty Plate Appearances, Bases Empty At Bats, Bases Empty Runs,Bases Empty Hits, Bases Empty Doubles, Bases Empty Triples, Bases Empty Home Runs...Man On First Plate Appearances, Man On First At Bats, Man On First Hits, Man On First Doubles, Man On First Triples,Man On First Home Runs…

That 2024 Batting Splits file has 727 rows – one for each MLB player that at had least one Plate Appearance this past season.

Similar data has been downloaded for the BBRef base running data – parse downloaded HTML files and put the relevant data in to .CSV files.

Then, more scripts to spin out the data in the .CVS files to generate the kinds of numbers and relationships I posted above.

 

[NeckDownAllStar]

Final stats for the year...

Hitting:

View attachment 89618

Most TTB:
1. Duran, 445
2. Devers, 358
3. O'Neill, 242

Most TTB/PA
1. Duran, .590
2. Devers, .567
3. O'Neill, .562

Most TTB/Out
1. Duran, .901
2. Devers, .884
3. O'Neill, 855

Most TTB Runs/27
1. Duran, 3.44
2. Devers, 3.37
3. O'Neill, 3.27

Pitching:

View attachment 89619

@BaseballJones,

I have a quick question about your numbers here as I am trying to correlate them with things I have been looking at.

I think your column 3 (TB) is the traditional measure of Total Bases and column 12 (Total Bases) is your measurement of Total Bases that starts with Traditional TB and then adds walks, HBP, SB, BT and subtracts DP, Caught Stealing,and OOB.

And column 13 (TTB) seems to be your Total Bases with DP, Caught Stealing, and OOB not subtracted out.

I have looked at only Duran and Devers and what I think I see fits with my description.

I am correct in this?

I ask, because I have a bunch of data I think I can use if I understand how you arrived at your numbers

 

[NeckDownAllStar]

I have been playing around with BBJones’ TTB calculation using a chunk of data I have from the Baseball-Reference web site. What BBJones calls Total Bases, which is not traditional total bases, I am calling New Total Bases so I can keep variables straight in my scripts.

Thus far, I have been able to calculate TTB/27 and rank the players data based on at least 50 Plate Appearances. I kept the PA qualification low in the hopes I would see some interesting names of players who had just broken in to the majors. As Bear Bryant once said about playing freshmen, “If a dog is going to bite you, he will do it as a puppy.”

And sure enough, in 1974 a pre-rookie Fred Lynn led the league in TTB/27 over his 51 PA that year. Of course, 1975 was his titanic rookie season – rookie of the year, MVP, and a gold glove too. He was 5th in the league in TTB/27.

The players listed are baseball’s top 5 in TTB/27 followed by the data for Red Sox players that year with their ranking.

Because I am a fanatic about strikeouts, I also included the players’ SO/PA.

1974 Data

Year	Name	PA	Outs	Trad TB	Trad TB Rank	New TB	New TB Rank	New TB/PA	New TB/Out	TTB	TTB Rank	TTB/PA	TTB/Out	TTB/27 Outs	TTB/27 Outs Rank	SO/PA	SO/PA Rank
1974	Fred Lynn	51	29	30	335	35	340	0.686	1.207	38	344	0.745	1.310	35.379	1	0.12	270
1974	Joe Morgan	641	395	253	24	436	2	0.680	1.104	463	2	0.722	1.172	31.648	2	0.11	303
1974	Mike Jorgensen	366	217	140	161	217	117	0.593	1.000	229	125	0.626	1.055	28.493	3	0.11	295
1974	Willie McCovey	443	268	174	113	273	68	0.616	1.019	282	77	0.637	1.052	28.410	4	0.17	126
1974	Mike Schmidt	686	442	310	2	440	1	0.641	0.995	465	1	0.678	1.052	28.405	5	0.20	83
1974	Carlton Fisk	216	142	103	204	131	202	0.606	0.923	139	207	0.644	0.979	26.430	8	0.11	291
1974	Carl Yastrzemski	633	401	229	49	335	20	0.529	0.835	365	18	0.577	0.910	24.576	14	0.08	388
1974	Bernie Carbo	402	278	140	158	195	140	0.485	0.701	217	134	0.540	0.781	21.076	55	0.22	55
1974	Dwight Evans	514	363	195	82	235	98	0.457	0.647	254	101	0.494	0.700	18.893	117	0.15	176
1974	Rico Petrocelli	509	357	191	89	230	106	0.452	0.644	249	107	0.489	0.697	18.832	119	0.15	194
1974	Rick Miller	323	227	98	209	144	188	0.446	0.634	158	187	0.489	0.696	18.793	120	0.15	189
1974	Cecil Cooper	454	320	164	127	195	138	0.430	0.609	208	149	0.458	0.650	17.550	172	0.16	140
1974	Danny Cater	140	103	51	281	60	287	0.429	0.583	66	289	0.471	0.641	17.301	179	0.09	347
1974	Juan Beniquez	423	318	139	162	173	168	0.409	0.544	198	160	0.468	0.623	16.811	197	0.14	201
1974	Tommy Harper	504	375	141	155	202	129	0.401	0.539	227	128	0.450	0.605	16.344	210	0.13	240
1974	Dick McAuliffe	316	231	87	223	122	212	0.386	0.528	134	214	0.424	0.580	15.662	234	0.13	247
1974	Jim Rice	75	54	25	355	29	361	0.387	0.537	31	364	0.413	0.574	15.500	239	0.16	159
1974	Rick Burleson	415	306	143	152	151	181	0.364	0.493	174	178	0.419	0.569	15.353	246	0.08	373
1974	Doug Griffin	349	257	103	205	120	213	0.344	0.467	141	206	0.404	0.549	14.813	263	0.06	414
1974	Bob Montgomery	277	213	86	225	94	245	0.339	0.441	108	243	0.390	0.507	13.690	303	0.18	103
1974	Terry Hughes	79	58	19	384	28	370	0.354	0.483	29	370	0.367	0.500	13.500	313	0.23	48
1974	Tim Blackwell	135	99	33	320	42	323	0.311	0.424	47	320	0.348	0.475	12.818	336	0.16	135
1974	Mario Guerrero	304	239	80	241	83	258	0.273	0.347	103	248	0.339	0.431	11.636	364	0.07	399

 

[NeckDownAllStar]

1975 Data

Year	Name	PA	Outs	Trad TB	Trad TB Rank	New TB	New TB Rank	New TB/PA	New TB/Out	TTB	TTB Rank	TTB/PA	TTB/Out	TTB/27 Outs	TTB/27 Outs Rank	SO/PA	SO/PA Rank
1975	Joe Morgan	639	359	253	24	466	1	0.729	1.298	484	1	0.757	1.348	36.401	1	0.08	378
1975	Andre Thornton	473	282	192	85	294	43	0.622	1.043	304	57	0.643	1.078	29.106	2	0.13	220
1975	John Mayberry	683	419	303	5	428	2	0.627	1.021	448	2	0.656	1.069	28.869	3	0.11	272
1975	Fred Lynn	605	393	299	7	368	10	0.608	0.936	396	10	0.655	1.008	27.206	4	0.15	159
1975	Rod Carew	617	387	266	19	358	12	0.580	0.925	385	12	0.624	0.995	26.860	5	0.06	406
1975	Bernie Carbo	407	257	154	140	236	104	0.580	0.918	252	108	0.619	0.981	26.475	6	0.17	120
1975	Carlton Fisk	294	196	139	152	164	169	0.558	0.837	182	166	0.619	0.929	25.071	14	0.11	260
1975	Cecil Cooper	333	230	166	127	183	147	0.550	0.796	197	150	0.592	0.857	23.126	40	0.10	295
1975	Carl Yastrzemski	634	427	220	54	308	34	0.486	0.721	336	34	0.530	0.787	21.246	73	0.11	287
1975	Jim Rice	613	436	277	13	304	36	0.496	0.697	341	33	0.556	0.782	21.117	79	0.20	84
1975	Dwight Evans	470	326	188	93	232	106	0.494	0.712	252	109	0.536	0.773	20.871	83	0.13	198
1975	Juan Beniquez	288	212	102	211	119	218	0.413	0.561	144	206	0.500	0.679	18.340	144	0.09	320
1975	Rick Miller	131	95	25	353	48	325	0.366	0.505	54	324	0.412	0.568	15.347	251	0.15	161
1975	Rick Burleson	654	493	191	90	231	107	0.353	0.469	264	97	0.404	0.535	14.458	285	0.07	389
1975	Rico Petrocelli	454	340	134	162	156	177	0.344	0.459	182	168	0.401	0.535	14.453	286	0.15	163
1975	Tim Blackwell	157	117	33	333	51	316	0.325	0.436	57	318	0.363	0.487	13.154	331	0.08	359
1975	Bob Montgomery	206	161	62	267	68	287	0.330	0.422	72	294	0.350	0.447	12.075	355	0.18	113
1975	Doug Griffin	316	240	78	237	93	250	0.294	0.388	106	244	0.335	0.442	11.925	357	0.09	328
1975	Tony Conigliaro	69	56	14	399	21	395	0.304	0.375	23	397	0.333	0.411	11.089	372	0.13	197
1975	Bob Heise	138	107	30	345	35	349	0.254	0.327	37	351	0.268	0.346	9.336	399	0.04	434