OBP/On Base Percentage
Who's on first????? Literally tho
Let’s dive headfirst into second base and discuss the importance of another essential statistic, On Base Percentage (OBP).
In my last newsletter, I covered Batting Average, a classic statistic that measures a player’s ability to get a hit. Batting Average is a good measure of a player’s offensive abilities, however, it does not paint the full picture of his or her offensive value. On Base Percentage provides a more well-rounded analysis of a player’s offensive value by accounting for multiple factors.
On Base Percentage can be determined by this equation:
A player’s OBP is determined by the number of his hits, walks, and hit by pitches divided by the number of at-bats, walks, hit by pitches and sacrifice flys. Each of these values constitute being on base. Any form of out or error is not accounted for in OBP.
The reason why people value OBP is because it adds in these extra circumastances while batting average only focuses on hits. A player can be seen in a more well-rounded perspective through OBP.
OBP did not have much influence until around 1984 when it became an official MLB statistic. OBP was founded in the late 1940’s by a Brooklyn Dodgers statistician named Allan Roth in conjunction with Dodgers GM Branch Rickey. The statistic gained notoriety with the 2003 book, Moneyball, as the Oakland A’s at that time focused on acquiring players with high walk rates.
Many people believe that OBP is more valuable than BA. While this can sometimes be the case, I prefer to use OBP in conjunction with BA. If a player has a low batting average but an average OBP, that can indicate that the batter, although he may not get many hits, still gets on base through walking. Therefore, that player can still add offensive value to his team and contribute to scoring runs. In the opposite form, a player can have a high batting average with a low OBP, meaning that although he may get a lot of hits, the batter probably does not walk very often which can contribute negatively to his team’s success. Getting on base in any way is crucial for a team’s success, which is why OBP is taken into account when evaluating players.
It is also important to note that OBP has the same weight for each of its values, so if a player hits a home run, that home run does not have more value than if the player were to walk. If a player goes 1 for 4 with one home run, his OBP for the day would be .250 while a player who goes 3 for 4 with 3 singles would have an OBP of .750.
An excellent OBP is .390 or above. The average OBP is .320.
In 2022, Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees led the league with highest OBP for the regular season.
The 2022 season was a fruitful one for Judge, as he broke the American League home run record with 62 home runs in one season. He had a .311 batting average and a .425 OBP. His OBP was above excellent in baseball terms. He had a high amount of hits and walks, but also had a high strikeout rate. Judgee was the leadoff batter for the Yankees (he batted first in the lineup) as players with high OBP would.
Another example of a player with high OBP for the past season is Freddie Freeman of the LA Dodgers (Freeman actually came in 2nd for highest OBP of the league for the past year).
Freeman did not hit nearly as many home runs (21) as Judge did, yet he had a .407 OBP and a .325 BA. He accomplished this through his very high number of hits (199). Freeman only had 84 walks in comparison to 102 strikeouts, so his main mode of reaching base was through hits.
The clear difference between Judge and Freeman is the number of home runs between the two. Judge had an anomaly of a year in terms of his home runs, which definitely contributed to his high OBP while Freeman relied on hits to get on base. Although both players contributed to their teams’ success in different ways, their own personal success is measured with the same weight, whether it be through home runs, hits, or walks. This is why other statistics should be factored into evaluating a player along with his OBP. On Base Percentage paints a part of the picture: definitely a significant part, but not the entire piece.
Thank you so much for reading this week’s newsletter! I hope you enjoyed! Please feel free to share this newsletter with anyone and everyone who loves baseball! If you have any suggestions for future topics, please leave a comment.
Until then, I’ll catch u later :)
I learned so much from this!!!! Keep posting ily