Every other player has two parts to his game his hitting and his fielding. Offense has been studied thoroughly. The last three offensive summations do a really good job of describing how runs are scored on a team level, and that is subsequently extended to the individual players. All of these methods are readily available around the Web, with xRun s progenitor being BB Primer s own Jim Furtado. You can read all about it in the glossary.
Defense is a bit trickier to measure.
A quick glance at each team s opponents batting average will tell you there is a limited amount of contribution a single defensive player can make. The important question is how much better is a defensive player than the available alternatives, and ultimately his peers. The common defensive statistics, unlike offensive statistics, stink. First there is Number of Gold Gloves Won. As I read Dan Szymborski write the other day, he got the most votes.