Total player rating
Encyclopedia
Total player rating also known as Batter-Fielder/Pitcher Wins (BFW/PW) is a metric for measuring the value of baseball
players, and to enable players to be compared against each other even when they played for different teams, at different positions, and in different eras. It was developed by sabermetrician
Pete Palmer
and was popularized in the Total Baseball
series of encyclopedias during the 1980s.
Total player rating is computed using linear weights, in which each event in a baseball game (for instance, a base on balls
, a double
or a stolen base
) is assigned a value in runs. Each player then has a rating in Batting Runs, Pitching Runs, and Fielding Runs, usually adjusted for park and position, and the sum of these values is divided by 10 and is expressed as an offset in games from an "average" baseball player. Thus, a star player in a season might have been worth 6 games more than an average player, while a scrub might be 5 games below average. The justification for representing a game as 10 runs was determined empiricially and varied by era, but 10 was the rule of thumb for back-of-the-envelope computations, e.g. for fans comparing players using runs created
.
TPR helped disseminate the notion that players should not be given credit for events over which they have no control. As an example which embraces giving such credit, the runs batted in (RBI) statistic
awards a hitter with runs which scored when he collected a hit or a walk, even though the player has no control over whether the players who batted before him got on base, which is a significant influence on whether he is able to drive them in. Thus, players with high RBI totals for a season may have such not because they're among the best hitters themselves, but because they hit behind players who are among the best at getting on base.
In the 1990s, some criticisms of TPR prompted other sabermetricians to develop new methods of measuring player value, such as equivalent average and value over replacement player
. Bill James
cogently presented some of these criticisms in his book Win Shares
, foremost among them being the observation that an average player has a TPR value of 0, whereas in fact an average player has substantial positive value.
The fielding component of TPR is also flawed, so its evaluation of fielding is poorly regarded by most fans. TPR has been greatly improved upon in a system called super linear weights
, available in the archives of Baseball Primer.
Nonetheless, the importance of TPR in the history of sabermetric analysis seems secure: for many years it was the best-known of the sabermetric stats and was used by thousands of fans who had purchased Total Baseball.
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
players, and to enable players to be compared against each other even when they played for different teams, at different positions, and in different eras. It was developed by sabermetrician
Sabermetrics
Sabermetrics is the specialized analysis of baseball through objective, empirical evidence, specifically baseball statistics that measure in-game activity. The term is derived from the acronym SABR, which stands for the Society for American Baseball Research...
Pete Palmer
Pete Palmer
Pete Palmer is a major contributor to the applied mathematical field referred to as sabermetrics. Along with the Bill James Baseball Abstracts, Palmer's book The Hidden Game of Baseball is often referred to as providing the foundation upon which the field of sabermetrics was built.Palmer began his...
and was popularized in the Total Baseball
Total Baseball
Total Baseball is a baseball encyclopedia first compiled by John Thorn and Pete Palmer in 1989. The latest edition, published in 2004, is its eighth...
series of encyclopedias during the 1980s.
Total player rating is computed using linear weights, in which each event in a baseball game (for instance, a base on balls
Base on balls
A base on balls is credited to a batter and against a pitcher in baseball statistics when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls balls. It is better known as a walk. The base on balls is defined in Section 2.00 of baseball's Official Rules, and further detail is given in 6.08...
, a double
Double (baseball)
In baseball, a double is the act of a batter striking the pitched ball and safely reaching second base without being called out by the umpire, without the benefit of a fielder's misplay or another runner being put out on a fielder's choice....
or a stolen base
Stolen base
In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a baserunner successfully advances to the next base while the pitcher is delivering the ball to home plate...
) is assigned a value in runs. Each player then has a rating in Batting Runs, Pitching Runs, and Fielding Runs, usually adjusted for park and position, and the sum of these values is divided by 10 and is expressed as an offset in games from an "average" baseball player. Thus, a star player in a season might have been worth 6 games more than an average player, while a scrub might be 5 games below average. The justification for representing a game as 10 runs was determined empiricially and varied by era, but 10 was the rule of thumb for back-of-the-envelope computations, e.g. for fans comparing players using runs created
Runs created
Runs created is a baseball statistic invented by Bill James to estimate the number of runs a hitter contributes to his team.-Purpose:James explains in his book, The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, why he believes runs created is an essential thing to measure:With regard to an offensive...
.
TPR helped disseminate the notion that players should not be given credit for events over which they have no control. As an example which embraces giving such credit, the runs batted in (RBI) statistic
Baseball statistics
Statistics play an important role in summarizing baseball performance and evaluating players in the sport.Since the flow of a baseball game has natural breaks to it, and normally players act individually rather than performing in clusters, the sport lends itself to easy record-keeping and statistics...
awards a hitter with runs which scored when he collected a hit or a walk, even though the player has no control over whether the players who batted before him got on base, which is a significant influence on whether he is able to drive them in. Thus, players with high RBI totals for a season may have such not because they're among the best hitters themselves, but because they hit behind players who are among the best at getting on base.
In the 1990s, some criticisms of TPR prompted other sabermetricians to develop new methods of measuring player value, such as equivalent average and value over replacement player
Value over replacement player
In baseball, value over replacement player is a statistic popularized by Keith Woolner that demonstrates how much a hitter contributes offensively or how much a pitcher contributes to his team in comparison to a fictitious "replacement player," who is an average fielder at his position and a below...
. Bill James
Bill James
George William “Bill” James is a baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics...
cogently presented some of these criticisms in his book Win Shares
Win Shares
Win shares is the name of the metric Bill James describes in his 2002 book Win Shares.It considers statistics for baseball and basketball players, in the context of their team and in a sabermetric way, and assigns a single number to each player for his contributions for the year. A win share...
, foremost among them being the observation that an average player has a TPR value of 0, whereas in fact an average player has substantial positive value.
The fielding component of TPR is also flawed, so its evaluation of fielding is poorly regarded by most fans. TPR has been greatly improved upon in a system called super linear weights
Super linear weights
Super Linear Weights is a method for evaluating the contributions of a baseball player towards his team. It was designed by Mitchel Lichtman and it calculates the total value that a baseball player contributes towards his team in terms of runs, where 0 represents the number of runs the average...
, available in the archives of Baseball Primer.
Nonetheless, the importance of TPR in the history of sabermetric analysis seems secure: for many years it was the best-known of the sabermetric stats and was used by thousands of fans who had purchased Total Baseball.