Deconstructing Major League Baseball, 1991-2004: How Statistics Illuminate Individual and Team Performances

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Baseball is a readily quantifiable sport, and baseball historians, journalists and front office personnel often use sabermetric statistics to rank the perforemance of a particular player or team. To many, these statistics can be intimidating and unwieldy, and the reliance on numerical data to explain a cherished pastime often meets with skepticism and confusion. For researchers and for serious fans, however, the truth is in the numbers, and statistical rankings offer an easy and accurate way to understand the game. Covering a decade and a half, this work scrutinizes statistics from both leagues and proves just how useful and straightforward numerical rankings can be. It examines pitching, offense, defense, managers, acquisitions, and longevity and competition based on the information reflected in various stats. Many of these figures are explained, simplifying seemingly complex metrics while illuminating 15 years of baseball. Twenty-six appendices cover topics ranging from fielding averages, starting pitchers’ won-loss records and leading closers’ saves versus blown saves to total team offensive efficiency, quarterly standings in divisional races and composition of major leagues rosters by methods of player acquisition, among many other diverse categories.