Page 6 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – Friday, April 5, 2019 SABATINO INSURANCE AGENCY Call for a Quote 617-387-7466 Or email Rocco@sabatino-ins.com We cover: * Auto * Home * Boat * Renter * Condo * Life * Multi-Policy Discounts * Commercial 10% Discounts * Registry Service Also Available A What you didn’t know about baseball stats By the Old Sachem, Bill Stewart s long as they have been playing, baseball statistics have been a method of evaluation. Even when I played semipro softball for the Lido Café in Lynn, we kept stats to tell us where to improve. There are the standard stats for hitters which you all know: http://www.sabatino-ins.com SABATINO 564 Broadway Everett, MA 02149 617-387-7466 Hours of Operation are: Mondays - Fridays 9am to 5pm Saturdays by appointment only Batting Average (BA), Home Runs (HR), Runs Scored (RS), Runs Batted In (RBI) and Stolen Bases (SB), which are always encrypted with the 2 or 3 letter rather than the statistic itself. Some of these you might not know: CS, 2B, XBH, G, GSH, GIDP, GO/ AO, HBP, IBB, LOB, OBP, PA, ROE, SH, SF, SLG, TB and WO are all offensive stats accumulated. CS is caught stealing; XBH is extra base hit; G is games played; GSH is grand slam; GIDP is grounded into a double play; GO/AO is groundout to fly out ratio; HBP is hit by a pitch; IBB is intentional walk; LOB is left on base (how many runners were still on base when batter was out); PA is plate appearances; ROE is reached on an error; SH is sacrifice bunt; SF is sacrifice fly; SLG is slugging percentage; TB is total bases; and WO is walk off. Slugging Percentage requires explanation – it calculates the total number of bases a batter records per at bat. The active career leader is Mike Trout with a SLG of 0.573; the all-time leader is Babe Ruth with 0.690; the current regular-season leader is Mookie Betts at 0.640, who we have come to know and love; and the all-time regular-season leader is Barry Bonds at 0.863. They also record OPS, on-base plus slugging, which is a playAUTOTECH 1989 SINCE Is your vehicle ready for the Spring Season?!! AC SPECIAL Recharge your vehicle's AC for the warm weather! Includes up to 1 IL. of Refrigerant* (*Most Vehicles) Only $59.95 DRIVE IT - PUSH IT - TOW IT! CASH FOR YOUR CAR, TRUCK OR SUV! 2005 FORD MUSTANG 2010 HYUNDAI SANTE FE Six Cylinder, Automatic, Most Power Options, One Owner, Clean Title, Just Serviced, only 130K Miles PRICED TO SELL! V6, Automatic Transmission, Loaded Power Options, Leather Interior, Just Serviced, Warranty, Only 98K Miles! A CLASSIC BEAUTY 781-321-8841 $5,995 Easy Financing Available! 1236 Eastern Ave • Malden EddiesAutotech.com $5,995 We Pay Cash For Your Vehicle! er’s on base plus slugging percentage and normalizes the number across the entire league. It is then adjusted so that the score of 100 is the league average, making 150 50% better than the league average. You probably will not have the stats at your disposal to do your own calculations – relying on the newspapers, announcers and magazines for the value. They also calculate OPS+ to adjust the OPS for a park factor. OPS is for evaluating a player’s performance at the plate, but OPS+ is far more accurate when we factor in how difficult hitting in a particular park is. OPS+ is a good way to rank players who have switched teams by adjusting for parks and leagues. If you are a fantasy player, OPS is the better stat. Another stat used in baseball is ISO, isolated power. This is a measurement of the raw power of a hitter by considering only extra base hits, and the type of extra base hit into account. A player who goes 1 for 5 in a game with a double has an ISO of 0.200. A player with a triple has a value of 0.300; and a home run is 0.500. This can also be computed for a player’s contribution during the season. To do the calculation, count ASKS | from page 5 elementary students and their families: K to 5. Pre-K are more than welcome. Q: And it’s all of the schools? A: Yes. Our Title 1 grant for the district – all of our schools qualify – and all of our schools, schoolwide. Our Title 1 teachers, they work with the grade level teachers. They work with the reading specialists to make sure that all students get the support that they need. They might work in the school day with students who may need a little work at their grade level in reading or math. Q: You have a whole range of kids; you might have some smart kids as well as kids that need the most help all involved here? A: Well, the kids here tonight – it’s open to everyone in the district, so we have, hopefully, anyone who could make it in those grades, and the activities are really focused on the idea of that whole family involvement. And it’s great to have it at the library because the library is such an excellent partner to the schools; it’s such an excellent resource to the parents here in town. As I was mentioning earlier, it’s only April 2 right now, but we’re pretty much through the school year. High School closed their third term and we’re rapidly moving toward the end. We have a June 13 last day of school. We’re in April, but we’re still in New England, and it’s looking pretty good. We’ll be rolling out pretty soon with the schools and the reading specialists for the sumBill Stewart The Old Sachem extra bases divided by at bats or slugging percentage minus batting average. This stat proves great for evaluating a player because extra base hits often determine the outcome of a game. The ballpark factor is the runs scored by each team in the home team’s park and divides the figure by the runs scored by the team and its competitors in a team’s road games. As an example, in 2014 the Kauffman Stadium, home of the Royals, saw 642 runs scored and 633 runs were scored in Royals game on the road. Kauffman therefore has a park factor of 1.014. The last stat we will look at today is the Slash Line. It is used to bring the three batter stats together so you can further evaluate a batter. It lists a player’s batting average first, on base percentage second, and slugging percentage third. It is listed as BA/OPB/SLG. In 2017, José Altuve of Houston had a slash line of 0.346/0.410/0.547 as he won the American League MVP Award. Now you know how to evaluate batters when you see the statistics. Next week we will look at some defensive values to evaluate players in the field and many pitching stats. mer reading program. Q: This is the second year you have done this, right? A: Yes – here at the library. Q: What were the major benefits coming out of last year? A: One of the things was creating that connection between the parents and the schools and the library and their own involvement in their child’s education. And really, showing off all of the wonderful resources they have here at the library. Saugus is really fortunate to have such a great library. One, the space is just great for us to hold this program in rather than holding it in one of the four schools. It’s kind of a place that everyone in town can go. Everyone has access to it. They have a wonderful chilASKS | SEE PAGE 7
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