Isolated Power

OPS (on base + slugging percentage) is all the rage in modern day baseball, and rightly so because it is a very accurate tool to describe the overall offensive effectiveness of hitters. Where does OPS come from? From sabermetrics of course. In fact, Isolated Power (ISO) also originates from those people who call themselves sabermaticians (or those who practice sabermetrics). In this article I will explain to you ISO and its valuable measurement of offensive effectiveness.

DEFINTIONS

So let’s give two definitions to clarify:

Sabermetrics is the analysis of baseball through objective evidence focusing specifically on statistical information. The term itself is derived from the acronym SABR (Society for American Baseball Research), which comes from this group of baseball historians who were the originators of most of these “fancy math” equations. The term itself was coined by Bill James.

Isolated Power is a sabermetric statistic that attempts to describe a hitter's overall effectiveness by measuring his ability to generate extra base hits. ISO was apparently created by baseball great Branch Rickey in the 1950’s (along with Allan Roth, they apparently created the idea, though they termed it “Power Average”). ISO is figured by the simple equation:

ISO = Slugging % - Batting Average

EXAMPLE

Why ISO? Let’s take a look at the following hypothetical player.
PLAYER A: .300 AVG., .400 OBP (On Base Percentage), .500 SLG

AVG tells you that in this case player “A” generates a hit 3 out of 10 times he records an at bat.
(H / AB)

OBP tells you that that “A” reaches base 4 out of 10 times he records a plate appearance.
(H + BB + HBP) / (AB + BB + HBP + SF)

SLG tells you that “A” generates 5 bases, on hits, per 10 times at bat.
(TB / AB).

ISO tells you that “A” generates 2 extra bases per 10 times at bat.
(SLG% - AVG)

AVG measures all hits without any attention being paid to what type they are. SLG% measures all bases earned including singles. Only ISO measures only extra base hits while excluding the other hits. Therefore, ISO is a good tool to measure the extra base potential, and thereby the run damage, that a hitter can produce for his team. ISO is also useful because it measures extra base hit totals without being totally dependent on the HR category.

One last note: the historical average for ISO is around .120, with .080 being roughly equivalent to a singles hitter, and anyone over .200 being considered a power hitter.

One guess on who the leader is? Yeah, it’s Barry Bonds.

2004 ISO LEADERS

*For a full list of the top 120 hitters of 2004 visit: www.wildpitch.blogspot.com

OK, so you are thinking “here we go again with this Bonds thing” and I have to admit that he dominates once again (Bonds and Thome are producing at historic levels, take a look below at the all-time single season leaders and see where they stack up). However there are a few players situated in the top 25 who would have to be deemed surprises.

#4 J.D. Drew- (.304 AVG, .619 SLG) Don’t know if you noticed it or not, but Drew is tearing it up… only injuries seem capable of derailing him.

#7 Jose Valentin- (.257, .552) Who leads AL SS in HR… Valentin with 17.

#11 Mark Teixiera- (.278, .556) “Tex” is finally starting to fulfill his potential… .444,5,13 the last week.

#12 Paul Konerko-(.280, .550) Comeback season… on pace for career power numbers (43HR, 115 RBI).

#20 Jeromy Burnitz-(.285, .546) Rejuvenated in Coors…hitting .329 with 10 HR at home (140 AB).

*Travis Hafner is the highest ranked player on the list who doesn’t have double digit HR (he is 48th).

Some players who are missing from the top 20 that you might expect to see based on this years performance: Vlad Guererro (25), Arod (29), Piazza (43), Jose Guillen (44), Tejada (62), Sheffield (68), Irod (76), Soriano (86), M. Young (91) and Huff (106).

In the end, Isolated Power isn’t going to replace other well-known and useful tools of measurement such as OBP, SLG or OPS. However, the next time your looking for another way to quantify a players explosiveness besides just looking at his HR total (which can artificially be driven up or pushed down by his home park), give ISO a look.

EXCURSUS

Here is the all-time single season leader list for ISO so that you can compare them with what the current crop of ballplayers is producing in 2004 (for a complete list of the historical records as they pertain to ISO, see: www.wildpitch.blogspot.com).

ALL TIME
SINGLE SEASON - ISOLATED POWER

RAY'S NOTES

Did you know that on October 9, 1920 Rube Marquard was arrested by an undercover police officer for scalping World Series tickets…for a game his own team was playing in!

Ray Flowers can be reached with comments/questions or suggestions at: ray@athomeplate.com You may also visit Ray's blog at www.wildpitch.blogspot.com for a full review of all of his recent articles and other interesting stuff.

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