Secondary Average

In my continuing look into explaining sabermetrics to the traditional baseball fan I thought I would cover a fairly simple metric that helps to measures a hitter’s overall effectiveness. What sets apart this metric from others is that it is easy enough to figure out that you don’t need a degree in astrophysics to interpret its meaning nor is it necessary to figure out the mathematics. Basically all you need is to have passed your middle school pre-algebra class and you’ve got this thing licked.

SECONDARY AVERAGE DEFINED

Secondary Average, or SEC, is a sabermetric tool used to gauge a player’s ability to produce extra bases independent of batting average (The total of a player's extra bases on hits, walks, and stolen bases expressed as a percentage of at bats). The statistic basically covers the three primary factors of an offensive contribution outside of AVG-…power (bases), eye (BB) and speed (SB).

What sets SEC apart from other simple metrics is that it takes into account all aspects of a player’s offensive contribution including two lesser-recorded measures, BB and SB. The reason that SEC records SB as well as CS is that too often with the SB all that people see is the positive effects of a successful stolen base attempt without attempting to understand the negative effect a CS produces. The success or failure of a SB attempt obviously influences the bases gained total of the batter, thereby directly impacting his value to the team in relation to its ability to score runs, so it should be counted. Ditto a player’s ability to draw BB and reach base for his teammates to knock him in. Any time that a player gains a base without making an out should be rewarded and that’s what SEC attempts to do.

Here is the equation that is used to figure SEC.

(TB - H + BB + SB - CS) / AB

Here is an example so you can see how easy it is to figure SEC.

Ex.
In 2004 Eric Chavez produced the following stats:
238 TB, 131 H, 95 BB, 6 SB, 3 CS, 475 AB.

Therefore…

(238-131+95+6-3) / 475
205 / 475
SEC = .43157 or .432

So, what SEC records is that in 2004 Eric Chavez’ offensive contribution was worth a SEC mark of .432. You barely even needed a calculator right?

SINGLE SEASON MARKS

2004 Season

* Frank Thomas who plays for the White Sox (1990-current).

Who are some of these guys? Bill Joyce, well he played in the 1890’s. Ken Phelps…well he was that goofy looking guy with the big ole’ mustached and huge glasses that mostly Dh’d for the Mariners and Yankees. And Charlie Keller was an OF for the Yankees in the 1940’s. One guy that plays today but that you might be equally surprised to see on this all-time list is Dunn (he has been on almost every list hasn’t he?). Everyone tends to focus on what he doesn’t do well while overlooking the things he does really well. In fact, according to many of the sabermetric stats Dunn is one of the 20 best hitters in baseball. If you don’t believe me, look it up (you can start with: Serious Baseball #1).

In the end, Secondary Average is another that weapon you can deploy to get the jump on your friends in a bar room discussion or on draft day. Any way you slice it the more information that you that have at your disposal the better the decisions you will make. That is if you stay away from the beer when you are making your picks and trade offers…I’m sure we all have a story where one of our buddies took Kenny Lofton in the 8^th round because in his drunken state he had a flashback and thought it was 1996. Ah, those were the days…

Ray Flowers, a member of SABR and FSWA, can be reached with comments/questions or suggestions at: ray@athomeplate.com. Please also visit Ray’s website at: www.wildpitch.blogspot.com for a plethora of baseball related posts and discussions.