DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum The new Baseball Metrics

Have you seen and been able to interpret some of the new baseball metrics (statistics)?

One that tells me a lot is “Defense Independent ERA”.

I think that means how good a pitcher is if he had a decent team behind him in the field.

Currently in all MLB three Indians starting pitchers are in the top 12:


2nd Kluber ERA - 3.46, DIPS - 2.60
5th Carrasco ERA - 3.76, DIPS - 2.85
12th Salazar ERA 3.38, DIPS - 3.44

I think this means the Indians defense sucks wicked bad.

Am I right?

Do you know what DIPS specifically means?

The Tribe is full of a bunch of top quality DIPS.

It could mean the Indians defense stinks... though I would argue it is much improved now with Lindor & Urshella manning the left side of the infield. Probably plays middle of the pack...

But it could also mean your unlucky with balls put in play... DIPS or now FIP (new more accurate stat based off of what DIPS was trying to calculate) try and take any fielding out of the are you a good pitcher equation. And the Indians stack up well... but we knew that. Even there ERA stacks up well. This year its been the hitting ... more so timely hitting that has given us issues.

Luck and defense.

If it tells you a lot, then have at it.

Basically I think it figures in walks, strike outs, and home runs because those have nothing to do with the defense... then it calculates some percentages based on the number of balls in play... I get the concept but don't know it well enough to know what it favors? I mean how would a guy like Greg Maddox, who didn't have a lot of strike outs but had a ton of weak ground balls, fair against a guy like Randy Johnson, who had a lot of strike outs but a lot of hard hit balls... I don't know.

then they lose me when they start making adjustments for left handed pitchers and knuckleball pitchers and pitchers with a hat size over 7 3/8.. and then they just have randomly add or subtract some number which goes to the millionth decimal place... it all gets kind of confusing.

I'm still trying to understand WAR (Wins Above Replacement). I think I liked it better when it was about Batting Average, HRs, and RBIs or for pitchers, W-L, ERA (or Saves for relief pitchers). I have to admit I do like the WHIP (Walks, Hits / Innings Pitched) stat though, so I'm not completely stuck in the 80's, stat-wise.

Does anyone know how to calculate DIPS?

I Googled it and got:

1 ripe medium avocado
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1 teaspoon lime juice
dash of paprika, salt and pepper.

Peel, pit and mash avocado, and sour cream and season to taste. Serve with chips.

Version 2.0 of dERA uses the following statistics:

Batters Faced (BFP)
Home Runs Allowed (HR)
Total Walks Allowed (BB)
Intentional Walks Allowed (IBB)
Strikeouts (K)
Hit Batsmen (HB)

0) Multiply BFP by 0.0074 to get the number of intentional walks allowed (dIBB).

1) Divide HB by BFP-IBB. Call this $HB. Then multiply $HB by BFP-dIBB. This number gives the DIPS number of Hit Batsmen (dHB).

2) Divide (BB-IBB) by (BFP-IBB-HB), and call this number $BB. Multiply BFP by 0.0074, and call this dIBB.

2a) Then multiply $BB by (BFP-dIBB-dHB). Take this number and add IBB. This number is now the DIPS number of total walks allowed (dBB).
3) Divide K by (BFP-HB-BB) and call this number $K. Remember this number for later.

3a) Multiply $K by (BFP-dBB-dHB). This gives the DIPS number of strikeouts (dK).
4) Divide HR by (BFP-HB-BB-K) and call this number $HR. Remember this number for later.

4a) Multiply $HR by (BFP-dBB-dHB-dK). This gives the DIPS number of Home Runs (dHR).
5) Calculate the number of 'Balls Hit in the Field of Play'. This is BFP-dHR-dBB-dK-dHB.

6) Estimate hits per balls in the field of play ($H):

6a) Take the number 0.304396 and subtract 0.010830 if the pitcher is strictly a knuckleball pitcher. If not keep the 0.304396 number.
6b) Take the result from the last step and add 0.002321 if the pitcher is left-handed, if not keep the number from the above step.
6c) Take the $K figure from above and multiply it by 0.04782. Subtract this number from the number in 6b.
6d) Take the $HR figure from way above and multiply it by 0.08095. Subtract this number from the number in 6c.
6e) Whatever remains is the $H figure.
7) To get the projected number of Hits Allowed (DIPS 'Hits Allowed', or dH), multiply $H by the number of balls hit in the field of play (BHFP).

7a) Add this number to dHR. This number is the DIPS total of Hits Allowed (dH).
8) Take BFP-dBB-dHB-dK-dH and multiply that number by 1.048. Add dK to that number. Take that number and divide by 3. This is the DIPS total of Innings Pitched (dIP).

9) Sum the following products:

(dH-dHR)*0.49674
dHR*1.294375
(dBB-dIBB)*0.3325
dIBB*0.0864336
dK*(-0.084691)
dHB*0.3077
(BFP-dHB-dBB-dK-dH)*(-0.082927)
The sum of all of these is the DIPS total of earned runs (dER).

10) Calculate ERA as usual: (9*dER)/dIP. This is the DIPS ERA (dERA).

This is all hilarious.

only if i really did... lol