In the advanced era of baseball numbers-crunching, Twins Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey talked with Star Tribune baseball writer La Velle E. Neal III about meaningful statistics.
Offense: What is WOBA?
We have graduated from batting average to the slash line (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage) and even to OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage). But Falvey likes weighted on-base average (wOBA), considered to be the best way to measure total offensive value.
"Take a look at the top 30 teams and rank all of them by runs scored," Falvey said. "Any other stat next to it — batting average, on-base percentage, slugging, etc. What's most highly correlated to runs scored? Weighted on-base."
The Twins scored 722 runs last season, 16th in baseball. Their team wOBA was .317, good for 14th.
Brian Dozier led the Twins with a .370 wOBA. Leaguewide, he was 26th. Guess who was second? In 99 games, Robbie Grossman had a .363 wOBA. And you wondered why he was still on the team.
If you're baffled while trying to put together a batting order, look at wOBA, bunch the best at the top of the order and go for the ambush.
Defense: Metric debate