The following information is taken directly from Diamond Mind Baseball help files. Not all of these stats are presently available on the attic. This information is copyrighted by Diamond Mind Baseball.
Fielding range: This rating indicates a player's ability to reach balls hit in his direction. You should also look at fielding statistics to see how many errors he made when choosing whether to play someone at a position.
Fielding data can be hard to get for past seasons. The best source may be the team section of the McMillan Baseball Encyclopedia, which shows fielding statistics for everyday players. By comparing putouts (for outfielders) and assists (for infielders), and adjusting for playing time, you can see how a player compares with his peers.
Error rating: This rating is a percentage indicating how this player's error rate compares to the average fielder at his position in the era in which he played. A rating of 100 means the player is average -- that is, he makes 100% of the errors expected of someone at that position. A player who makes only 50% as many errors as his peers is rated 50. Someone who makes twice as many errors as his peers is rated 200.
The following table summarizes how error rates have changed over time, in five-year intervals. Each entry in the table is the number of errors made per 100 full games.
Year P C 1B 2B 3B SS OF 1895 24 27 26 44 46 67 19 1900 22 24 23 38 38 59 14 1905 18 22 20 31 28 50 10 1910 16 19 18 28 25 45 9 1915 16 17 15 25 22 40 9 1920 14 14 13 23 20 35 8 1925 12 12 11 21 17 32 8 1930 10 10 10 19 16 30 7 1935 10 10 10 18 16 27 7 1940 10 10 10 17 15 25 6 1945 10 9 9 16 15 23 6 1950 10 9 9 15 15 22 5 1955 10 9 9 14 15 20 5 1960 10 9 9 13 15 19 5 1965 10 9 9 13 15 19 5 1970 10 9 8 12 15 18 5 1975 10 9 8 12 15 17 5 1980 9 9 8 11 15 16 5 1985 9 9 8 10 15 16 4 1990 9 8 8 9 15 15 4 1995 9 8 8 9 15 15 4
This table shows the errors per 100 games over time by position.
Here is an example. To assign an error rating to a shortstop from 1912, determine how many errors that player made per 100 games. Suppose the player made 39 errors and was the shortstop about 80% of the time. Based on a 154-game schedule, that's about 123 full games. In 100 games, he would have made 39 x 100 / 123 = 32 errors. Looking at the rows for 1910 and 1915 in the table, we can estimate that the average shortstop in 1912 made 43 errors per 100 games. Our shortstop's rate is 32, which is 74% of 43, so his rating is 74.
Outfielder throwing: The strength and accuracy of an outfielder's throwing arm are indicated in this rating. This rating is used whenever a runner tries to take an extra base on a single, double or fly ball.
If you are assigning throwing ratings for past seasons, we suggest you compare assist totals across the league. Generally speaking, the higher the assist total, the better the throwing arm. This is not always true, of course, because some outfielders have such a great reputation for throwing that nobody tries to run on them (meaning their assist totals are low). So you will need to use some judgment here.
Catcher throwing: This rating indicates the strength and accuracy of the catcher's throwing arm. It is used whenever a runner tries to steal second or third.
When assigning throwing ratings for past seasons, you can compare assist totals across the league. Unfortunately, the best throwing catchers sometimes don't have high assist totals because opposing runners stay put, so you will need to use some judgment here.
Passed ball: This number indicates how many times a catcher will allow a passed ball in 1,000 plate appearances with runners on base. The formula is similar to that for wild pitch ratings for pitchers:
rating = (passed balls * 1000) / (batters caught * .43)
But, of course, official statistics don't count batters caught. So you'll need to estimate it by multiplying this catcher's percentage of playing time by the team's total batters faced by pitchers. For example, if a team's pitchers faced 6300 batters and this catcher was behind the plate 72% of time, he caught about 6300 * .72 = 4536 batters.
The following table explains the abbreviations used for official batting statistics that DMB tracks. Please refer to Official Baseball Rules, published annually by The Sporting News, for the official scoring rules for each of these statistics.
Abbreviation Meaning Abbreviation Meaning G Games played SH Sacrifice hit (bunt) AB At bats SF Sacrifice fly H Hits CI Catcher's interference 2B Doubles GDP Grounded into a double play 3B Triples GW Game winning RBI HR Home runs CHS Current hitting streak R Runs scored LHS Longest hitting streak of season RBI Runs batted in PA Plate appearances BB Total bases on balls AVG Batting average IW Intentional walks OBP On-base percentage SO Strikeouts SPC Slugging percentage SB Stolen bases TB Total bases CS Caught stealing R/G Runs per game HB Hit batsman TAVG Total average RC Runs created vsLH Average versus left-handed pitchers vsRH Average versus right-handed pitchers RC27 Runs created per 27 innings ISO Isolated power
In addition to official statistics, DMB calculates several modern statistics that have not yet found their way into the rule book. You are encouraged to read The Bill James Baseball Abstract, by Bill James, and The Hidden Game of Baseball, by John Thorn and Pete Palmer, for a full discussion of these new statistics.
Runs Created measures a player's contribution to the offense by multiplying the ability to get on base (H + BB + HB - CS - DP) by the ability to move runners along (TB + .26 x (BB - IW + HB) + .52 x (SH + SF + SB)) and dividing by the number of plate appearances (AB + BB + HB + SH + SF).
Runs Created per 27 Outs takes this result and divides by the number of outs created by the player (AB - H + DP + CS + SH + SF).
Isolated Power separates extra base power from singles by subtracting batting average from slugging percentage.
Total Average measures offensive contribution by dividing (TB + BB + HB + SB) by (AB - H + CS + DP)
The following table explains the abbreviations used for official pitching statistics that DMB tracks. Please refer to Official Baseball Rules, published annually by The Sporting News, for the official scoring rules for each of these statistics.
Many of these statistics have been developed in recent years. For some of them, there is no universally accepted definition. For example, three major statistical companies (Total Sports, STATS, and Elias) have three different ways of assigning responsibility for inherited runners when a pitcher leaves the game before the end of the inning. DMB uses the methods defined by Total Sports.
The abbreviations in the following table are used on screen and in some reports. Many of the statistics tracked for pitchers are the same as those tracked for batters. If you don't see a definition in this table, please look at the table in the previous section.
A quality start is a game in which the starting pitcher pitches at least six complete innings and allows no more than three earned runs.
Run support is the number of runs scored by the team in games in which this pitcher started. This helps to identify pitchers whose win/loss records are better or worse than their pitching might indicate because their teams either scored a lot of runs for them or failed to do so. Abbreviation Meaning Abbreviation Meaning GS Games started CG% CG as a % of GS GF Games finished QS Quality starts CG Completed games QS% QS as a % of GS SH Shutouts RS Run support W Wins RS/G Run support per game L Losses RL Runners left S Saves RLS Runners left who scored IP Innings pitched RL% Pct of runners left who scored H Hits allowed SvO Save opportunities R Runs allowed Sv% Saves as a % of SvO ER Earned runs allowed BSv Blown saves BF Batters faced BSv% Blown saves as a % of SvO WP Wild pitches IR Inherited runners DP Double plays IR% Percent of Inherited Runners who Scored BK Balks RA Relief appearances ERA Earned run average RA% RA as a % of games pitched H/9 Hits per nine innings GF% GF as a % of games pitched BB/9 Walks per nine innings R/9 Runs per nine innings K/9 Strikeouts per nine innings HR/9 Home runs per nine innings
Runners left is the number of runners on base when the pitcher left a game before the end of an inning. DMB tracks the number of these runners who later scored when a relief pitcher was on the mound because some pitchers can have their ERAs helped or hurt based on how well or poorly their relievers handle the situations they left behind.
Inherited runners are the same as runners left, but from the perspective of the relief pitcher. DMB tracks the number of inherited runners who scored to help you identify good and bad relief pitching performances that might not be reflected in the earned run average of the reliever.