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Friday, October 13, 2006

#257: RISP Statistics

When watching baseball and they have a statistic such as "The A's are 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position". The problem I have with this statistic is that the failure itself increases the chances without a corresponding chance for success. For instance, given this example, it most likely would be impossible for a team to go 11 for 11 because had they knocked in the runs on the first chance, there would be no more RISP. Therfore, I feel the better statistic is number of times a runner was in scoring position that the runner scored. So, with zero out and a runner on second, 2 guys strike out and the third guy knocks him in, it would be considered 1 for 1, not 1 for 3. You shouldn't have a denominator for which it's impossible to have and equal numerator for a statistic like this, but the TV guys just want to shock the viewers with the numbers. Severity: 3

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