Understand Sabermetrics : The Intro

I know that a lot of people probably already know the whole craze of sabermetrics (SABR), how they are calculated, how they are used, etc. A lot of you may not though so while I am not being a "prospect humper" I am being a "statmetician" and love talking and explaining SABR stats. This week, and maybe beyond depending on interest from the fans, we will be looking at some of the more common and less complicated SABR stats. Check in tomorrow for the first stat.

Before we get started with this new feature I want to give those who do not know about SABR stats a little bit of the history behind it. Sabermetrics is a specialized analysis of baseball through baseball statistics that measure in game activity to give you the "true" value of a player. The acronym SABR stands for Soceity for America Baseball Research and was coined by Bill James, who is considered the pioneer of SABR stats. Basically SABR stats try their best to determine the value of a player or team in current or past seasons and attempt to predict the value of the player or team for the future. No one stat is a tell all stat and no one stat is perfect but when you know what they all mean and how to use them in what you are looking for they can be extremely useful, in my highly biased opinion.

For those that want to learn from us at TGP, great, come daily and check out our posts and join the conversation. If you are more of a "Do It Yourself" kind of person then here are the most common and well known sites that can teach you everything that you need to know about SABR stats, listed here in no particular order.

• Earnshaw Cook's 1964 book "Percentage Baseball"
• FanGraphs
• Michael Lewis' book "Moneyball: The Art Of Winning an Unfair Game"
• Baseball Prospectus
• The Hardball Times
• SABR
• Fielding Bible Awards
• Baseball Think Factory
• 2011 film "Moneyball" featuring Brad Pitt
• Baseball Reference
• Stat Corner
• Clubhouse Confidential
• Tom Tango's book "The Book" 
• Beyond The Box Score
• First Inning
• Walk Like A Sabermetrician
• Tom Tango Official Site

This will constantly be updated so send us any suggestions for sites that you have by sending me an email at TheGreedyPinstripes@gmail.com, tweet us @GreedyStripes, or simply leave us a comment on this post! Thanks!!