2016 MLB Draft Guide: Hitting Targets To Know

All throughout this Guide we’re talking about players and breaking them down from every conceivable angle. In this article we won’t really be doing that. Why? First off, there are so many different types of hitters out there it’s really hard to put them on the same continuum without getting all fancy pants. There are also different goals you are looking at for your second catcher or your fourth outfielder (duh). That’s why this is going to be a more generalized offer. I’ll give the target totals you should know for a variety of categories so you can look back at 2015 and get a handle on the performance of the men that wield the lumber while prepping you as to what to look for as you set your roster in 2016.

AVG/OBP/SLG

We all know what those abbreviations mean, but do you know the context of each? That’s why we’re here, to help you figure it all out.

Average: The 2015 major league average was .254.

On-base percentage: The 2015 major league average was .317.

Slugging Percentage: The 2015 major league average was .405.

There were 211 men who had at least 400 plate appearances last season. Of that group…

Average: 149 men, or 70.6 percent, of qualifiers were able to reach the league average.

On-base: 129 men, or 61.1 percent, of the qualifiers were able to reach the league average.

Slugging: 130 men, 61.6 percent, of the qualifiers were able to reach the league average.

POSITIONAL SLASH LINES

Here is how each position faired in 2015:

C: .240/.303/.379

1B: .260/.338/.452

2B: .264/.318/.393

3B: .264/.324/.431

SS: .260/.308/.380

INFIELD: .258/.319/.408

OF: .262/.327/.421

DH: .259/.329/.436

BABIP

(H-HR / TBF-HR-HBP-K-BB)

BABIP (Batting Average in Balls in Play), also referred to as a player's hit rate, is the rate at which batted balls end up as base hits. There is one caveat with BABIP – it removes home runs from the equation because technically the ball isn't in the field of play on a home run. The major league average is usually in the .290 to .300 range but players establish their own levels so that some hitters consistently come in at the .270 range while others seem to record marks in the .330's etc. The league leaders are usually above .380, a level that is nearly impossible to repeat year-to-year.

*You can find more in “Understanding BABIP and Line Drive Rates.”

LINE DRIVE, GROUND BALL, FLY BALL RATES

In 2015…

21 percent of batted balls were line drives

45 percent of batted balls are ground balls

34 percent of batted balls are fly balls

*You can find more in Understanding GB/FB and HR/F Rates.

There were 211 men who had at least 400 plate appearances last season. Of that group…

Line drive: 130 men, 61.6 percent, of the qualifiers were able to reach the league average.

Ground ball: 130 men, 61.6 percent, of the qualifiers were able to reach the league average.

Fly ball: 130 men, 61.6 percent, of the qualifiers were able to reach the league average.

ISOLATED POWER

Slugging % - Batting Average

A sabermetric measure which attempts to describe a hitter’s overall effectiveness by measuring the player’s ability to generate extra base hits. Batting average measures all hits without any attention being paid to what type of knock they are. SLG measures all bases earned (including singles). ISO measures only extra base hits while excluding the other hits. Of the 211 men with 400 plate appearances last season 120 of them reached the league average ISO mark. Anyone over .200 is a significant power hitter while those under .100 simply don’t drive the ball well. ISO was apparently created by baseball great Branch Rickey, along with Allan Roth in the 1950’s.

wOBA

Weighted on Base Average is a measure of offensive success (the number generated is akin to on-base average so you should be very conversant with what the number represents).

Here is a nice little primer on the topic.

Don't be scared by the title of this piece. This is going to be painless and straightforward. I'll lay out what wOBA is and why it matters.

* Note: We also have a primer set up for you to view when it comes to sabermetric categories.

WHAT IS wOBA?

We love our acronyms and measures that are so hard to figure out that if you don't have a degree from MIT you feel totally lost. That's likely where many of you are with wOBA. Let me simplify things with a few bullet points to clarify the measure.

(1) Yes, it really is written wOBA. Why? It's all about the name - Weighted On-Base Average. 

(2) It was created by Tom Tango. It is based around an older idea created by Pete Palmer called Linear Weights (Linear Weights was the precursor to WAR - an attempt to rank all players, regardless of skill or position played, on the same continuum). Each statistic on the field is given a value and the individual events are combined to get one measurement. 

(3) wOBA attempts to quantify the value of hits much the same way that OPS does. It "weights" the aspects of the offensive game in a way that is relative to the actual run value of the event (i.e. a homer is worth more than double the value of a single). In this respect wOBA is more accurate than OPS since OPS gives slightly more value for hitting for extra bases than it does for getting on base. 

HOW DO YOU FIGURE OUT wOBA?

wOBA is figured out on the same scale as regular on-base percentage. That means if you understand the value assigned to OBP you will understand how to read wOBA. Here is a table from Rotographs to explain (for a link to that article see the end of this piece).
 

You already understand OBP so wOBA doesn't require you learning a new format/number setup (if you want to figure out how to calculate wOBA there are links at the bottom of this article). 

WHY DOES wOBA MATTER?

wOBA is easily understood.
wOBA is more accurate that OPS.
wOBA may have been invented before Babe Ruth played.

We will regularly be referring to wOBA in our DFS MLB Playbook Pro to help you break down the daily matchups. By the by, look for the DFS MLB Playbook Pro to come on full force next week.

So there it is. Simple, straightforward, uncomplicated. Right? Don't be afraid of wOBA the next time you see it mentioned... you got this.

If you want to get even more detail on how to figure out wOBA, if you want to get out your abacus, The Hardball Times and Fangraphs can help you out.