TRANSCRIPT: Ep. 21: THE STRETCH – You down with OPS? Yes Yes, and Yes

Text Transcript for Ep. 21

00:00:00 – 00:05:04

Woah to. It’s ninety miles the threat. All right. Good afternoon baseball fans. Welcome to another episode of the stretch. I’m here with Ryan Ryan how’re you doing over there? Hey doing good or good really happy to be here? And we got a fun one today. Yeah, we’re gonna just yeah. We often in the regular episodes, if you listen to us regularly, which you might I don’t know. You’re listening to the stretch of road, you might listen to us. We, we often references to tick in hitting that we find to be both kind of fascinating and useful at something called P S now a lot of you that are heavy baseball fans will know what this is. But for some of you, I know there’s some listeners are out there that don’t, don’t get into the stat head kind of stuff as much as you know, some of the other people do we just kind of wanted to explain what it is. And then kind of be dive in and talk about why it’s such an important in interesting statistic to start with OB S stands. For on base. Plus, slugging so on bass is a percentage of how often a hitter reaches base safely. Right makes sense. So if you’re thinking of it as a fan, it’s basically whenever your favorite player. Gets a hit gets a walk or gets hit by a pitch. They have successfully reached base, you take that number and you divided by the total number of times they were at bats, plus walks plus hit by pitches, plus sacrifice flies. So basically every time they’ve reached safely divided by their total number of at bats, which will include their walks by pitching, their sacrifice flies or sacrifice Bunce any of that kind of stuff, why don’t you tell them play at appearances playing appearances is the easy way to say, yeah, pretty much, and that’s another way to say all of those all of those collectively. Right. Because it basically there’s, I’m not sure that really played appearance covers everything, right? There is not a time you can get to the plate and not be covered on under that. So it’s successful getting on base divided by how many times you actually got to the plate. If you want to tell the folks a little bit about slugging percentage. Go for it Ryan. Yeah. Slugging slugging percentage. Well, the complex way to explain it would be. It’s total bases divided by bats total basis being all singles. Plus two times the number of doubles plus three times, the number triples, plus four times, a number home runs, which is your total bases divided by at bats. What I another way to think of it the way I kind of think about it is, it’s like a batting average, but it’s waited for, for with total basis row. Basically a homerun is weighted heavier triple as weighted heavier than like a single, and, you know, and so forth. So exact slugging percentage. Yeah, I. I’ve always thought about it in a simpler way. It’s like I get credit for two. If I hit a double. So if I’ve got one at bat today, an I doubled on it, my, you know, slugging percentage is basically two point zero zero because it’s two times one or two divided anyway, but that’s basically what we’re getting at. Yeah. It’s, it’s simpler than it sounds. Once you get into statistics a little bit, right? Batting average is simple. We already know what that is. But this is on base percentage plus slugging. So batting average plays a role in it. But if you’re a guy that walks a lot, but doesn’t hit, you know, get as many base hits, a great example, actually would be the current right fielder for the Philadelphia Phillies, right? One brace Harper who doesn’t hit for a very high average is usually in the to forty two fifties? Right now as we speak today. He’s had seasons in the past ruse in the three hundred. That’s not what I’m getting at. But he gets on base a lot. He walks a lot, so his on base percentage is in the mid three, hundred’s or point three five, oh or. Whatever it is. At this point, you add that to home, his slugging and that gets you. Yes, it’s one of my favorite stats because it tells a story about how explosive player is right. If you’re looking at, for instance, the twenty eighteen Chicago Cubs, I’m a brewers fan. So this is going to hurt to talk about a little bit. But somebody like havi by his who’s yes every cub fans favorite cub. Well, not quite he had an opiates last year of eight one in twenty eighteen we’re recording this, and twenty nineteen we wanted to be historically relevant for. So we’re taking that season where the brewers and the cubs played game one sixty three and using it as an example, for some stats. So eighty one time of how did havi by as get there? Well, he had a batting average to ninety and his on base percentage was only three twenty six he’s not a guy that walks a lot.

00:05:05 – 00:10:03

But when he hit the ball, he hit hard of doubles. Triples home runs that kind of thing, it ended up to a big thirty four thirty four home runs that year yell forty doubles. So yeah, that. Ways outweighs the slugging percentage. So, yeah, I got that to five fifty four. And so with three twenty six five fifty four, you got eighty one it should be eighty. It must round up. So we’re using baseball dash reference come if you take three to six plus five four you should have an even number. So they’re taking the entire decimal point way out there. So how’d you buy as super explosive player, you know creates a lot of runs? He does it that way. If I what you talk about. Maybe somebody else on the cubs team that doesn’t a little differently from twenty eighteen or maybe from history. What do you tell us about how you like to look at the stat what you think it is? Yeah. Well, I mean, I think in, in a bid of contrast, AVI, by would be someone like Chris Bryant, although he still has pretty decent slugging. But actually just looking at last year. Of course he was injured abet and didn’t have as many plate appearances. He did have to seventy two batting average. But he had a three seventy four on base percentage for sixty slugging. So he had a higher obe- p. Than havi, but a lower slugging, you know, I think, historically, if you were to look at a couple, you know, one obvious one is Sammy Sosa who, of course, had a ridiculously high slugging percentage. He had he had a couple of home runs. Yeah. Maybe a few, but they move, you know, with hands the bat or some other things to enhance that. Yeah. Well, you know, and we’ll probably talk a little bit about Ryan Braun as well. You might have. You might have one or two enhanced the numbers like the two thousand seven season. Head a one point zero zero four, but we don’t know two thousand eleven we know he was a point nine nine four that season on opiates, which is a massive number. But yes, that was also the year. I believe that he got busted after the playoffs. So, yeah, yeah, but he had, you know, he’s he had generally a not too bad. He Willion an okay OB actually kinda low considering his batting average. But some of those years or we’re talking about Braun here or we talking about Braun. Okay. Dang about Braun okay for a second, you know, Sammy Sosa, you know, he had some years, well, you know, of course after he really broke out his his OBT went up. You know, he did you know, get just like Barry Bonds had the benefit of, of threat of homerun threat led to more intentional walks and things like that. Yes, but he posted somebody generally crazy. It was mostly. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. There’s a few seasons there. He, we had four seasons in a row with over one thousand Sammy Sosa did. Yeah. And in my opinion to anything over eight hundred. Yeah. Anything over eight hundred is pretty solid. You get to eight fifty nine. You’re talking about a very explosive player for sure and productive player. Well, you know, a really productive tonight. Yeah. There there’s. Yeah. They’re doing something very, very. Well, they’re probably pleading some runs there or either. Yeah. Either driving runs in or or scoring Ron’s run or the other. Yeah. Exactly. It’s one or the other, what I would, you know, the comparison I was gonna use from twenty eighteen was Lorenzo Cain and Travis Shaw, so the Twenty-eight team bruised these are two key guys transa- hit thirty two. Home runs in twenty eighteen okay? Really, really solid player. He only batted two forty one his on base percentage was, you know, three forty five though, because of all the bombs and the doubles he had a slugging four eighty ended up with an opium. Very solid. Opium of eight twenty five Lorenzo Cain. Kind of the antecedent to that, right? He’s more of the table center for the brewers in twenty teen. He was the leadoff man stole thirty some bags while thirty to be exact he only hit ten home runs. He has an opium of eight thirteen which is only point zero. Onto less than Travis Shaw. How does somebody do that when they only hit ten home runs? Well, it’s funny you should ask his base percentage was fifty points higher than Travis. Shaw’s. He was the table center. He took a lot of walks. He had a much better batting average. He was at a three await clip versus to forty one guy now was his slugging nearly as high. No. His job was to get on base and move and score runs. It’s really anything over that eight hundred Mark you’re talking about very useful player, you get over.

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Eight fifty usually talking about useful and explosive with power. You know, I thought Kane and Shaw were a great example of two totally different ways to get Opie up there. Yeah. And Kane someone like Kane on the cubs if we’re using again two thousand eighteen numbers would be like Ben’s over, you know, who only had nine home runs. But he had an eight seventeen Opie as Origo yet three three seventy eight on base percentage. But just four forty slugging. So he must have been a doubles machine very similar. Yeah. Exactly. That’s yeah. Yeah. So that’s those are a couple examples of some guys on our clubs from twenty eighteen that should be fairly recent memory explaining what Opie is and how it can be to totally different types of players excelling in this statistic. That’s why I like I like it better than batting average. I like it better than slugging percentage on its own. Yeah, it tells a more thorough story you still got to go back to the previous numbers to really find out what that person’s uses the analytics in baseball. I think it’s a really cool stat. It’s an it’s a pretty decent one that you can give you an idea. I mean, you do need to look at other stats, get an idea of how that, you know as as rounded out. And, and sometimes you could look you know, if it’s high slugging lot RBI’s that kind of thing, it’s like that kind of production versus the other or what have you, it, it is an interesting number. You know, I think I mentioned before it seemed and we’ve already mentioned a couple. And looking at, of course, the all time career and single season, it is it is a stat that sightly can be padded by, you know, performance enhancing. Anybody? That’s pumping. Loda. Yeah. Anybody pumping out a boatload of home runs is going to have a bigger Opie than the Lorenzo canes of the world. So, yeah, if you do if you’re enhanced. If you’re enhanced and, and then it becomes a situation where, you know, basically, you’re risking homerun every time in, in the intentional walks increase, or the unintentional intentional walks rate. You know the pitcher pitching around, you know, when those numbers go up, then you gotta be going up. And then when they when something does get Hong. It’s a home run. While you’re gonna have a massive Opie s and of course, looking at the leaderboard unless your name’s Babe Ruth, you know, a lot of them seem to have had a chemical boosts. Yeah. Era, really steroid area really did kinda wreck a lot of statistics. I’m pretty pretty sad about that. It’s kind of interesting, though, with the with the modern era now because I think, you know, I’m probably a little biased. But I think it’s pretty safe to say looking at Christian yelich he’s not on steroids. He had a one point zero zero zero last year. He’s playing in a smaller ballpark. What did you say? Maybe. Maybe maybe. Yeah. Okay. You know, then there’s there’s, you know, stealing signs, I guess that might affect Opie as a little bit, too, but this is not. This is a stretch episode. If you wanna bring up what’s going on? And his quote. All right. To ninety three with an old, by the way, as opium has over eight ninety on the road. So don’t give me that fair. Okay. You had to bring it up. I just, you know, just wanted to your just a jerk. That’s what. Okay. Let’s look at some historic numbers. So we’ll, you know looking at that, you know, I’m looking at the Bewers and prince fielder you know, is single season. Yes. Looks like he holds a number one spot. Number one two, as well as a career that is correct as well. Now, now career you know, it’s interesting with prince fielder though, on on that, as Opie S is a number that I think, if you have a long career, and you do play into your latter years, generally, if there’s some age issue, you know, you should degrade over time on there is going to be. Yeah. That you’re going to see those, those numbers usually go down back to earth, a little bit. So sue. Prince fielder is a unique situation in that, you know, well and have as long of a career. Well, there’s not only that, but this is I think this is based on just his numbers as a brewer. So one point zero one was his best season two thousand nine if you look at his career it’s point nine to nine so nine twenty nine is an awesome, slugging percentage especially for career. He got traded arm. Sorry. He signed a big contract. In Detroit ended up going to Texas had a neck issue and retired at a young age really kind of sad story because he was a lot of fun to watch swing.

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The but so I know his career is career Opie s across all teams. He played on was eighty seven okay. And that includes still healthy. It’s very healthy. But that includes some of the degradation, that was going on the end of the Detroit years is years when he was playing hurdle outs ROY. Ryan Braun career brewer is thought to eight ninety five opiates you can are you what you want about, you know, the steroids and things like that. You’ve got a guy on your side. You know Sammy Sosa who’s got a pretty Godley number as well rights. And what is he’s? He’s shows up in the list quite a few times on base. You know, second in on base, plus slugging in two thousand one one point one seven four as far as single season. But you got hack Wilson nineteen thirty as number one had a one point one seven seven and Roger Hornsby nineteen twenty nine is, is number three directly number four, which is interesting. Yeah, two thousand five Ross Barnes hack Wilson again. Sammy sosa? Yes. I mean Sosas on their few times. Yeah. You know, like we mentioned, I mean, and that’s that same with career Opie Sammy Sosas. Well, number two on their with so yeah. Nine twenty eight Wilson. Number one, though, with the one thousand woods you. So one point zero zero zero is the number one career for the cubs. Is that what you’re saying? Yeah. That’s an impressive. Well that’s an impressive number for career. We’re gonna talk about some of the greats here in a minute, too. I just did want to mention yelich did pump in the fifth best single season is a brewer in his first year last year, one point zero zero zero. So that’s an a name to watch. He’ll be hitting that list for the next few years, which is exciting. If you’re Abreu fan, I expect heavy bias to heaven outside shot to crack that nine hundred Mark, I don’t know if it will happen or not. He had a pretty pretty dang good one at eight one last year and he appears to be on pace for something better than that this year. So couple of guys the watch and we’re talking about twenty nineteen. If you’re hearing, the some point in the future. So we’ve covered some twenty nine hundred twenty eighteen cubs. What about the all time greats? What do we got for that? All time of all time. Yeah, you know, we don’t really have cubs brewers. At least it doesn’t matter though, this is an air. But but we gotta look at it. Career leaders. Career leaders we look at career leaders I sure I’m looking at the, the tip toe. Let’s do three to one. I think everybody can guess who number one is. But, you know who would you think would be the number three guy all time? I’m looking at the list, they comes up as Lou Gilligan act career, I’m looking at this is the. I’m not on it on the baseball reference. So if I’m wrong, I blame with okay there, I okay, okay, but I’m seeing Lou Gehrig for number three. So one point zero seven ninety and a career tragically cut short by disease. The number two man Ted Williams. Of course. One point one, one five five. That is ridiculous. That’s an eleven hundred zero P S. And then, of course and, and I got, you know, and I actually Lou Gehrig, actually played for seventeen years, which so is a pretty decent sample size. Yeah. I didn’t mean like it was shortened. It was shortened Ted Williams played for nineteen years, and number one played for twenty two years. This is a twenty two year. Hope he s go ahead and give number one. Yep. A lot of us now, number one is berry, not bury its Babe Ruth, of course. They the babe when you start sinking your teeth into the Babe Ruth statistics, and you start looking and comparing on baseball reference, if you’re ever bored, go to that website. It’s fantastic. Oh, but we’ve gone, we’ve spent a couple hours on a phone call just looking at stupid. Babe Ruth statistics. But a one point one six three six career Opie. S E, L, I, twenty two years. That’s twenty two years of playing which to sustain that level of PS two years. No. Obviously, the pitchers today are different. They take care of their bodies differently. We’ve talked about it with babe. Chapas owed. But yeah. To take care of himself better to in today’s game. If you’d wanted to number four, this is where we get into the enhancement. Right. One Barry Bonds whose head size grew significantly. Yep. One point zero five one two. Yep. Twenty two year career and interestingly one through four all lefthanded batters.

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Oh, look at that there. Yeah. Which is pretty interesting. Well, that’s something kind of fascinating. We can do in another stretch episode sometime and I do wanna get into thing you know, bury bonds versus Babe Ruth episode would be interesting, too, because Barry Bonds has some -absolutely outrageous numbers. I don’t care what you say about it being the steroid era. He at a certain point. I can’t think of it’s pretty ridiculous. You can make. Especially looking at Opie as because of the because of the intentional walks which just got unbelievably out of hand, you look at two thousand four hundred twenty intentional well this because if you pitch to him, he had an on base percentage, it an on base percentage of six oh, nine what? Oh. Slugging percentage of eight twelve he had a one point four to two in Opie. And in two thousand four what is the career? What is the single season highest number is that it? I don’t think season is yes. Two thousand four. Number one is berry bonds. He was thirty nine years old. And he had a one point four two one seven Opie s in the year two thousand four that’s the all time single season leader. He also holds number two two thousand two one point three eight oh seven but number three is Babe Ruth when he was twenty five years old, nineteen twenty well, he had a one point three seven nine one, so that’s the year was traded phila- SOX. The Yankees I’m not mistaken. I think nineteen nineteen because I think we got one hundred year anniversary of the trade don’t as wasn’t it nineteen nineteen. He was traded from the socks though. Yeah. The yanks. Yeah. We were time. Yup. Nineteen twenty was his first year with the with the Yankees. Wow. There are some amazing numbers out there. And these are things we wanna do every once in a while jump into the stretch episode. If you joy, this make sure you subscribe, get subscribed currently running a giveaway that will end in the middle of the season in twenty nineteen. If it’s passed that time sorry watch for different giveaway. We’d like to do them. Go to the website get subscribed. It’s ninety miles ninety miles ninety miles podcasts dot com and yeah, we’ll, we’ll keep doing these, these sort of shoot episodes and. Yeah. Hope you enjoyed this one on Opie as we’d like to talk about it a bit. It’s a fun. Fun stat. I just thought I’d mentioned really quickly. Mike trout is number nine right now, while for career Opie S he’s the highest active. He’s got a point. Nine nine zero nine Opie s and Joey Votto, number nineteen. Eighteen point nine four nine four Opie s career, of course, they’re active and. Yeah. They’re the they’re both in the top twenty on the active ones there. But anyways, let’s very cool. Yeah. It’s a we’ll explore more stats and talk more about the stories that they tell but I think on base, plus slugging. It’s a fantastic when it can talk about an explosive player. It can also talk about a table center. It’s a it’s kind of a fascinating one. The bigger the number though, usually the bigger the power. That’s, that’s kind of the case, but outside of that. I think that’s that’s enough. I think you know, go check out your favorite ballplayers. Oh, PSC where it sits. Where do they rank have some fun with it? It’s a cool stat. Come at us on Twitter. I’m at Bruecker winning. Tell me who your favorite player is what they’re opiates is. And why my guys all suck. Yes. That’s what cubs fans, do they come at me. Tell me how much guys suck. I’m used to it. Yeah. Don’t like it. Cubs fan. I’m I’m at wraps cubs win, but you might as well just go at brew winning alum. How bad the brewers are. You know, you could say item me but I’d rather you bug him. Full him. Bad tweet, go to go. Tell him what Christian yelich career? Rhodope yeses and Helen to shut up about it already. All right. I’m outta here. Are you done? Oh, yeah. All right. I’m all right. We’ll talk to you later. Bye.

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