Regular OPS calculates the abilities of a player both to get on base and to hit for power, the two most important hitting skills, and the easiest stat in measuring a player’s worth. Adjusted OPS+ is OPS (OBP + SLG) relative to league average and adjusted for park factors. An adjusted OPS+ of 100 is exactly league average.
Why is this useful?
OPS+ is one of the best statistics for gauging a player’s worth. This is because it does a phenomenal job of calculating the two most important hitting stats, the ability to hit for power and the ability to get on base. Not only that, it adjusts for league average and park factors, this way, you can compare Barry Bonds’ 2001 season to that of Babe Ruth’s 1927 season.
Calculating *OPS+
First you need to calculate both a player’s OBP and SLG percentages.
OBP = On-Base Percentage
H + BB + HBP
——————————- = OBP
AB + BB + SF + HBP
SLG = Slugging Percentage
Total Bases
——————- = SLG
At-Bats
OBP SLG
(—— + —— – 1)100 = OPS+
*lgOBP *lgSLG
*lgOBP and *lgSLG are the park and league adjusted OBP and SLG %’s
To use some examples, I’ll show you the OPS+ of the 2008 MVP candidates.
AL MVP
.376 .493
(—— + —– -1)100 = 122 = Dustin Pedroia OPS+ 2008
.346 .435
.413 .451
(—— + —– -1)100 = 137 = Joe Mauer OPS+ 2008
.326 .408
.392 .573
(—— + —– -1)100 = 150 = Alex Rodriguez OPS+ 2008
.340 .434
Honestly, I don’t have a problem with Pedroia being the MVP and neither should you. The statistical difference between him and the rest of the candidates is incremental. I’m just showing these for arguments sake. My real beef is with the NL MVP voting.
With an OPS+ of 190, we can conclude than in 2008, Albert Pujols was the best hitter in baseball, by far, and deserved to win the NL MVP handedly. However, he still won but by a slimmer margin that I had thought, with Ryan Howard placing a close second.
Chipper Jones, despite being second in OPS+, placed 12th. Granted, Jones only played 128 games, but he was still able to sustain his freakishly high numbers when he returned from injury, and had he stayed healthy, probably would have placed second behind Pujols.
Just the fact that Ryan Howard received as many 1st place votes as he did, proves that MVP voters don’t look at the stats that ACTUALLY prove how valuable a player is, or Ryan Howard would not have been anywhere near the list. With an OPS+ of just 124, Ryan Howard had only an above average OPS+. Had the voters actually followed OPS+, they would have seen that he WAS NOT even the player on his TEAM. Chase Utley had an OPS+ of 135.
As you can see, even adjusted for park and league averages, Babe Ruth and his contemporaries still rank as some of the best hitters of all time.
OPS+ is one the best indicators of how value a player is to a team. Of course there are many other ways to place a value upon a player, but OPS+ is one of the best and is quickly become a favorite, even among non-sabermetrics enthusiasts.
Single Season OPS stats from http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/OPSplus_season.shtml
Career OPS stats from : http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/OPSplus_career.shtml
