BSN Analytics Phase Three: Hardball

Sample size, sample size, sample size.

Now that we’re far enough along into the MLB season, we’re ready to unleash the third phase of our analytics department: you guessed it, baseball stats. 

With baseball, we have now finished three-fourths of our Dynamic Player Rating or DPR, and this is the most dynamic and encompassing stat yet. The remaining fourth, of course, is football DPR.

I should mention, I’m Andre Simone the head of BSN Analytics, and I’ve spent most of my time the past several months developing DPR for baseball, while also putting together all the other stats we’re providing for the Colorado Rockies and MLB.

All of our BSN Denver subscribers can now see a player profile for every Rockies player with over 30 stats, with season averages for all of them. So say goodbye to scrolling through five different tabs to see the stats you crave, as they’re all neatly found in one place.

In those player profiles you’ll also find our game logs with a DPR for every game each player’s appeared in, and for the pitchers we’re also providing the pitching arsenal for each flamethrower that’s seen the mount this season in Purple and Black—note, those are based on career percentages, not this season alone. 

You’ll also see those stats in our Rockies stat page, where you’ll be able to sort each statistical category. All these statistics, including DPR, will be updated in the middle of the night after every Rockies game.

For those of you who don’t know or didn’t see our previous stat launches for the NBA and NHL, DPR is a proprietary all-encompassing metric that gives a number from 0 to 100 for a player’s overall performance in a season. Unlike WAR in baseball or PER in basketball, DPR also provides a game-by-game rating for every player.

Of course, now that we have the stat in all three sports, the debate of who the best athlete in the major four sports can actually begin, based off of this one statistic that’s on the same scale for each sport. To see the best performers per DPR in the NBA, NHL, and MLB click on those links.

Given that we’re only about a third of the way into the MLB season we’re also providing a 2017 database for the top DPR performers, where sample size is not an issue. Speaking of which, you’ll see that in 2018 there are players like Justin Verlander and Mookie Betts who are putting up absurd DPRs in this first part of the season. Both of their ratings would put them well above any DPR measured to date, expect those to come back to earth, though, it’s certainly noteworthy to see how well they’re doing thus far.

This is also our biggest database of DPR league leaders, as you’ll find the top-35 hitters, starting pitchers and relievers in the MLB on our site. 

As far as Denver teams go, Adam Ottavino has put up the highest DPR for the Rockies, which is particularly impressive given he’s a reliever. His 79.28 is second amongst all relievers in the MLB and would be higher than any NBA or NHL athlete in Denver to date. So when you’re debating who the most dominant athlete is among Colorado’s big-four teams, don’t forget about Otto, who’s been playing out of his mind this year. 

Mind you, this is just the tip of the iceberg as we plan on adding a few different stats for individuals and teams as the season moves on. For now, check out our new statistical databases and give your suggestions in the comments below.

A big thank you goes out to the entire BSN team as this large undertaking required a big effort from the entire group. A special thank you goes out to our Rockies beat writer Drew Creasman, who used his journalistic chops to ask around and survey bigwigs in the MLB about the validity of our metric and what stats to add or omit from the DPR algorithm.

Andrea Cornaglia was essential as always and is simply a mastermind in helping develop everything that’s involved with our calculations, even calculating several stats like ERA or FIP in-house to aid with the automation of everything. Also, a special shout-out goes to our interns Zach Rooney and Henry Chisholm who were great in creating and developing the various pages you can now enjoy.

Now on to football! Until then, thank you for the support and welcome to the next phase of our BSN Stats.