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GAMESCORE for pitchers

Stats4GnatsStats4Gnats10,000+ posts

GAMESCORE was developed by Bill James to determine the strength of a pitcher’s performance in any particular game. It’s a pretty simple metric to come up with because there’s no part of it that isn’t tracked in even the lowest of levels. Here’s how its computed.

 

For each game:

  • Start with 50 points.
  • Add one point for each out recorded, so three points for every complete inningpitched.
  • Add two points for each inning completed after the fourth.
  • Add one point for each strikeout.
  • Subtract two points for each hit allowed.
  • Subtract four points for each earned run allowed.
  • Subtract two points for each unearned run allowed.
  • Subtract one point for each walk.

 

It should go without saying that it’s a metric only having much meaning for starting pitchers, but there’s no reason it can’t be computed for relief pitchers as well.

 

It’s a funny metric in that the max score can vary. FI, if a game is played under rules where a full game is 9 innings long and the pitcher strikes out every batter in a perfect game, his score will be 114. 50+27+10+27. But, since its possible to strike out a batter without recording an out, its theoretically possible to score a lot more points than 114. An example would be where a pitcher strikes out the 1st 2 batters in an inning, but the next 3 batters reach on a PB or WP. Then the next batter strikes out too. If that happened every inning for 9 innings, there would be an additional 27 K’s, making the total 141. Luckily though, that happening even once a game is fairly rare, which is why 114 is generally accepted as the max number.

 

Thinking that way, the max for a 7 inning game, such as under HS rules is 98, and for venues where 6 innings are the standard would be 90. While the metric could easily be generated in any venue, there’s really no good way to compare one venue with another. It could be done mathematically, but there wouldn’t really be much of a point in trying to compare a LL pitcher with a ML pitcher.

 

Just for the sake of discussion, using GAMESORE as a measure, do you think a combined score of all of a pitcher’s games would be a good way to judge which pitchers were the most dominant during a season or for their careers? Also, should only starting appearances be used in the calculation?

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JMoffJMoff1,000+ posts
Originally Posted by Stats4Gnats:

GAMESCORE was developed by Bill James to determine the strength of a pitcher’s performance in any particular game. It’s a pretty simple metric to come up with because there’s no part of it that isn’t tracked in even the lowest of levels. Here’s how its computed.

 

For each game:

  • Start with 50 points.
  • Add one point for each out recorded, so three points for every complete inningpitched.
  • Add two points for each inning completed after the fourth.
  • Add one point for each strikeout.
  • Subtract two points for each hit allowed.
  • Subtract four points for each earned run allowed.
  • Subtract two points for each unearned run allowed.
  • Subtract one point for each walk.

 

It should go without saying that it’s a metric only having much meaning for starting pitchers, but there’s no reason it can’t be computed for relief pitchers as well.

 

It’s a funny metric in that the max score can vary. FI, if a game is played under rules where a full game is 9 innings long and the pitcher strikes out every batter in a perfect game, his score will be 114. 50+27+10+27. But, since its possible to strike out a batter without recording an out, its theoretically possible to score a lot more points than 114. An example would be where a pitcher strikes out the 1st 2 batters in an inning, but the next 3 batters reach on a PB or WP. Then the next batter strikes out too. If that happened every inning for 9 innings, there would be an additional 27 K’s, making the total 141. Luckily though, that happening even once a game is fairly rare, which is why 114 is generally accepted as the max number.

 

Thinking that way, the max for a 7 inning game, such as under HS rules is 98, and for venues where 6 innings are the standard would be 90. While the metric could easily be generated in any venue, there’s really no good way to compare one venue with another. It could be done mathematically, but there wouldn’t really be much of a point in trying to compare a LL pitcher with a ML pitcher.

 

Just for the sake of discussion, using GAMESORE as a measure, do you think a combined score of all of a pitcher’s games would be a good way to judge which pitchers were the most dominant during a season or for their careers? Also, should only starting appearances be used in the calculation?

I like the concept, but in my simple world a one pitch ground ball is worth more than a strike out. Why does the strike out get more points? Why does a walk get a negative score and a HBP doesn't. Why doesn't a WP get counted? Why is a single = to a triple (understanding that runs count more)?

I think this metric needs some work.

J HJ H5,000+ posts

JMoff- I agree with you on the BB vs. HBP. But, one of the chief tenets of sabermetrics is that the pitcher cannot control what happens to the ball once it's put in play. Penalizing the pitcher because he gave up a triple rather than a single is counterintuitive because the pitcher did not have control over what happened to the ball once the batter made contact. Similarly, in the case of a groundout vs. a strikeout, a strikeout is a guaranteed out while a groundball isn't. Strikeouts correlate with success much higher than groundballs do. 

 

For reference, Game Score was created by Bill James "for fun," as he calls it. It is a fun way to keep track of pitcher's performance but does not really go into any sort of depth about the performance other than the surface results. He's stated himself that he is surprised the metric is as popular as it is.

 

Stats4GnatsStats4Gnats10,000+ posts

In an interview I watched for the Sabermetrics class, noted researcher at FanGraphs, Jeff Zimmerman had this to say when asked what he thought about the notion that there are now academic courses on Sabermetrics. Kinda burst my bubble a bit, but what he said is interesting none-the-less because it shows perspective is everything.

 

…I think that the more I've learned, the less I actually use. It's like I've kind of found out that it's like with pitchers. If you just give me their strikeout rate and their walk rate, I can get about 95% of how good that pitcher is going to be. There's some periphery stuff. But that's pretty much the key. Can they strike batters out and can they not walk them.

 

I mean it kind of sounds simple. But it's like you go out to these large tangents, and you come back. And it's probably one of the best metrics is looking at strikeout-walk. It's like a fifth type indicator. With that you can even remove the home runs from it. And it's just as good an indicator as FIP is.

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