Empty the Bench

You can always count on Major League Baseball to produce stats that are so obscure they require Stephen Hawking to do the formula. Today over at Yahoo! Sports, fantasy expert Matt Buser graced us with a fantasy-baseball related piece that looks at select player’s “BABIP” stats from the 2006 season, then takes the findings to help project their stats for the upcoming season. He also, um, explains what the hell BABIP is and why it’s important:

Batting average on balls put in play, or BABIP, is an interesting stat. One of the most interesting things about it is that it’s widely acknowledged that luck plays a part in each player’s BABIP. For hitters, there are three things that play a large part: skill, speed, and luck. To actually calculate BABIP for hitters, the following formula used is: (H-HR) / (AB-HR-SO). You’ll note that home runs are subtracted in the equation, since it is not possible to make a defensive play on a ball that is hit into the stands.

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