NCAA Averages!
For years I’ve been able to quickly compare a major league players statistics to innumerable league averages, and got a great perspective on his performance.
However, it’s maddeningly difficult to do the same in NCAA baseball, as far as I’ve been able to tell. The stats that the NCAA published on their site are far too brief.
Here’s where I come in. Over the past two days, I’ve painstakingly gone to every Division I baseball conference’s website and manually imported their stats into a spreadsheet. I now have the ability to analyze 2006’s NCAA baseball data to come up with league averages. And for someone used to MLB numbers, boy was this surprising.
For instance, did you know that the league average batting average last year was .292? That was helped largely due to NCAA baseball’s aluminum bats creating a staggering .341 BABIP. In the majors, .290 is considered the norm. I’d have to imagine that the increased speed off the aluminum bat is causing a lot more singles and doubles to fly past the fielders, effectively decreasing the range of all defenders.
Here are the offensive numbers for NCAA baseball in 2006, with totals and averages:
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| AB | 497,697 |
| Runs | 90,506 |
| PA | 551,468 |
| Hits | 145,290 |
| Doubles | 26,118 |
| Triples | 3,475 |
| Home Runs | 10,144 |
| Walks | 53,771 |
| Strikeouts | 91,521 |
| BB:SO | .5875 |
| Stolen Bases | 17,271 |
| SB Attempts | 23,766 |
| SB % | 72.67% |
| Average | .292 |
| On-base | .361 |
| Slugging | .420 |
| OPS | .780 |
| BABIP | .341 |
| ISO | .128 |
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I’ll have some pitching standards available by tomorrow. Also, if anyone would like to have access to the data I collected (and will collect), get in contact with me. I’d be happy to share, so long as you give me just a little credit for it.
January 27th, 2007 at 5:53 am
[…] As I was looking at the Huskers’ 2006 stats, I wanted a quick way to evaluate just how much a hitter contributed to the team. I started looking at their numbers compared to NCAA averages (which I’ve now compiled!), and then wanted a way to judge them against each other… one thing led to another, and I came up with what I’m going to call SBOWP, or Stupidly Basic Offensive Win Portions. […]
February 6th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
[…] For those that are interested in such things, I’ve divined some more numbers for the Batting Average on Balls in Play for collegiate baseball dating back to 1998. As I suspected, NCAA BABIP is around .340. […]
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:49 am
[…] First, some NCAA averages from 2006, with an appreciative tip of the hat to Ryan Armbrust for his excellent research. The average I-A hitter had the following numbers last season: AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO 2006 .292 .361 .420 .781 .128 Just bear those in mind.Next up, a look at each of Brackman’s three seasons on the mound. What you’ll see below is straightforward, but let me go through all of the columns for the sake of completeness.ERA = Earned Run AverageIP = Innings PitchedHR/9, H/9, etc = home runs, hits, etc. allowed per nine innings pitched.K/BB = Strikeouts-to-walks ratio.WHIP = (Walks + Hits) / Innings Pitched ERA IP HR/9 H/9 K/9 BB/9 K/BB WHIP 2005 2.09 43.0 0.0 6.7 9.0 3.8 2.4 1.16 2006 6.35 28.3 0.64 11.8 10.2 6.0 1.7 1.98 2007 3.42 47.3 0.76 8.6 8.6 3.4 2.5 1.33 Brackman followed up a strong freshman debut with an injury-plagued sophomore season. He was shut down in 2006 because of a stress fracture in his hip, an injury that no doubt played a major role in his decision to give up basketball in 2007. In this next table, I combined his 2005 and 2006 numbers (that’s everything he did while also playing basketball) and have compared those to his current 2007 numbers (which of course is everything he’s done since leaving the basketball team): ERA IP HR/9 H/9 K/9 BB/9 K/BB WHIP Two-Sportin’ It 3.79 71.3 0.25 8.7 9.5 4.7 2.0 1.49 Hoops Schmoops 3.42 47.3 0.76 8.6 8.6 3.4 2.5 1.33 One last table: how opponents hit against Brackman:AVG = Batting AverageOBP = On-Base PercentageSLG = Slugging PercentageOPS = On-base Plus Slugging (OBP + SLG)ISO = Isolated Power (SLG - AVG) (i.e., extra bases per at-bat) AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO2005 .216 .314 .250 .564 .0342006 .319 .432 .440 .872 .1212007 .251 .345 .369 .714 .118Those 2005 figures are filthy. Opponents managed 32 hits off him that year, and all but five were singles. AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO05 + 06 .261 .367 .333 .700 .0722007 .251 .345 .369 .714 .118I was mainly interested to see if his control improved, but I’m not going to make any conclusions based on so few innings. His walk rate is a bit better in ‘07, but he’s hit eight batters this season–as many as he hit in his first two seasons combined.Some additional stats here. […]