Almost NEVER will OBP be below BA and if it is it means the guy must be driving in lots of runs via Sacrifice!

So sure they look at it but I don’t believe they look for that more than they look for the other traditionals like BA and RBU and EBH.

It depends on what they are looking for!
Power guys they ignore OBP altogether…
It becomes more important for guys who are NOT power hitters because the more they get on base the more the power and RBI guys you Do have might drive them in!

Leadoff and #2 hitter probably get a longer look at OBP. But not at the expense of BA entirely!
Even if a guy has a sky high OBP if his BA is below .260 he is not going to be put at the start of your lineup!
Maybe Billy beane would but not the other 29!

OBP is NOT about hitting! Hits are in it, so are walks and so are HBP!
It obscures Hitting because of those extra things as there could be lots of walks, fewer hits and you have no idea which of those OBs were truly earned hits or merely a screw up by a pitcher!

OBP tells you how often a guy gets on base, BA tells you how often the guy hits himself on and provided you use both for their intended purposes you will do just fine!

But Most saber guys think BA is bad and OBP should be the standard bearer merely because it is the key component of most of the Sabers as Bill James valued it above everything else!

High OBP is valuable BJ wasn’t wrong, but how you got those OBs is just slightly more important when your selecting players because Hits are a repeatable act by a batter…
Walking and getting hit by a pitch require the pitcher and if he doesn’t help then you can’t repeat the numbers!

THE SABRE-LOVING BASTARDS AT MLB NETWORK HAD THE METS 30 CLUBS IN 30 DAYS SEGMENT START A HALF HOUR LATE SO THEY COULD TALK ABOUT OF ALL THINGS — FANTASY BASEBALL!

TOTALLY MESSED UP MY DVR RECODING! DON’T KNOW WHAT AL LEITER AND LARRY BOWA CONCLUSIONS WERE ABOUT OUR TEAM.

THIS WAS OBVIOUSLY DONE BY BUD SELLIG AT THE REQUEST OF SANDY ALDERSON TO BRAINWASH PEOPLE INTO BELIEVING IN SABREMETRICS PRIOR TO AIRING THE METS SEGMENT SO THEY CAN LOOK AT A LOUSY UPCOMING SEASON AND THINK IT’S A GOOD ONE LIKE WITH YOGI BERRA IN 1957.

IT’S ON AT 5:00 AM THIS MORNING AND THEY BETTER NOT MESS AROUND WITH ME AGAIN – OTHERWISE I’M GOING TO ASK METSI TO TAKE CARE OF THEM FOR ME!

otherwise you end up with a team of joe Mcewings with dirty uniforms. And not many wins.

IOW< they are all making their own formula (which is nothing more than a way to interpret data) to determine what is going to lead to more wins.

But the difference between great and mediocre is more in the statistic than the actual performance day in and day out over the course of a year. Again, only one more hit every seven games – or about four a month. Yes, we want all the hits we can get out of a player but the amount is really quite little between the .260 and .300 hitter. And when thinking about it, does a hitter who bats .300 one year and “slumps” to .260 the next really in such a slump?

And the stats don’t project anything more of what a player could be counted than what the manager and teammates already expect of him. They know what type of hitter he is and don’t think of it in terms of numbers. They look at it in terms of his focus, concentration and mechanics remaining the same. A bit less wrist action and bat speed means he is not going to hit as well as expected until he resolves the problem for as Yogi said “90 percent of all baseball is mental” (and the other half physical LOL).

And speaking of Yogi, I think the attached proves who understands and knows the game better – the hall of fame catcher or the fans of sabremetrics?

In this article, Yogi said he had a lousy 1957 season while those behind the computer are telling him he had a good one. Who’s opinion would you trust – Yogi, who had one of the best baseball brains behind those tools of ignorance, or those who contradict him based on data entry? Again, half of the game is 90 percent mental, not computer software. And comparing his 1957 season against those of other backstops doesn’t change the fact that for Yogi, it was a bad year. After all, what difference was it to Yogi what others did unless they were in competition for his job?

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1115413-yogi-berras-bad-1957-yankees-season-became-a-good-one-in-the-21st-century

Few fans understand how much misleading or over-emphasized percentages can be. Take for example the batting average. Know what the difference is between a .260 hitter and .300 hitter with 500 at bats? 20 hits over the course of the season. That translates into one extra hit every seven games assuming each plays 140 games. And since there is only a small difference between a .260 and .300 hitter, the same small difference applies to the great hitters as well over the course of a 20 year career for the difference between those lifetime batting averages is a grand total of 200 more hits. Doesn’t this breakdown show the actual difference between these two hitters (non-power wise) is less than what a 40 point difference in batting average makes it appear?

Same with on base percentage. A .300 hitter with 80 walks only gets on base once more over the course of four games than another .300 hitter with just 40. Over the course of the year that might make for an impressive stat but on the field day in and day out the one with double the walks doesn’t get on base that much more often. It’s one’s ability to get on base other than a hit when the situation warrants it – or to not get on base via a walk when a fly or slow grounder ASSURES getting a run on third rather than leaving it up to the next batter.

When I was a kid the debate was who was the better center fielder, Mays or Mantle. Now, if one wants to compare the prime years of each to the other, Mantle crushes Mays in average, power, runs scored and ribbies. No argument. But at the same time, there is another side to the issue. Let us say both are at bat with a runner on third with one out. Who has the better chance of driving in the run? Willie, not The Mick, despite of Mantle having the dominant batting and on-base percentages. Why? Because Mantle struck out way too often. Besides a base hit, Mays could get the run in via a ground ball out or sacrifice fly.

Again, the computer IMHO enlightens the fan more than the baseball person but is hardly a tool that one without baseball insight can use to gather personnel simply because a player’s ability goes way beyond the stats accumulated and has to be appreciated So throw stats out the window except for the personal accolades one likes to achieve as a leader. The math makes the differences appear greater than they are. The advanced stats take percentages to the maximum and again shows an analytic difference that is not essential when it comes to the game itself.

One thing – nobody please come back and say neither Mantle or Mays would have a good chance to drive in that run cause they would just be pitched around or intentionally walked!

That’s 90% of the benefit of walking IMO.

Back to Ralph. It could be a combination of being to passive, trying to work counts ,some hitters can do that ala Giambi, Piazza. It’s also some hitters are looking for the wrong pitch instead of always looking fastball and hitters counts and adjusting oof the fastball. And then sometimes it’s just a great pitcher making his pitch in a hitters count. I’m sure it’s a combination of all.

Ralph also said something that I totally disagreed with. “Sometimes a walk is better than a hit.” When Gary asked how, he said because you’re getting the pitcher tired by working up his pitch count and you’re still getting on base. I’ll never agree with a walk being better than a hit. You can get a hit on the 9th pitch of an at bat and you can walk on 4 pitches. The AB with the hit saw more pitches. I’ll never agree with that. A walk is never better than a hit.

Ignoring them out right would be as stubborn as those who refused to except horse less carriages or, talkie pictures.

Call it progress or perpetually evolving or what have you but the game of baseball is never going to stan still. Franchises will always be looking for every and any advantage.

They basically look for the guys with the right makeup and proper attitude, if you have that the coaching will be used and put to good use!

In any case to be clear it was Kiner who said it was an over focus on OBP. He didn’t really say it was a bad thing just not something anyone who was a great hitter would do!

“great Hitters want to hit not walk” to paraphrase….