Win Probability Added Says SF’s Randy Winn is a Hero

If you are a baseball blogger like us here at the World Series Blog, you probably like to check out the stats. And there’s no better place to check out the stats than the stats archive Baseball-Reference.com. Just numbers, no frills, it’s your one-stop shop for all the data you could ask for. There are tons of interesting stats for baseball, and one of them is Win Probability Added (WPA).

Developed by some baseball stats junkie, WPA measures the probability that a given play will result in a win. For every single out, every single pitch there is a WPA that van give you the basic “importance” of what’s going on at any given time. It’s basically a way to tell that the bottom of the ninth homer scoring the go-ahead run was more important than the routine fly ball out in the top of the third, stranding zero.

Yesterday’s top “Big Play” as determined by the WPA was the Giants’ Randy Winn homering in the top of the 9th on the road in Arizona. It’s too bad that the WPA can’t also include the fact that the Diamondbacks are one of the best teams in the league, while the Giants are struggling to get into it. Also- that the Giants were on the road, and that Barry Zito got his first, and well deserved win of the year.

To get MLB tickets, go to StubHub.com.