WOBA IS THE MLB's BEST OFFENSIVE STAT: Here's Why

What is the best overall offensive production statistic out there today? In my opinion, wOBA holds the gold medal. This all-encompassing offensive statistic gives you the best idea of how a guy is performaning at the plate in all aspects of the game. What is wOBA, how is it calculated, and how can it be applied throughout all levels of baseball? All of those questions and more are answered in today’s video!

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[bobconrad]

Now this statistic makes more sense to me. I think it helps that once you have the proper weights for a particular year you can actually calculate the stat yourself. Not sure that the different weights for UBB and HBP makes sense, but you have already addressed that issue in the comments below. I am enjoying your excellent presentations. Keep this up and you may even convert me! lol

[bodegabaseball]

Excellent way of breaking down wOBA! Typically, I used this stat over others when comparing hitters. I don't really understand xwOBA though? Any chance you can explain what the differences are?

[fullmetaljakey]

0:19 “let’s jump into it”































“…before we jump into it”

[johnnywholestaff]

Great video and I love the shout-out to Charlie!

[SenorTortas]

@simplesabermetrics where are you?! Your videos are some of my favorite on YT, baseball or otherwise

[bowiecreative]

Great video, can anyone help with answering this question...
looking at the formula is the;
.690 the UBB average for all teams in a season that should be multiplied times the UBB of an individual player?
.719 the HBP average for all teams in a season that should be multiplied times the HBP of an individual player?
1.217 the UBB average for all teams in a season that should be multiplied times the 1B of an individual player?

In the denominator is AB for the player or for all teams for the year or only for the player that’s being observed?

[samuelalmaraz]

just found your channel! I have already fallen in love!! keep up the great content

[Benisuber]

I find it interesting that HPB is weighted differently than UBB, in fact it has a higher weighting to it. This seems to imply that getting hit by a pitch is a skill, and one that is more valuable than good plate discipline. I understand that the regression is what sets these weights (not necessarily how those are calculated, but thats OK), just saying that theoretically that distinction doesn't make a lot of sense to me.


Also, intentional walks are not considered which is a grey area to me. If you're a great hitter, you're going to get walked intentionally in higher leverage situations because you're a good hitter. Look at Bonds' 2004.
On the other hand, in high leverage situations with no one on first base and 0 or 1 outs almost anyone is going to get the intentional walk.
I get that the intentional walk is going away with the best hitter in baseball only getting 14 free bases and the Astros intentionally walking 0 batters last year, but this stat can be applied to any year in baseball history and if no one is getting intentionally walked that will essentially just cancel itself out of the equation.


Anyway getting off my soapbox... awesome video! Looking forward to more, these are really great for someone who has already been interested in sebermetrics like myself.

[cedricgist]

Good video and good argument for using WOBA to evaluate offensive prowess. Not a criticism, but I heard you say "weighted" but I didn't hear your say "weighted on-base average." I'm an old-timer, and although the term looked familiar, I had forgotten what it stood for.

I'll rewatch the video and see if I missed the breakdown of the acronym: I likely did.

[bowiecreative]

Awesome. When it comes to stats like WOBA+ What would you recommend for younger ages that play little league, intermediate or select ball where you don’t have access to stats outside of your team?

[isaacmata]

Loved the video and I wanted to ask a question for stats on hitters. So I do dfs on my own time and would you say wOBA is the best stat when to pick players or which stats should I look at when picking a batter. Thank you and appreciate if you respond back.

[irvingcastellanos]

do you know how does the factors are obtained? i can't find the answer, everyone just says that is "x", i see that every year it's very similar, but yeah, i'd like to know haha, great video!

[jakeashkenase]

Is there any way to measure park factors or weather conditions in a hitting stat like woba for the homerun aspect of it. The same way it’s used with pitchers in their stats

[DarthAnimal]

Whats the next step after WOBA? Like if you have a guy on third, and you have a guy who cant get on base worth a damn, but hits a lot of home runs, how do you weigh that against the likelier hit, like a bunt, and if this is the game winning run, how would that then be weighted in the next stat up?

[derekwaddoups]

Can high spin rate be effective in the bottom of the zone?

[wowihaveachannel]

I just saw the woba formula briefly. It doesn't take into account rbis or other production values?

[Javier-hkup]

Is there a statistic without walk and hbp percentage?

[jakobrichards]

I always come back to this video whenever I think hard enough about wOBA or even stats like FIP where they’re scaled with some sort of constant. Perhaps I simply don’t have a great understanding of constants in statistics, but to me it only makes a number more difficult to understand than less. In the case of wOBA, why is it being ‘scaled’ to a number we better understand? It seems like the perfect value of “weighted runs/PA” was calculated but then completely made irrelevant by this constant. I Guess i struggle to understand a fraction’s true and full value if there’s no clear and simple unit defined. I see and appreciate the value of making a number that accounts for all PAs and their results, but maybe I’m just looking for a different stat, like wRC

[lazerzay]

So if a pitcher woba is .400 is that a good thing or a bad thing for the batters at bat? If that make snese

[AJsaurus]

We always get better ways to appreciate and know players, but the upper echelons always seem to ignore them.