Unlike a lot of baseball fans, I like making decisions and shaping my opinions on facts. I’m borderline obsessed with the idea of KPI. Simply put KPI are component parts of a system, that if performing as expected or intended will ladder up to the success of that system.
One thing I’m going to do between now and Opening Day, is take a look at the KPI for the Yankees. What are the variables and component variables that we should keep our eyes on to judge how well the Yankees are doing, and what course corrections are needed as the season progresses?
I’m sure you’re all on the edge of your seats.
First off, what does KPI stand for? Well, I’m glad you asked. KPI stands for Key Performance Indicators. So, if you are going to try to identify KPI for winning baseball games, you would logically look at runs scored and runs allowed.
Ok, cool, but what are the KPI for RS and RA? Well, for RS you would probably look at team OBP, SLG, BA, HR, SB, TB, and see which of those variables correlate most positively to Runs. But then suppose you want to go deeper. What are the KPI for OBP for instance, maybe things like, Pitches Per Plate Appearance, the incidence of certain (hitters) counts, quality of opposing pitchers, inning in which the opposing starter left the game. It goes on and on.
I will be running correlations on as many variables as I can think of to try to figure out where the Yankees strengths and weaknesses are, so here’s what I ask, if there are variables you would be interested in seeing correlated to either RS or RA, let me know in the comments and I’ll include them in my analysis. My goal in doing this is to eventually take Brian Cashman’s thankless and heart disease inducing job. Just kidding, I’m just bored, lol.
