@Coyote850
Let me give you four different scenarios:
- One out, nobody on in Progressive Field. Batter A hits a 380-foot home run to right-center.
- One out, bases loaded at Progressive Field. Batter B hits a 380-foot home run to right-center.
- One out, nobody on at Kaufmann Field. Batter C hits a 380-foot flyout 7 feet short of the wall in right-center.
- One out, bases loaded at Kaufmann Field. Batter D hits a 380-foot flyout 7 feet short of the wall in right-center. The runner on third tags and scores.
Which of these batters is the best hitter?
There are a few different answers.
Answer A would be to say that one of the hitters is definitely better than another, even though each one did the exact same thing--hit a ball 380 feet to right-center.
Answer B would be to say that all the hitters are equal.
Answer C would be to ask more questions. What pitch was thrown? What was the expected MLB result off that pitch? What was the weather like?
Just because Batter B put in 4 RBI's doesn't mean he's a better hitter than Batter A. When we rely on old counting stats like RBI's, this is what we end up with.
Just because they all had the exact same result doesn't mean the situations were equal. This is similar to using a basic metric like OPS.
When we put together as much information as we possibly can, this is when we get into advanced stats and modern day baseball.