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Metric Explainers

BIP+: Which Batters Do the Most Damage After Making Contact?

In this installment of a series on advanced baseball metrics, we look at what BIP+ reveals about Miguel Sano’s raw power and how Javier Baez could get back on track. For…

2 years ago Taylor Bechtold

Soccer

Sequences and Possessions in Football

Stats Perform’s possessions framework strings together consecutive events into sequences in order to provide a more detailed picture of what’s happening on the pitch.

2 years ago Jonny Whitmore

Metric Explainers

Discipline+: Why Not Every Decision to Swing is Created Equal

We’re taking a close look at discipline+ to discover what it tells us about the versatility of Mike Trout, Juan Soto and Ronald Acuna Jr. For a look at which players…

2 years ago The Analyst

Soccer

What Are Expected Assists (xA)?

Expected assists (xA) measure the likelihood that a given pass will become a goal assist based on several factors about the pass.

2 years ago Jonny Whitmore

Baseball

Contact+: Which Hitters Are Baseball’s Best at Making Frequent Contact?

In this installment of a series on advanced baseball metrics, we look at what contact+ reveals about the greatness of DJ LeMahieu.

2 years ago The Analyst

Metric Explainers

Framing Runs: It’s Not About ‘Stealing Extra Strikes’

As part of our series on advanced baseball metrics, we examine what framing runs tell us about the game’s best pitch framers behind the plate.    Things turned ugly one…

2 years ago Taylor Bechtold

Metric Explainers

Strike+: Who Thrives on Racking Up Both Whiffs and Called Strikes?

While whiff+ offers a more thorough analysis of a pitcher’s stuff by determining the rate at which he generates swings and misses, strike+ takes that concept a step further. Ultimately, the goal…

2 years ago The Analyst

Metric Explainers

Extreme Chases: Which Pitchers Are Best at Making Batters Look Bad?

Let's take a look at extreme chase+ to determine which pitchers are elite when it comes to coaxing swings on pitches far off the plate.

2 years ago Taylor Bechtold

Soccer

Advanced Metrics: Top Five European Leagues

The top 500 players with at least 900 minutes in Europe’s elite leagues by attacking metrics aggregated to per 90 values for season 2020-21.

2 years ago Peter McKeever

Soccer

‘That Was Sheer, Delightful Football’: How Brazil Cemented Football’s Place as the World’s Most Popular Sport

Growing up in England with football in the 1960s and 1970s was very different from today. The foreign superstars playing in English football were from the rest of Great Britain…

2 years ago Rob Bateman