Bregman, Altuve, Springer higher road OPS 2017-2019.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has this basic concept: no harm, no foul.

MLB should just try for no hysteria or look at basic facts.

The owner of the Houston Astros has conceded that at least some of his batters cheated at HOME for seasons 2017, 2018, 2019 at least some of the time by stealing the opposing catcher's signs using means that were against the rules and conveying the information to Astros batters from banging a trash can to possibly the batter wearing a buzzer. No one has alleged that any cheating occurred on the road. So Astros batters should have hit better at home, which is what you'd expect anyway for most batters on any team.

This link opens a file with data on the Houston Astros batters for seasons 2017, 2018, 2019 derived from baseball-reference.com using its "play index", including the split finder for home/road (away) data. It's mostly copy/paste, which puts the basic data in one place for easier review.

OPS: On Base Plus Slugging averages. OPS+ adjusted for ball parks and year.

There are multiple tabs in the file:
- Team for all Astros batters; better OPS on road 2017 & 2018
- for six Astros batters with the most plate appearances (PA) total, home, road 2017-2019; same six
- Leaders sorted by OPS+, OPS for 2017-2019
- Home/Road: sorted by OPS for 2017-2019 home, then road (away)

The final tab is most telling; it includes overall OPS next to home and road. The top three Astros batters all hit better on the road than at home 2017-2019. For Correa and Reddick the home advantage was very small. Only Gurriel hit significantly better at home. Here it is:

Rk	I	Player	Split	From	To	G	OPS	OPStot	GS	PA	PAtot	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	ROE	BAbip
1		Alex Bregman	Home	2017	2019	237	.897	.924	234	998	2021	841	151	240	57	4	41	141	17	4	133	131	.285	.388	.509	428	17	14	1	9	3	4	.294
2		George Springer	Home	2017	2019	200	.867	.877	200	893	1805	779	140	218	34	1	46	121	7	7	91	165	.280	.364	.503	392	16	14	0	4	1	8	.301
3		Carlos Correa	Home	2017	2019	145	.862	.859	145	593	1270	513	78	142	27	0	29	99	3	0	71	132	.277	.363	.499	256	19	2	0	7	5	1	.315
4		Jose Altuve	Home	2017	2019	209	.857	.901	207	894	1809	793	132	238	40	3	34	97	31	7	81	135	.300	.370	.487	386	26	11	3	6	3	5	.324
5		Yuli Gurriel	Home	2017	2019	208	.853	.819	204	843	1749	781	117	231	58	2	37	148	5	0	41	89	.296	.336	.517	404	26	11	0	10	2	13	.292
6		Josh Reddick	Home	2017	2019	208	.769	.765	190	779	1577	689	90	197	34	5	18	81	10	5	65	110	.286	.341	.428	295	8	0	3	14	2	6	.311
Rk	I	Player	Split	From	To	G	OPS	OPStot	GS	PA	PAtot	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	ROE	BAbip
1		Alex Bregman	Away	2017	2019	231	.950	.924	227	1023	2021	863	164	252	70	4	50	145	15	6	137	134	.292	.394	.556	480	21	14	0	9	3	5	.294
2		Jose Altuve	Away	2017	2019	205	.944	.901	201	915	1809	831	153	284	55	6	34	119	24	8	73	110	.342	.399	.545	453	29	7	2	2	4	6	.363
3		George Springer	Away	2017	2019	202	.887	.877	192	912	1805	792	170	221	41	2	49	131	10	6	104	181	.279	.366	.521	413	19	8	0	7	1	9	.302
4		Carlos Correa	Away	2017	2019	149	.857	.859	149	677	1270	591	106	165	34	3	31	109	3	1	70	146	.279	.353	.504	298	18	4	0	12	3	12	.315
5		Yuli Gurriel	Away	2017	2019	211	.787	.819	208	906	1749	849	107	251	58	2	25	116	8	6	41	101	.296	.330	.457	388	20	7	0	9	1	12	.309
6		Josh Reddick	Away	2017	2019	201	.761	.765	180	798	1577	722	107	196	32	4	26	104	9	2	63	105	.271	.326	.435	314	19	0	0	9	3	8	.283

Winners never cheat. Cheaters never win. That would be nice but in the immortal paraphrasing of Leo Durocher: nice guys finish last.

Cheating doesn't always work. So how about that honor code I've been recommending?

Showing posts with label Signs.