Archaic rate stats criteria should be changed. The strange tale of Javy Lopez.

Javy López

Position: Catcher

Bats: Right  •  Throws: Right

6-3, 185lb (190cm, 83kg)

Born: November 5, 1970 (Age: 52-283d) in Ponce, Puerto Rico pr

Former Braves catcher Javy Lopez has the season record of most home runs by a CATCHER, i.e., while playing the catching position. You can read about it in these posts:

Javy Lopez: most Home Runs in a season as a catcher. Friday, February 8, 2019

Catchers hitting 40 home runs matrix of homers by position, plus DH & PH. Monday, September 20, 2021

I was cruising through the stats for Javy Lopez because the Yankees are playing the Braves. I noticed that in his record setting 2003 season Lopez had OPS+ 169. I thought that was remarkable for a catcher, especially in a season when he played enough to set the home run record for catchers. So I used stathead.com to run a query for catchers who qualified for leading the league in a "rate" (average) stat as opposed to a total like home runs. I looked for OPS+ >= 150.

The result startled me. Javy Lopez was not among them. Then I got suspicious. Sure enough. Lopez had 495 Plate Appearances (PA) and 502 are now required. Why?

Lopez was second to Barry Bonds in 2003 in SLG but didn't qualify even though Lopez was 8th in Total Bases (TB), which is part of the equation: TB/AB. Bases on Balls (BB) have nothing to do with SLG but are the main thing added to At Bats (AB) to get PA to figure On Base Percentage (OBP), which is obviously an average, not a percentage.

The lazy boy way baseball determines whether a batter qualifies in a season for any of the basic "rate" stats is to use the one that only makes sense for OBP.

Batting Average is Hits/AB. No BB.

SLG (slugging average) is TB/AB. No BB.

I don't know what the newer more esoteric "rate" stats use as a qualifier.

The direct way to fix this is to use the denominator (bottom of the equation) as the qualifier. But another that I've recommended and which would deal with the example of Javy Lopez is to use the numerator (top of the equation). Say what? Further explained at the bottom.

2003 National League (NL) batting leaders:

Home Runs

1.	Thome • PHI	47
2.	Sexson • MIL	45
	Bonds • SFG	45
4.	Lopez • ATL	43
	Pujols • STL	43
6.	Sosa • CHC	40
7.	Sheffield • ATL	39
	Bagwell • HOU	39
	Edmonds • STL	39
10.	Jones • ATL	36
	Wilson • COL	36

Lopez is tied for 4th in HR, only 4 behind the leader.

Total Bases

1.	Pujols • STL	394
2.	Helton • COL	367
3.	Sheffield • ATL	348
4.	Sexson • MIL	332
5.	Thome • PHI	331
6.	Wilson • COL	322
7.	Bagwell • HOU	317
8.	Lopez • ATL	314
9.	Gonzalez • ARI	308
10.	Payton • COL	307

Lopez is 8th in TB.

A brief digression that will make your teeth hurt:

Below the stats on that web page:

A ** by the stat's value indicates the player had fewer than the required number of at bats or plate appearances for the BA, OBP, SLG or OPS title that year. In order to rank the player, the necessary number of hitless at bats were added to the player's season total. The value printed here is their actual value and not the value used to rank them, therefore some numbers may appear out of order.

For batting rate stats, generally a minimum of 3.1 Plate Appearances/G, 1.0 IP/G, 0.67 Gm and Chances/Team Game (fielding), 0.2 SB att/Team Game (catchers), and 0.1 SB att/Team Game (baserunners only since 1951), and 0.1 decision/G for single-season leaderboards generally needed for rate statistics. For pitcher fielding the minimums are reduced by a third. For LF, CF, RF fielding stats, we only have reliable data since 1901, so all leaders are since 1901. Explanation of min. requirements

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And if we click on that link (https://www.baseball-reference.com/about/leader_glossary.shtml#min_req):

What are the minimum requirements to lead a Rate Stat?

This is a bit of a dicey proposition, because the standards have changed quite a bit throughout time. Here is how we computed them for the website. Thanks to Bill Deane, Gerry Myerson and Total Baseball for clarifying some of these issues.

Batting Average, OBP, Slugging Percentage, OPS

• Prior to 1920, a player must have appeared in 60% of the team's games to qualify for a title. This number was rounded to the nearest integer.
• From 1920-1937 (unclear, and previously thought to be until 1944), a player must have appeared in 100 games.
• From 1920-1948 in the Negro Leagues, a player must have 2.6 at bats per team game.
• From 1938-1944, the AL used 400 at bats and the NL stayed with 100 games, as discovered by Paul Rivard of SABR.
• From 1945-1956, a player must have 2.6 at bats per team game. Note, however, that from 1951-1954 a player could lead if they still led after the necessary number of hitless at bats were added to their at bat total.
• From 1957 to the present, a player must have 3.1 plate appearances per team game. Note, however, that from 1967 to the present a player could lead if they still led after the necessary number of hitless plate appearances were added to their at bat total.

In seasons where a player could still qualify for a title without the minimum plate appearances, we have printed out the altered entry with an asterisk. For instance, in 1995 Mark McGwire didn't have enough PAs to qualify for the league lead in slugging, but when enough hitless at bats were added, so he qualified, his .636 (down from a real value of .685) still managed to place him fifth in the league. The real number is in his batting line and the altered number is in his leaderboard.

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Now back to Javy Lopez. Let's repeat the first paragraph of the teeth hurting stuff and the current qualifier:

A ** by the stat's value indicates the player had fewer than the required number of at bats or plate appearances for the BA, OBP, SLG or OPS title that year. In order to rank the player, the necessary number of hitless at bats were added to the player's season total. The value printed here is their actual value and not the value used to rank them, therefore some numbers may appear out of order...

From 1957 to the present, a player must have 3.1 plate appearances per team game.

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3.1*162=502  That's 502 Plate Appearances (PA).

George Brett famously had a .390 BA in 1980. Brett played in only 117 of his team's 162 games: 72%. But Brett qualified with 515 PA. But Brett's 175 Hits were not in the top ten:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1980-batting-leaders.shtml

Hits

1.	Wilson • KCR	230
2.	Cooper • MIL	219
3.	Rivers • TEX	210
4.	Oliver • TEX	209
5.	Bumbry • BAL	205
6.	Murray • BAL	186
7.	Dilone • CLE	180
	Oglivie • MIL	180
9.	Burleson • BOS	179
	Carew • CAL	179
	Hargrove • CLE	179
	Yount • MIL	179
	Henderson • OAK	179

Javy Lopez in 2003 (note the **):

Batting Average

1.	Pujols • STL	.359
2.	Helton • COL	.358
3.	Bonds • SFG	.341
4.	Renteria • STL	.330
5.	Sheffield • ATL	.330
6.	Kendall • PIT	.325
7.	Lopez • ATL	.328	**
8.	Giles • ATL	.316
9.	Castillo • FLA	.314
10.	Loretta • SDP	.314

Lopez #7 in BA.

Slugging %

1.	Bonds • SFG	.749
2.	Lopez • ATL	.687	**
3.	Pujols • STL	.667
4.	Helton • COL	.630
5.	Edmonds • STL	.617
6.	Sheffield • ATL	.604
7.	Thome • PHI	.573
8.	Hidalgo • HOU	.572
9.	Sanders • PIT	.567	**
10.	Sosa • CHC	.553

Lopez #2 in SLG.

On-Base Plus Slugging

1.	Bonds • SFG	1.278
2.	Pujols • STL	1.106
3.	Helton • COL	1.088
4.	Lopez • ATL	1.065	**
5.	Sheffield • ATL	1.023
6.	Edmonds • STL	1.002
7.	Thome • PHI	.958
8.	Hidalgo • HOU	.957
9.	Giles • 2TM	.941
10.	Guerrero • MON	1.012	**

Lopez #4 in OPS.

Adjusted OPS+

1.	Bonds • SFG	231
2.	Pujols • STL	187
3.	Helton • COL	165
4.	Sheffield • ATL	162
5.	Edmonds • STL	160
6.	Thome • PHI	154
7.	Giles • 2TM	145
8.	Hidalgo • HOU	143
9.	Sexson • MIL	140
10.	Berkman • HOU	138

Lopez with OPS+ 169 is completely missing.

Fix the example of Javy Lopez by using the numerator (top of the equation). For instance, make qualifiers of N batters who are tops in the total stat that is the numerator. Maybe 2 or 3 multiplied by the number of teams in the league. I'm flexible on this and see that an odd season may occur in which that produces too few. So build in some flex.

For the home run stat, Lopez finished a close 4th, so it seems absurd in the extreme that Lopez is excluded from SLG in particular. And check this out:

AB per HR

1.	Bonds • SFG	8.7
2.	Lopez • ATL	10.6	**
3.	Edmonds • STL	11.5
4.	Thome • PHI	12.3
5.	Sosa • CHC	12.9
6.	Sexson • MIL	13.5
7.	Pujols • STL	13.7
8.	Sanders • PIT	14.6	**
9.	Sheffield • ATL	14.8
10.	Burnitz • 2TM	15.0

Lopez is second only to Bonds in HR rate but doesn't qualify. What the heck?

Finally, use the same new criteria for the data going back to 1903 when both leagues had the same rule on foul balls being strikes. Baseball should be embarrassed by the teeth hurting stuff.