xBABIP

Really, the timing of my discovery of this could've been a little better, but here we go anyway...

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/fantasy/article/simple-xbabip-calculator/

I recently found this extremely helpful tool on the internet, and interestingly enough, it has a lot to do with what I wrote about last week. Instead of looking at several different stats to predict a change in a player's numbers, xBABIP (expected BABIP) rolls everything into one statistic. Though this new stat is still being perfected, it has come a long way since its inception. The simple calculator in this excel document will predict what any batter's BABIP should be, given his batted ball statistics, and a few other stats. I suggest reading the article first, before trying out the tool; it answered a lot of my questions.

By the way, the credit for this model goes to Chris Dutton & Peter Bendix of THT, Derek Carty for posting it there, and Eno Sarris for posting the link on FanGraphs.

My post this weekend will be a trade deadline review of sorts. I'll evaluate the most important trades of the week, and tell you who got the best of each one.