Advanced Baseball Statistics Baseball statistics are meant to be a representation of a player's talent. Since the birth of baseball around the mid-19th century, statistics have been used to interpret a given player's talent level, however, statistics traditionally used to define talent are often misleading. On a fundamental level, baseball, like any game, is about winning. To win games, teams must score points; To score runs, players must reach base in any way possible. Meanwhile, the pitcher and defense should prevent runs from scoring. As simplistic as this view may seem, the statistics used to evaluate individual players were extremely flawed. In an effort to develop more specific and objective forms of statistical analysis, the idea of ​​Sabermetrics was born. Bill James, a man who never played or coached professional baseball, is often credited as a pioneer in the field and for coining the name in homage to the Society of American Baseball Research, or SABR. Eventually, the use of Sabermetrics spread to the Major Leagues, the first team being the Oakland Athletics, as depicted in Moneyball. Bill James and other baseball statisticians have developed various methods of evaluating a player's performance that allow for a more objective view of the game, broadly referred to as Sabermetrics. The game of baseball can be divided into three broad categories: hitting, pitching and fielding. No other aspect of the game receives as much attention as hitting. For example, every year the MLB hosts a home run derby. No other part of the game attracts so much attention. The traditional statistic that measures hitting ability is batting average (BA or AVG). To find a players batting average... in the center of the card... Reds at Colts Box Score and Play by Play", accessed April 26, 2014. http://www.baseball-reference.com/ box/ HOU/HOU196404230.shtml. Moneyball, film, directed by Bennett Miller (2011; Culver City, CA: Sony Pictures Studios), Baseball-Reference, accessed April 26, 2014, http://www.baseball-. reference.com/players/ j/justida01.shtml.“Johnny Damon,” Baseball-Reference, accessed April 26, 2014, http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/damonjo01.shtml.“Runs Created ,” Baseball-Reference, accessed April 26, 2014, http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Runs_created .“FIP,” FanGraphs, accessed April 36, 2014, http://www.fangraphs.com/ library/pitching/fip/.Ibid.“DRS”, FanGraphs, accessed April 26, 2014, http://www.fangraphs.com/library/defense/drs/.“UZR", FanGraphs, accessed April 26, 2014, http://www.fangraphs.com/library/defense/uzr/.