Whenever you do a ranking here in the hitters and pitchers sections, PLAYERtrack will calculate the benchmark player, or the average statistics among all results in your ranking.

For the default ranking for batters (500 ABs, minimum 20 games played at a position), this is the benchmark:

149 G, 571 AB, .285 AVG, .351 OBP, 87 R, 20 HR, 82 RBI, 11 SB, 4 CS, 100 K, .391 SLG%, 0.742 OPS, 82% CONTACT, .316 BABIP (113 total batters)

For the default ranking for pitchers (150 IP), this is the benchmark:

31 starts, 190 IP, 85 ER, 12 W, 10 L, 0 SV, 0 HOLDS, 191 H, 60 BB, 21 HR, 140 SO, 4.03 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 6.63 K/9, .259 BABIP, 4.11 FIP (100 total pitchers)

I like this function for purposes of looking at a particular player in your ranking, and comparing that player's stats with the benchmarks. The better that player is against the benchmark, the better your team can be.

This is also a cool method to look at pitchers on a given team to get a real good correlation of a team's defense on BABIP.

Here is the benchmark among the Red Sox pitchers (75 IP minimum):

24 starts, 149 IP, 63 ER, 11 W, 7 L, 0 SV, 0 HOLDS, 136 H, 56 BB, 15 HR, 122 SO, 3.81 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 7.37 K/9, .241 BABIP, 3.910 FIP (6 pitchers)


So, is Daisuke Matsuzaka's .208 BABIP a realistic figure that he can continue? Based upon the Red Sox pitchers' .241 BABIP average above, I'm thinking no.

NOTE: this type of team-specific search is limited to premium subscribers.