In baseball, there are 3 statistics which dominate the discussions for batters, which means that none of them are adequate in describing any batter's worth or value to the team. The use of a Batting Average, or Slugging Percentage or On-Base Percentage, either alone or in combination, simply reinforces the fact that they are not adequate to describe a batter.

Additionally, bare statistics like walks, or strikeouts, or even RBIs, have no meaning without discussing the opportunities. If someone plays on a good team, more runners will be on base, and therefore more RBIs will be produced. The statistic is really meaningless. But, there is a relationship in how many players are left on base as opposed to how many are knocked in. If someone faces tough pitching weekly, more strikeouts are bound to enter the picture.

Only provable relationships between field results are capable of having any true meaning or value.

The "Total Average" figured by me above is a measure of these relationships, and it should be more meaningful than any set of statistics you might come up with.

The value of a batter is in how he gets on base, moves runners around and knocks them in, but this can be done in many ways. Additionally, a batter can hurt you, but some of the ways a batter can hurt you are misunderstood. The point is that a value which can be measured is not dependent on the type of player that is represented. In other words, homerun hitters and players who hit for average are both valuable. The relationships that exist between the batter's so-called statistics are the important factors, not the bare statistics themselves.

I have presented four basic relationships in a batter, and the "Total Average" is the product of these relationships. I do not have the time to test this program fully, as I did with my football program since 1985, so I am leaving it for the future. Any future program on baseball will include not only "Total Average," but also other programs on baseball, including pitching, fielding, and team areas such as production and defense.

Football has been deeply evaluated and examined with 13 sets of indices, so do not place too much significance on the baseball chart above for a batting worth, because you will misconstrue the nature of the examination. It is only one chart.

True Worth Studies is about explaining how the sport works and preparing for the next opponent. It is about the several provable relationships that can be documented. It is not about trying to find the best person, although sometimes that answer is gained in the process.

Which batter is the best batter above?

That of course is the trick question. The batter with the better worth is the one in the middle, although not by a great margin over the third batter.

In football, a coach uses True Worth Studies as a rearview mirror to judge the performance of his team overall, and also its parts, including the players. Then, the coach can compare his team to the next opponent and formulate a better game plan, based on the comparisons of True Worth Studies.

Likewise, in baseball, the manager of the team is not so concerned with who the best batter is.

Is someone who strikes out a great deal a good or bad batter? Strikeouts are better than hitting into a double play, are they not?

Of course, if you play for a good team, and there is a man on first base often, you stand a better chance of hitting into a double play than on a poor hitting team where there is seldom a man on first base when you come to bat.

Statistics, you see, in and of themselves, give you pause, because they may indeed tell you a lie. It is the relationships between sets of field results which carry meaning, not the field results themselves.