Individual Production Rating

I personally want to apologize for the recent hiatus between my posts, for I pursued some much needed rest.  With that being said, I continue my analysis posts with an introduction piece for a new statistic that I have been working on, Individual Production Rating (IPR).  This statistic may be one for serious deliberation in the baseball statistical analysis realm, for it combines and considers both a players offensive and defensive abilities.  Setting aside any bias I might have due to this statistic being my own, I firmly believe that IPR can give WAR a run for its money.  However, due to having not figured out a proper weighting, I can only use IPR to compare players of the same position.  IPR is measured on a per-game basis.  Not only does IPR combine both offensive and defensive production, but also it takes into consideration a players negative statistics (i.e. Errors committed, Strikeouts, GIDP, etc...).  I do not wish to reveal the equation for two reasons.  First, as I iterated above, the weighting is not perfected.  Second, IPR could become a very valuable statistic for player evaluation and projection, thus I do not want to have my idea stolen.

The following is a sample of IPR.  These are the 2014 season IPR ratings for some of the MLBs premier second basemen:

Jose Altuve (HOU)- 6.81
Dustin Pedroia (BOS)- 6.44
Robinson Cano (SEA)- 6.31
Ian Kinsler (DET)- 6.22
Brian Dozier (MIN)- 6.17
D.J. LeMahieu (COL)- 5.63

As you can see, Jose Altuve has the highest IPR.  This comes with no surprise, considering the 2014 campaign he put forth.  One reason why I firmly believe there is a high potential for this statistic is the fact that Dustin Pedroia ranks higher than Robinson Cano.  Everyone knows that Cano is the better hitter, maybe not by a whole lot, but just enough so that people would mistakingly credit him as a better overall player.  Many people mainly judge and compare players purely on their offensive abilities.  However, with IPR and its incorporation of defense, Pedroia gains the recognition he deserves, that being he is the overall better second baseman, in comparison with Cano.  As I suspected too, the difference between their ratings is negligible, showing that they are very comparable.

NetIOR

Despite IOR having its many benefits, in terms of measuring and isolating a hitters individual offensive abilities, I wanted to delve even further into the concept.  I had a yearning to manipulate the statistic in such a way, that would help display more underrated players.  Upon my experimenting, I believe to have concocted a statistic that performs that precise function.  This new variation of IOR, I refer to as NetIOR.

NetIOR considers both the negative and positive aspects of a hitters game.  The original IOR equation and description can be referenced via entering the link above this article titled "Matt Lessard Created Statistics Reference Page".  The negative aspects I incorporate in the calculation of NetIOR are Strikeouts, Ground Into Double Plays, and Caught Stealing.  The equation is as follows:

NetIOR=  ((H + HR + BB + SB) - (GDP + CS + K)) / PA

Below is the final NetIOR player ranking for the 2014 MLB campaign.  This list includes only the top 100 players from 2014, in terms of NetIOR.  In order to even be considered for the ranking, the player must have met the league average, Plate-Appearance per Game mark (3.1 PA/ Game for 2014). Any player who I believe is underrated, I highlighted his name in green.  Whereas, any player who I believe had a breakout or comeback season has his name in yellow.

Rk	Name	PA ▾	NetIOR
1	Victor Martinez#	641	0.412
2	Jose Altuve	707	0.359
3	Michael Brantley*	676	0.346
4	Robinson Cano*	665	0.313
5	Jose Bautista	673	0.308
6	Ben Revere*	626	0.296
7	Adrian Beltre	614	0.295
8	Andrew McCutchen	648	0.293
9	Denard Span*	668	0.292
10	Justin Morneau*	550	0.275
11	Jonathan Lucroy	655	0.269
12	Jose Reyes#	655	0.267
13	Buster Posey	605	0.266
14	Nori Aoki*	549	0.264
15	David Ortiz*	602	0.262
16	Coco Crisp#	536	0.254
17	Jacoby Ellsbury*	635	0.254
18	Anthony Rizzo*	616	0.250
19	Melky Cabrera#	621	0.248
20	Edwin Encarnacion	542	0.247
21	Chase Utley*	664	0.247
22	Charlie Blackmon*	648	0.244
23	Jason Heyward*	649	0.243
24	Jayson Werth	629	0.243
25	Albert Pujols	695	0.243
26	Ben Zobrist#	654	0.242
27	Kurt Suzuki	503	0.239
28	Nick Markakis*	710	0.238
29	Anthony Rendon	683	0.236
30	Erick Aybar#	642	0.235
31	Jose Abreu	622	0.235
32	Josh Harrison	550	0.233
33	Hanley Ramirez	512	0.232
34	Matt Holliday	667	0.231
35	Matt Carpenter*	709	0.230
36	Dee Gordon*	650	0.228
37	Yangervis Solarte#	535	0.221
38	Miguel Cabrera	685	0.220
39	Adam LaRoche*	586	0.220
40	Giancarlo Stanton	638	0.218
41	Jimmy Rollins#	609	0.215
42	Yasiel Puig	640	0.213
43	Adam Eaton*	538	0.212
44	Seth Smith*	521	0.211
45	Carlos Santana#	660	0.211
46	Neil Walker#	571	0.210
47	Ian Kinsler	726	0.209
48	Alcides Escobar	620	0.206
49	Daniel Murphy*	642	0.206
50	James Loney*	651	0.204
51	Brian Dozier	707	0.204
52	Dustin Pedroia	609	0.204
53	Pablo Sandoval#	638	0.201
54	Adrian Gonzalez*	660	0.200
55	Yunel Escobar	529	0.198
56	Alexei Ramirez	657	0.198
57	Howie Kendrick	674	0.196
58	Josh Donaldson	695	0.193
59	Aramis Ramirez	531	0.192
60	Carlos Gomez	644	0.191
61	Alex Gordon*	643	0.190
62	Joe Mauer*	518	0.189
63	Omar Infante	575	0.188
64	Mike Trout	705	0.187
65	Conor Gillaspie*	506	0.186
66	Freddie Freeman*	708	0.185
67	Dexter Fowler#	505	0.182
68	Kyle Seager*	654	0.180
69	Dioner Navarro#	520	0.179
70	Christian Yelich*	660	0.179
71	Todd Frazier	660	0.177
72	Casey McGehee	691	0.175
73	Jed Lowrie#	566	0.175
74	Lucas Duda*	596	0.173
75	Lonnie Chisenhall*	533	0.173
76	Jean Segura	557	0.172
77	Hunter Pence	708	0.172
78	Nelson Cruz	678	0.171
79	Martin Prado	573	0.171
80	Miguel Montero*	560	0.170
81	Leonys Martin*	583	0.168
82	Torii Hunter	586	0.167
83	Jordy Mercer	555	0.166
84	Jhonny Peralta	628	0.166
85	Starling Marte	545	0.165
86	Starlin Castro	569	0.163
87	Evan Longoria	700	0.163
88	Elvis Andrus	685	0.159
89	Billy Hamilton#	611	0.159
90	Brian McCann*	538	0.158
91	Derek Jeter	634	0.158
92	Brett Gardner*	636	0.157
93	Kole Calhoun*	537	0.156
94	Andrelton Simmons	576	0.155
95	Eric Hosmer*	547	0.154
96	Luis Valbuena*	547	0.154
97	Adam Jones	682	0.152
98	Jason Kipnis*	555	0.151
99	Curtis Granderson*	654	0.150
100	Trevor Plouffe	582	0.149