Bill James is the godfather of modern analytics and "The Bill James Handbook" is the Bible for stat-loving baseball fans.
Related: 3 Phillies takes: Harper, McCutchen and Quinn
Well, Bill James has a new stat, called "Secondary Average," that proves, once again, how worthless batting average is and how good of an offensive player Bryce Harper is.
Unlike batting average, that only calculates hits divided by at bats to get its calculation, secondary average takes a players extra base hits, walks and stolen bases then divides it by at bats to get its number.
From the New York Times article on this:
Secondary average, unlike batting average, is a better representation of an offensive players total production.
Remember about 6 weeks ago, right before Harper signed here, people were complaining about a .250 hitter getting a $300+ million contract. Secondary average is here to prove just how bad those claims were.
Harper had a secondary average of .507 last year largely because he hit 34 home runs and led the league in walks with 130. Harper had the second biggest disparity in baseball last year between his batting average and his secondary average, behind only Mike Trout.
Pretty good!
Curious what Harper's secondary average is in 2019 so far?
A league leading 1.125 secondary average, or SECA.
So, if one of your friends brings up Harper's batting average last season, maybe show them this metric just to prove them wrong.
You're welcome.
