Abbreviations:

Relating to the Hall of Fame:

  • HOF = Hall of Fame
  • BBWAA = Baseball Writers Association of America (the body of several hundred writers who vote for the players every year)

Accolades:

  • MVP = Most Valuable Player
  • CY = Cy Young
  • GG = Gold Glove Awards won
  • ASG = All Star Games
    • From 1959-1992 there were two All-Star Games played per year so sometimes we’ll refer to “All-Star Years” to not give a player double credit for the two games that year.

Statistics with abbreviations you might not know:

For Pitchers:

  • CG = Complete Games
  • QS = Quality Starts (at least 6 innings with 3 ER or less)
  • SHO = Shutouts
  • ERA = Earned Run Average (earned runs per 9 innings)
  • ERA+ = Ballpark and era adjusted ERA (with 100 as league average)  (Click here for more details)
  • FIP = Fielding Independent Pitching (formula meant to approximate ERA that measures strikeouts, walks and home runs allowed only)
  • WHIP = Walks + Hits per 9 Innings Pitched
  • BAA = Batting Average Against a Pitcher
  • SO/9 = Strikeouts per 9 Innings
  • SV = Saves
  • BS = Blown Saves
  • SV% = Percentage of Successful Saves (Saves/Save Opportunities)
  • WAR = Wins Above Replacement  (Click here for more details)

For Batters:

  • PA = Plate Appearances
  • AB/HR = At Bats per Home Run
  • BA = Batting Average
  • OBP = On-Base Percentage (Hits + Walks + Hit by Pitch)/(At Bats + Walks + Hit by Pitch + Sacrifice Flies)
  • SLG = Slugging Percentage (total bases/at bats)
    • Total bases = (Hits + Doubles + 2* Triples + 3 * Home Runs) (essentially, you get an extra “point” for a double, two extra for triple and three more for a HR)
  • OPS = On-Base Percentage plus Slugging Percentage
  • OPS+ = Ballpark and era adjusted OPS (with 100 as league average) (Click here for more details)
  • WAR = Wins Above Replacement  (Click here for more details)

For Base-Running:

  • SB = Stolen Bases
  • CS = Caught Stealing
  • SB% = Stolen Base success rate (SB/(SB + CS)
  • XBT% = Extra Bases Taken % (i.e., going first to third on a single)

For Fielding:

  • FLD% = Fielding percentage: (Putouts + Assists)/(Putouts + Assists + Errors)
  • RF/9 = Range Factor per 9 innings: (Putouts + Assists)*9/Innings Played
  • TZR = Total Zone Runs (advanced all-inclusive defensive metric found on Baseball Reference (from 1953 to the present day)
  • UZR = Ultimate Zone Rating (a more advanced all-inclusive defensive metric found on Fan Graphs (from 2002 to the present day)