Excluding rookies seems like a pretty popular choice around these parts. It makes it tough to grow the league. However, excluding rookies does come in handy when comparing rosters before the season gets underway. A rook's production can wind up anywhere across the spectrum; there is no way to project with better than 50/50 probability how good they'll be. The next world-beater, a bust, or a perfectly solid role-player: all are equally likely outcomes. Sure, having a background in baseball helps, especially at the plate. A good hitter in baseball tends to be a good hitter in wiffle once he gets his reps. Although not always, that part of the game usually translates. Pitching, however, is a total gamble. Many good baseball pitchers can never find the zone in wiffleball; some guys who never pitched a baseball prove themselves to be reliable arms.
Sure, the fates of some teams are depending on rookies. More than half of the Islanders roster are rookies, the Aces likely are looking for a couple of theirs to play significant roles, and the See Yas are counting on a rookie to be their number-two pitcher. Still, until we have an indication of what those rookie players will be, the only safe bet is to examine the rosters for what we know for sure - and for that we have career numbers for all of the veterans. In the tables below we compare five offensive stat categorie and five pitching stat categories for the veteran rosters of the eight teams. For the offense the stats we look at are average (AVG), on-base percentage (OBP), slugging percentage (SLG), plate appearances per run batted in (PA/RBI), and at bats per home run (AB/HR). For pitching we look at earned run average (ERA), walks and hits per inning pitched (WHIP), on base against (OBA), strikeouts per six innings pitched (K/6), strike outs per walk (K/BB). Then, we use the rankings for those stats to come up an overall average rank for each team on both the offensive side and the pitching side.
Sure, the fates of some teams are depending on rookies. More than half of the Islanders roster are rookies, the Aces likely are looking for a couple of theirs to play significant roles, and the See Yas are counting on a rookie to be their number-two pitcher. Still, until we have an indication of what those rookie players will be, the only safe bet is to examine the rosters for what we know for sure - and for that we have career numbers for all of the veterans. In the tables below we compare five offensive stat categorie and five pitching stat categories for the veteran rosters of the eight teams. For the offense the stats we look at are average (AVG), on-base percentage (OBP), slugging percentage (SLG), plate appearances per run batted in (PA/RBI), and at bats per home run (AB/HR). For pitching we look at earned run average (ERA), walks and hits per inning pitched (WHIP), on base against (OBA), strikeouts per six innings pitched (K/6), strike outs per walk (K/BB). Then, we use the rankings for those stats to come up an overall average rank for each team on both the offensive side and the pitching side.
| CAREER OFFENSIVE STATS by VETERAN ROSTER | |||||||||||
| TEAM | AVG | (Rk) | OBP | (Rk) | SLG | (Rk) | PA/RBI | (Rk) | AB/HR | (Rk) | Avg Rk |
| .278 | (2) | .453 | (1) | .543 | (2) | 5.0 | (1) | 13.9 | (2) | 1.6 | |
| .289 | (1) | .411 | (3) | .554 | (1) | 5.8 | (3) | 14.1 | (3) | 2.2 | |
| .267 | (3) | .388 | (5) | .525 | (3) | 5.3 | (2) | 13.8 | (1) | 2.8 | |
| .235 | (4) | .385 | (7) | .459 | (4) | 6.0 | (4) | 15.6 | (4) | 4.6 | |
| .227 | (6) | .397 | (4) | .444 | (5) | 6.1 | (5) | 17.8 | (5) | 5.0 | |
| .235 | (4) | .419 | (2) | .422 | (6) | 6.4 | (7) | 19.4 | (6) | 5.0 | |
| .199 | (7) | .388 | (5) | .374 | (7) | 6.3 | (6) | 19.5 | (7) | 6.4 | |
| .197 | (8) | .367 | (8) | .324 | (8) | 6.1 | (8) | 31.5 | (8) | 8.0 | |
| CAREER PITCHING STATISTICS by VETERAN ROSTER | |||||||||||
| TEAM | ERA | (Rk) | WHIP | (Rk) | OBA | (Rk) | K/6 | (Rk) | K/BB | (Rk) | Avg Rk |
| 2.60 | (3) | 1.53 | (4) | .144 | (1) | 14.0 | (2) | 2.3 | (4) | 2.8 | |
| 2.30 | (1) | 1.17 | (1) | .200 | (7) | 13.1 | (5) | 5.3 | (1) | 3.0 | |
| 2.59 | (2) | 1.49 | (3) | .176 | (5) | 13.4 | (4) | 2.6 | (3) | 3.4 | |
| 3.39 | (4) | 1.40 | (2) | .197 | (6) | 13.1 | (5) | 3.3 | (2) | 3.8 | |
| .375 | (6) | .187 | (7) | .150 | (2) | 14.5 | (1) | 1.8 | (7) | 4.6 | |
| 3.85 | (7) | 1.84 | (6) | .173 | (4) | 13.5 | (3) | 1.9 | (5) | 5.0 | |
| 3.68 | (5) | 1.68 | (5) | .151 | (3) | 12.8 | (7) | 1.9 | (5) | 5.0 | |
| 5.62 | (8) | 2.02 | (8) | .272 | (8) | 8.5 | (8) | 1.6 | (8) | 8.0 | |
