While taking a Sabermetrics course through edX, I came up with a new way to look at a pitcher’s game stats and “score” them instead of the Bill James Game Score. My idea is as follows:

PARCS

Power – Strikes swinging divided by hits, the closer to zero the better

Accuracy – Strikes divided by pitches, closer to 1 the better

Respect – Strikeouts minus walks plus hit by pitch divided by accuracy.

Control – Runs divided by homeruns times two plus earned runs times one and a half

Stamina – number of innings divided by batters faced

Examples:

Mike Fiers 8/21 Complete Game no hitter Bill James Game Score 94, PARCS 11.72

9 IP, 30 BF, 80 Strikes, 134 Pitches, 13 StrikesSw, 10 SO, 3 BB, 0 ER, 0 HR, 0 R, 0 HBP

Power = 13/0 = 0

Accuracy = 88/134 = .65

Respect = 10- 3/.65 = 10.77

Control = 0/0+0= 0

Stamina = 9/30 = .30

Dallas Keuchel 8/19 2 Earned Run Game Bill James Game Score 59 Parcs 8.57

7 IP, 28 BF, 65 Strikes, 105 Pitches, 6 StrikesSw, 5 SO, 1 BB, 7 H, 2 ER, 2 R, 0 HR, 0HBP

Power = 6/7 = .88

Accuracy = 65/105 = .62

Respect = 5-1/.62 = 6.15

Control = 2/3 = .67

Stamina = 7/28 = .25

Collin McHugh 6/13 8 Run Game Bill James Game Score 8 Parcs -2.01

3 IP, 21 BF, 39 Strikes, 74 Pitches, 6 StrikesSw, 1 SO, 2 BB, 1HBP, 9H, 2HR, 8ER, 8R

Power= 6/9 = .67

Accuracy = 39/74 = .52

Respect = 1-(2+1)/.52 = -3.85

Control = 8/(2*2)+(8*1.5)=.5

Stamina = 3/21 = .14

Max Scherzer 6/14, one of Game Score’s best games 100, Parcs 50.25

9 IP, 29 BF, 86 Str, 119 Pitches, 27 StrikesSw, 16 SO, 1 BB, 1 Hit

Power= 27/1 = 27

Accuracy = 86/119 = .72

Respect = 16-1/.72 = 22.22

Control = 0/0 = 0

Stamina = 9/29 = .31

Kerry Wood 5/6/1998 Game Score’s 105 Parcs 52.93

9IP, 29 BF, 84 Str, 122 Pitches, 24 StrikesSw, 20 SO, 0 BB, 1 Hit, 1 HBP

Power = 24/1 = 24

Accuracy = 84/122 = .68

Respect = 20-(1)/.68=27.94

Control= 0/0

Stamina = 9/29 = .31

Where did Parcs come from?

Watching the Yankees play recently, I was thinking about the pitcher and wondering when the game was over what were the things that I would think about when I described the game.  What things would I really remember?  What things would really matter?  What matters the most when it comes to pitching?

Finding the strike zone, not allowing hits, not allowing walks, not allowing runs or home runs and getting through innings are the core building blocks of Parcs.  I find that you can take a small sample of the pitcher’s box score and drop it into Parcs and you can see what he did fairly accurately in the game.  If you didn’t watch Kerry Wood’s performance in that 27 strike out game you can see that he was able to hit the strike zone 68 % of the time and make batters look absolutely silly because his stuff was “on.”  Hence the number of strike outs and strikes swinging that we take from the box score.  We don’t need to make a huge number of fancy calculations to come to these conclusions and the Parcs score can be done when the game is over.  Parcs is geared toward dominate and accurate pitching meaning that the more strike outs and the more strikes, the better the score.  Also facing less batters and using less pitches affects the score as well.

You can use PARCS for relievers as well:

Brett Cecil 8/23 Relief outing Game Score N/A Parcs 3.35

1 IP 4 BF 11 Strikes, 15 Pitcehes, 1 StrikeSw, 1SO, 0BB, 1 H

Power = 1/1= 1

Accuracy=11/15=.73

Respect=1/.73=1.37

Control = 0

Stamina = 1/4 =.25

It’s a way to study how accurate the pitcher was as well as how much they dominated the game.

The Ghost of Red Grange