Not All Hits Are Valued The Same: The Importance of wRC+

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Not All Hits Are Valued The Same: The Importance of wRC+


Barry Bonds is the All-Time Leader in Runs Created with 2,892. The next hitter in line is Babe Ruth with 2,718. When finding the difference, Bonds created 174 more runs than Ruth. 

Getting the true value of a hitter has been a quest for statisticians and baseball fanatics for decades. Luckily, for both parties there is more than enough statistical measures for today's Major League game than ever before. But what about the amateur level coach? How can this coach find the truest value of his hitters? Better yet how can this coach see how much of an impact his offense is having on opponents? Luckily there is a way to see this now. 

For many years coaches had the rudimentary task of looking at all of the kinds of hits a player had and trying to make sense of all of the information. This can become overwhelming and could confuse the coaches or players looking at all of the hits the player has had. This process would cause a huge debate, or even worse bring about faulty conclusions. 

Instead of going down the statistical line of a hitter and seeing all the kinds of hits that the hitter had, Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) gives value of a hitter based on all of the value each hit he had. For example, a double is more than a single, a triple is more than a double, and a home run is more than all of the other mentioned hits. Also, wRC+ is even more specific by putting in the differences a specific ballpark has on a hitter too. This shows the climate at which a hitter hits in. So if a hitter has a high wRC+ in a high run environment, then we must look at how that hitter hits in opposing ballparks to find his true value. Weighted Runs Created Plus simply put gives better detailed information than the guesses that coaches or players used to do years ago.

(The Definition of wRC+ by Fangraphs)

Weighted Runs Created Plus adjusts its league average to 100 every year. That is the constant so to speak. So if a hitter ends up having a wRC+ of 100 he is average, below 100 he is underperforming, and above 100 he is doing above average. So say a hitter has a wRC+ of 120 that hitter is hitting 20 points over the league average. Another thing that you can see is how well your team is creating runs in comparison to the league average. So a team that has a wRC+ of 112 is 12 points higher than the league average. 

When it comes to Park Factors, this statistic helps teams understand how an individual batter or team will perform given the ballpark that they are in. Park Factor is similar to wRC+ by having a league average of 100. If a ballpark has a Park Factor of 120, then that ballpark creates 20% more runs than the average ballpark. Conversely if a ballpark is below that, then that ballpark is more favorable to pitchers. Park Factors allow the coaching staff to have a defensive and pitching plan to attack hitters in the given specific ballpark that they are in. If you are a NCAA Division II team, you can find your Park Factor in the links below. 

Now that all of this is understood, you can get a clear picture of the importance of wRC+. Weighted Runs Created Plus gives the student-athlete and coach a clearer picture than what Runs Batted In and Batting Average would provide them. When you value the specific kind of hits the hitter gets, then you can see how many runs the hitter provides to his team. The best way to think of wRC+ is like a grade point average. Grade point average shows all involved the performance of a student and how well that student performed in his/her classes. If we think of wRC+ this way, this allows us to understand what this statistic shows us. Weighted Runs is the grade point average of a hitter. It shows the coaches how well that hitter is performing for the baseball team's offense. 

Links for deeper understanding of wRC+ and Park Factors

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