GLOSSARY

At Bat

An At Bat is credited to the batter for any plate appearance other than a walk, hit batsmen, or sacrifice hit.

Batting Average

This is the percentage of hits per at bat for a player. This does not include sacrifice hits or walks, as they are not counted into at bats.

Buy Out

When you buy out a player's contract, you pay them the rest of their salary in a lump sum and then release them. Because baseball contracts are guaranteed, you must buy out the contract of any player you choose to release.

Chance

A chance is a fielding term used to define a fielder's opportunity at a successful fielding play. It is defined as either a putout, assist or error.

Closer

The 'closer' usually pitches the last inning of a game in which his team has the lead. He earns the most saves on the team, and needs to be the most reliable reliever.

Complete Game

A complete game is awarded when the starting pitcher pitches an entire game.

Decision

The awarding of either a Win or Loss to a pitcher. Thus, a pitcher with 7 wins and 4 losses has 11 'decisions'.

Defensive Conversion Rating

This stat is only meaningful for an entire team (not a single player). It represents the number of times that the ball was hit into fair territory while the team was on defense, and it was turned into an out. This is calculated by dividing the number of fielding outs (all outs, minus strikeouts) by all balls put into play (fielding outs plus hits and errors).

Earned Run Average

The number of runs earned divided by the total of innings pitched divided by 9. It's the number of earned runs allowed by the pitcher for each nine innings that they've pitched.

Fielding Percentage

This represents the percentage of times the player has handled the ball without causing an error. This is defined as the total number of chances without errors, divided by all chances.

Mathematical Definition: (Chances-Errors)/Chances

Franchise Value

The value of a franchise is affected by a number of factors such as the attractiveness of it's stadium, the strength of it's farm system and the talent that is has signed to contracts. However, the most important factor determining a franchise's value is the fan base in the city where it plays. The size, loyalty and income of this fan base are the most important keys. Additionally, a team's value is lowered if it has to share a geographic region with another baseball team. (The franchise value listed on the Finances Screen does not include the team's accumulated cash).

Free Agent

Free Agents are players who for whatever reason have been released from their contracts with other teams, or have completed contracts and are looking for new positions on any team.

To bring a free agent into your team, you have sign him to the contract proposed by the player and his agent. Free agents that are not signed for a period of time will tend to lower their contract demands. So, check back with players you are interested in.

Games Back (GB)

Abbreviated 'GB', this shows how many 'Games' behind the division leader a team is. This indicates the number of games that the team needed to have won instead of lost in order to be tied with the division leader.

Mathematical Definition: [(Leader Wins - Team Wins) + (Team Losses - Team Losses)] / 2

Winning one game will bring a team one "half game" closer to the division lead. Losing one game will drop that team one "half game" in the standings. Winning a game on the same day that the division leader loses (such as by defeating that team directly) will move a team one full game closer to the lead.

Home Run

A home run is scored when the batter is able to score a run on that hit, without any intervening errors. Most often, this occurs when the ball leaves the field of play, in the air, in fair territory. An 'Inside The Park Home Run' is a home run where the ball does not leave the field of play.

Innings Pitched

Innings Pitched is the number of innings a pitcher plays in a game. Because there are three outs in an innings, innings are divided into thirds. A pitcher who pitches just one out (one third of an inning) is described as having pitched "0.1" innings. Innings Pitched is often abbreviated as 'IP'. In the Box Score, IP refers to the innings pitched in that one game. In the Pitching Dialog, the IP column shows inning totals for an entire season or career.

Long Reliever

The Long Reliever pitches long stretches of innings, such as when a starting pitcher has a bad day and is removed early.

Loss

The 'Loss' for each game is awarded to the pitcher that was in the game when his team last surrendered the lead. This pitcher is referred to as the game's "losing pitcher".

Losses

The Losses column on the Standings Screen shows the number of games lost this season by the specified team.

Middle Reliever

The Middle Reliever is frequently used when the starter leaves before the 7th inning, before the Short Reliever, Setup man or Closer would be appropriate. This pitcher should usually be a higher-quality reliever than the Long Reliever, because he is used more frequently in close games.

On Base Average

The number of times an individual reached base safely divided by the total number of plate appearances.

Mathematical Definition: (Walks+Hits) / Plate Apperances

On Deck Circle

Being in the on deck circle means that you're next up to bat. The "on deck hitter" is the batter due up after the current batter.

OOBA

The OOBA, or "Opponent On Base Average", is the on base average of all batters who faced the pitcher (or pitching staff) specified.

Opponent Batting Average

Abbreviated as "OBA", Opponent Batting Average indicates the batting average of all batters who faced the pitcher (or pitching staff) specified.

Opponent Slugging Average

Abbreviated as "OSA", Opponent Slugging Average indicates the slugging percnetage of all batters who faced the pitcher (or pitching staff) specified.

Owner Dividends

Each year, every team must pay the team's owner a share of the team's revenue. These dividends equal roughly 10% of the team's franchise value. To keep cash flow smooth, these payments are spread out over all the season's games. The amount paid at each game is shown on the Expenses Dialog.

Pct.

"Pct" is an abbreviation for Percentage. This is usually used to refer to a team's or pitcher's Winning Percentage.

Position

A player's listed Position defines the defensive role the player is most suited to play. The following abbreviations are used in Baseball Mogul:

• P = Pitcher
• C = Catcher
• 1B = First Base
• 2B = Second Base
• 3B = Third Base
• SS = Short Stop
• IF = "Infield" (competent at any infield position except first base)
• LF = Left Field
• CF = Center Field
• RF = Right Field
• OF = "Outfield" (competent at any outfield position)

Production (PRO)

A batter's Slugging Percentage plus his On Base Average. This is a good indicator of a batter's overall productivity.

Put Out

A fielder scores a put out when he tags or forces out a base runner or catches a ball on the fly for an out. A catcher also scores an out when the other team's batter strikes out.

Quality Start

A Quality Start is a game in which the starter pitches 6 or more innings and allows 3 or fewer earned runs.

Quality Start Percentage

This stat is only used for entire teams. It indicates the percnetage of all the team's games that resulted in a Quality Start for that team's starting pitcher.

Range Factor

A player's range factor (abbreviated 'RF' on the Scouting Report) indicates his ability to get to balls put in play by the opposition. It equals the player's total chances divided by games played at that position. Combined with Fielding Percentage, this statistic provides a good picture a player's fielding ability.

Note: Because 'Range Factor' uses 'Games Played', it will penalize players (such as defensive substitutes off the bench) that only play a few innings in each of their games. This is because they will have fewer opportunities to field the ball than starting position players, even if they are in fact better fielders.

Sacrifice Hit

A sacrifice hit (abbreviated 'Sac' on the Scouting Report) is awarded whenever a player successfully bunts to advance a runner even though the batter himself is thrown out at first. A sacrifice hit counts as a plate appearance, but not as an At Bat.

Save Opportunity

A Save Opportunity is when a pitcher enters the game with his team ahead and the tying run in the on deck circle, at the plate, or on base.

Save

A save is earned if a pitcher enters the game in a save opportunity and finishes the game without his team losing the lead. A save is also awarded to a pitcher who pitches the final three innings of a game without relinquishing the lead, whether or not there was an official save opportunity.

Save Percentage (SV%)

The Save Percentage is total number of save opportunities converted to saves.

Short Reliever

The Short Reliever pitches in late inning opportunities that are not appropriate for the Closer or the Setup man.

Shutout

A Shutout is awarded when a pitcher throws a Complete Game and doesn't allowed any runs to score. When a pitcher throws a Shutout, he is also credited with a Complete Game and a Win.

Slugging Percentage

The Slugging Percentage indicates the power and effectiveness of the hitter. Mathematically, it's the number of bases divided by the number of times the player was at bat.

Example: A player bats three times, and gets a triple, a double and a strike out. His slugging average would be: (3+2+0)/3 = 1.666.

Mathematical Definition: (Total Bases / At Bats)

Spot Starter

The Spot Starter is primarily used when one of the starting pitchers is not in condition to start a game, or when the other four relievers aren't in condition to play, or when the game is lopsided enough that you could send in your grandmother and it wouldn't affect the outcome of the game. This is not a slight to your grandmother. I hear she has a mean knuckleball.

Note that in a 4-man rotation, the #5 pitcher will also be used as a Spot Starter.

Starting Pitcher

The starting pitchers for any game are the two pitchers that started the game for each team. Starting pitchers are generally the best five pitchers on each team. They'll begin and pitch for the majority of the games you play. The starters selected will rotate from game to game depending on their condition. On an average rotation, the fifth starter will get about two thirds as much work as any of the first four.

Strikeout

A strikeout is awarded when the pitcher throws three strikes without the batter putting the ball in play, or walking. Sometimes, such as in the Box Score, it's called a K (as in striKeout).

Setup

The Setup Man comes in to pitch in close games before the 9th inning (i.e. before the closer tries to save the game).

Walk

A walk (or "base on balls", abbreviated 'BB') occurs when a pitcher throws four balls in one at bat. The batter is awarded a free pass to first base with runners advancing only if they are forced. A walk does not count as an at bat but it does count as a plate appearance.

Win

The 'Win' for each game is awarded to the pitcher that was in the game when his team last gained the lead. This pitcher is referred to as the game's "winning pitcher". The one exception to this rule is that a starting pitcher must complete the first five innings in order to earn the win. If he doesn't, the win is awarded to the winning team's pitcher whose performance most helped his team win (which may or may not be the game's starting pitcher).

Wins

The Wins column on the Standings Screen shows the number of games won this season by the specified team.

Winning Percentage

This is the percentage of games that a team has won in the current season. It's displayed in decimal form but if you're unfamiliar with this notation, you can think of it as a percent. For example, a .600 Winning Percentage means the team has won 60.0% of the games it has played.

For a single pitcher, 'Winning Percentage' refers to the player's wins as a percentage of his total number of decisions.