I like the idea of outs per plate appearance. They help evaluate the side of the equation that tells us every out costs 4% of the game and 33% of the inning.

Similarly, bases per out can provide a very nice evaluation of a hitter. We can determine bases by total bases plus walks, hbp,sac hits and sac flies. Some bases are created by hitters with so-called productive outs beyone sac and SF, but I have found in most cases they are much fewer and further between than most believe and don’t have a big impact on the calculation from one player to another.

Outs are simply at bats plus double plays, sacrifices and sacrifice flies, less hits.

There is no ideal way to evaluate hitters, but bases per out seems to be a very good start.

Out rate is a good measure of overall hitting and base running, but it does punish players who are thrown out on the bases. For the most part that is a good idea. But it doesn’t give the base runner any credit for the extra bases he takes.

For base running, I really like the work in Bill James’ annual book showing how many net runs a base runner creates or loses for his team. And for base stealing, if we call two steals in three attempts break-even, we can get a pretty good back-of-the-envelope handle on whether a player is helping or costing his team when he attempts to steal.

Getting deeper into things, there are bases a player himself earns or creates — and there are bases a player advances runners with hits, walks and outs. I’m not sure precisely how the two should be combined, but a rate of bases earned by the batter himself compared to outs made has value. So does the rate of bases he advanced runners compared to outs made. The latter is dependent on base runners, so the batter has less control over it. Still, it can provide an interesting look.

One thing I have noticed is that batters who are known for advancing runners with their productive outs often don’t advance runners as far with their hits as do batters with less bat control but more power. Freddy Sanchez is an example of a player who in 2009 didn’t produce many productive outs aside from sacs and sac flies. Worse, runners didn’t take the extra base very often on his singles and doubles — even though many of those runners were speedy leadoff men.

Most batters who have built a fair part of their reputation on bat control and making productive outs sufffer from a similar problem: they make too many outs, productive or otherwise.

An out is expensive. It costs 4% of a game or 33% of an inning.