How do you decide which baseball player is the best?

Mers H: How do you decide which baseball player is the best?
What are six things one needs to consider to determine who is the best baseball player?

I know absolutely nothing about baseball so please help me!!

Thanks a lot for your help!

Answers and Views:

Answer by New Yorker!
Batting average, fielding percentage, number of home runs, number of RBIs, number of errors he’s made, bases stolen, on base percentage… there’s a lot of things. People usually you pick one stat and say he’s the best at _______. Like he has the most homes runs, of he has the best batting average etc…

Answer by richard s
The best player is the one who plays best. How to determine is hard cause there are different positions and batting orders. I go by first how doe’s he field his position if he has great range which means he can cover a lot of ground get to balls hit in his area and be able to make plays on them then make sure he doe’s not make errors , his throwing arm for an infielder like a shortstop has to be able to throw to first base good or an out fielder has to throw to home plate or 2nd or 3rd base good , a catcher has to be able to throw base runners out like to 2nd base real good. Then after that how do they hit the ball do they make contact or strike out, do they have a batting average above .300 , do they make clutch hits, do they hit rbi’s and or home runs. Then you have pitchers which you have to look at there era if under 3.00 is good do they strike out a lot of hitters and keep runners off base. So it is hard to pick one player as best player cause of different positions and field positions that bat all the time are different from pitchers which don’t play every day and in the american league don’t hit so you must also consider d.h.’s. good luck .

Answer by Utley for President
Pitchers excluded..
1. OBP (On-base percentage). Basically how often a guy gets on base.
2. Fielding ability (low number of errors, good arm strength, just an overall good fielder).
3. Knowing the game, being a smart baserunner, being a student of the game, etc.
4. Power
5. Batting average
6. Speed

That was very general and probably very obvious. Oh well, I tried.

Answer by New Yorker
You could have the best pitcher, the best fielder, or the best batter. For pitcher, probably wins and ERA. For fielder, lowest number of errors. For batter is where it can get a little more complicated. A good contact hitter? Power hitter? You’re looking at batting average and hits for a contact hitter, and home runs for a power hitter. You can look at RBIs for both.

Answer by The Samsquanch
There are a lot more than 6 variables to determine the most valuable baseball player IMO. But the 6 most important would have to be:

Runs
Home Runs
RBI
Batting Average
Fielding %
Personal Preference (If you have a situation like we have now with the triple crown race in the NL, although all three players have similar numbers, a Reds fan will more than likely pick Votto as the best of the three).

Answer by mm117
most important batting stats:
1. batting average
2. OBP (on base percentage)
3. Rbis
4. Homeruns
5. speed

most important pitching stats
1. ERA (earned run average)
2. Whip (walks plus hits per inning pitched)
3. Strikeouts
4. Wins

Answer by Madden Tanker™
Batting average, home runs, RBI’S, OBP, slugging percentage, fielding percentage, stolen bases. For pitchers wins, losses, ERA, WHIP, strikeouts, walks, hits allowed, and home runs allowed.