| While OPS+ is a slightly better statistic than OPS because it takes the era and ballpark which were played in into account, neither is a very precise measure of a hitter's skill or value. OPS is the simple addition of OBP and SLG%, however, they are scaled differently, with SLG% usually being a higher number than OBP, so OPS values SLG% more than OBP, which results in a bias towards power hitters. Likewise, OBP and SLG% are flawed statistics, so OPS cannot help but inherit their flaws.
A better, albeit more complicated, statistic is wRC+, which attempts to calculate the number of runs a hitter created in total based on wOBA, a much more precise statistic than OPS. For a more detailed explanation, read this article comparing OPS+ and wRC+: http://www.pinstripealley.com/2010/1/19/1259189/ops+-vs-wrc+-or-the-battle-of-the |