Defense wins in baseball, too

In previous posts I have delineated the importance of defense in football and basketball. To recap - 8 of the last 9 BCS Champions in football have had top 10 ranked defenses. In basketball, over the last 5 years the worst defensive efficiency rating of the national champion was 12.

With these numbers in mind I decided to look at college baseball and see if a similar pattern emerged.

The table below shows that 6 of the last 7 baseball national champions finished in the top 17 in fielding. Five of the 7 finished in the top 8, and 4 of the 7 finished in the top 5. Strong evidence.

If you add in the fact that 6 of the last 7 champions also finished in the top 22 in ERA an obvious pattern emerges, with the exception of Fresno State last year of course.

Only one team finished in the top 10 in batting and won the championship (Fullerton in 2004). The highest rated slugging team was 56th (also Fullerton in 2004). Other than that year, the highest rated batting average was 41st and the highest slugging percentage was 65th.

In many cases highly ranked offensive teams rolled into Omaha and left on the losing end to a better pitching and fielding team. Some examples: In 2002 Texas came in with the lowest batting average and second lowest slugging percentage of the 8 teams in Omaha. Yet, with a fielding percentage that was 5th in the nation and the 2nd ranked ERA they left as champions. In 2006 Oregon State had the lowest batting average and slugging percentage of the 8 teams in the World Series. However, the Beavers also came in with the second highest defensive rating of the 8 teams and an ERA that ranked 14th nationally. It was the first of two consecutive championships for the defensive and pitching minded club.

The numbers are compelling. Offense sells tickets, defense (and pitching) wins championships.

Year	Team	Batting	Slugging	Fielding	ERA
2002	Texas	99	65	5	2
2003	Rice	41	103	2	2
2004	Cal State-Fullerton	9	56	17	22
2005	Texas	80	74	3	4
2006	Oregon State	85	95	8	14
2007	Oregon State	162	129	2	11
2008	Fresno State	125	102	52	56