subject: How to Become a Baseball Handicapper [print this page] How to Become a Baseball Handicapper How to Become a Baseball Handicapper
The modern baseball handicapper has much more to look at when making their selections than they did ten or twenty years ago. With the ever growing bounty of statistics to look at, it is extremely difficult not to go into information overload mode. Simple statistics, such as a team's win / loss record, might look like easy pieces of information to base decisions upon, but these methods are outdated and inadequate. It might be easy to say that a 90 win team will beat a 90 loss team, but you are looking at incomplete information if this is how you make decisions as a baseball handicapper.
It is very easy to get confused when making handicapping decisions. There are hundreds of stats or other tidbits of information out there, how do you make the best informed decision possible? The most important thing to acknowledge is that baseball teams are made of individuals. It is therefore individuals that need to be looked at when making your choices.
Start with the pitchers. Don't look at ERA or hits, though. These numbers are arbitrary as they are oftentimes more related to the quality of the defense on a given day. Start instead with strikeouts. This is perhaps the most telling tale of a pitcher's prowess. If a pitcher has 200 Ks in a season, you can almost guarantee that that pitcher will be a dominant factor in the game. If both pitchers have equal or similar strikeout numbers, look at a pitcher's WHIP. This will give an idea of how often he lets batters on base. Runners on base drastically increase the odds of runs being scored.
After you analyze the pitching matchup, move on to the lineup. Batting average is a good indicator, but it is not specific enough. Instead, focus your attention on on base percentages (OBP). This will give you a better idea of how often a batter gets into positions where runs can be scored (getting on base), and out of situations where he causes runs to be compromised (getting out). The longer the gap in between outs in an inning, the more likely a team is to score runs. The more runs scored, the more likely that team is to win.
A baseball handicapper will be adept at handling all of these factors and will be able to relate them in the context of the given game. Handicapping MLB is not an easy task due to the thousands of variables that affect a game's outcome, but the best handicappers can make winning selections on a regular basis throughout the season. Still, baseball is impossible to predict with 100 percent accuracy because of the human and luck factors that are so heavily involved. Paying a baseball handicapper for their assistance, or just to make sure that you are analyzing games correctly, can be a huge benefit to you if you need help in starting out handicapping your own baseball games.
