Gross production average


Gross production average is a baseball statistic created in 2003 by Aaron Gleeman, as a refinement of on-base plus slugging. GPA attempts to solve two frequently cited problems with OPS. First, OPS gives equal weight to its two components, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. In fact, OBP contributes significantly more to scoring runs than SLG does. Sabermetricians have calculated that OBP is about 80% more valuable than SLG. A second problem with OPS is that it generates numbers on a scale unfamiliar to most baseball fans. For all the problems with a traditional stat like batting average, baseball fans immediately know that a player batting.365 is significantly better than average, while a player batting.167 is significantly below average. But many fans do not immediately know how good a player with a 1.013 OPS is.
The basic formula for GPA is:
Unlike OPS, this formula both gives proper relative weight to its two component statistics and generates a number that falls on a scale similar to the familiar batting average scale.

All-time leaders

The all-time top 10 highest career gross production averages, among players with 3,000 or more plate appearances:
  1. Babe Ruth.3858
  2. Ted Williams.3754
  3. Lou Gehrig.3592
  4. Barry Bonds.3516
  5. Jimmie Foxx.3449
  6. Rogers Hornsby.3396
  7. Hank Greenberg.3367
  8. Manny Ramirez.3312
  9. Mickey Mantle.3287
  10. Stan Musial.3274