Matthew Taylor: Players have statistics, so why not fans?

There are literally billions of data points about baseball available each season, thanks to the rise of pitch tracking and player tracking technologies. We have more objective measures than ever before regarding player performance. Fan performance, however, is difficult to examine objectively.

We need to put baseball fan bases, including our own, to the test. In the best of times and in the worst of times, what is the tale of each baseball city? The wonderful term "fanalytics" is already taken, so my proposed (tongue-in-cheek) measures of fan performance will need their own moniker. Perhaps Saber-rattling-metrics?

Here's what I've come up with so far:

Bellyaching About Baseball In Perpetuity (BABIP): Baseball outcomes vary according to a team's talent level, but also according to luck and to the performance of the opponent. Regardless, fans are known to get too high and too low in their emotions throughout a season. Considered over time, fan BABIP helps provide an indication about the true emotional state of the fan. Bellyaching levels that are well above or well below normal can help determine where a fan's emotions might be given a little more time and additional games played.

Frustration Independent of Performance (FIP): Frustration Independent of Performance measures what a fan's disposition would be assuming league average results from his or her favorite team over time. Traditional measures of fan frustration limit us to knowing how angry fans become when things are going poorly for their team in a given game or season due to factors that can't be controlled. Fan FIP considers how unhappy these fans would be if their team was neither great nor awful.

Outlook Plus Sanity Plus (OPS+): Outlook Plus Sanity Plus is a simple measure that examines a fan's ability to regulate his or her emotions while watching his or her favorite team. Because OPS+ adjusts for team payroll and performance effects, it is possible to compare fans of different teams and from different years. OPS+ is similar to Weighted Online Bashing Avoided (see below) but underestimates the value of expressing reason rather than simply avoiding engaging in fatalistic hyperbole. Weighted Online Bashing Avoided provides a better indication of how well a fan contributes to reasoned dialogue about his or her favorite team.

Weighted Online Bashing Avoided (wOBA): Woe is me is a common sports fan's lament. With 162 regular season games played, nine angst-inducing innings per game, and losing streaks a routine occurrence even for good teams, baseball allows for extensive amounts of woe. These days, it is easier than ever to share your frustration and lament instantaneously to audiences outside your own home. wOBA credits the fan who keeps his or her respective levels of angst within reason and allows for adequate sample sizes to develop before determining that a given batter, pitcher, fielder, or manager sucks and must be designated for assignment, sent to the minors, traded, or fired. This fan stat is normalized so fans whose teams truly do suck aren't penalized unfairly relative to the fans of winning teams who expect perfection each night.

Defensive Remarks Saved (DRS): Measures of a fan's given level of defensiveness regarding his or her favorite team can be subjective. Some fans prefer to use the eye test and judge another person's level of defensiveness based on what they can see for themselves. What about remarks left unsaid? How do we measure restraint? That's where Defensive Remarks Saved comes in. DRS credits fans for not letting people who cheer for other teams rattle their cages too easily. Admittedly, it's harder to not be defensive about some teams than others. For that reason, DRS has a positional adjustment to consider where your team sits in the league standings.

Wise Remarks Created Plus (wRC+): Wise Remarks Created Plus provides a measure of how much useful insight a particular fan provides compared to the average fan. This is another normalized stat that allows us to compare fans who root for different teams and even allows for comparisons across eras. It is particular useful, for example, in comparing fan performance during the Orioles' run of 14 losing seasons with, say, fan performance during the current run of winning baseball. And that topic itself could be a guest post of its own.

Do you have any measures of your own to add to the list? Add them to the comments section below.

Matthew Taylor blogs about the Orioles at Roar from 34. Follow him on Twitter: @RoarFrom34. His ruminations about the Birds appear as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our site. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.