The best and the worst of OPS+

Welcome to a new weekly feature in which we use new-age baseball stats to take a look at baseball, either currently or historically.

This week, we look at OPS+, which is a stat that measures a player’s contribution on offense (on-base plus slugging) and compares him to an average player that season. An average player is given an OPS+ of 100, so if a player has an OPS+ of 110, then he is 10% better than average. An OPS+ of 90 means he is 10% below average. Since it compares players to that season, this allows us to compare players across eras, since overall stats can be misleading. A player who hit .300/30/100 in 1968 would be much more valuable than a player who did that in the steroid era, for example. It also adjusts for home park, so hitting .300 in Denver is not worth as much as hitting .300 in L.A.

With that in mind, here are the 10 greatest offensive seasons of the last 10 years:

1. Bryce Harper, 2015 Washington, 198 OPS+

2. Albert Pujols, 2008 St. Louis, 192

3. Miguel Cabrera, 2013 Detroit, 190

4. Albert Pujols, 2009 St. Louis, 189

5. Mike Trout, 2017 Angels, 187

6. Jose Bautista, 2011 Toronto, 182

7. Miguel Cabrera, 2010 Detroit, 178

8. Mike Trout, 2015 Angels, 176

9. Albert Pujols, 2010 St. Louis, 173

10. Jose Abreu, 2014 Chicago White Sox, 173

And the 10 worst:

1. Cesar Izturis, 2010 Baltimore, 51

2. Alcides Escobar, 2013 Kansas City, 53

3. Willy Taveras, 2008 Colorado, 55

4. Adeiny Hechavarria, 2013 Miami, 56

5. Chris Owings, 2015 Arizona, 57

6. Michael Bourn, 2008 Houston, 57

7. Darwin Barney, 2013 Chicago Cubs, 57

8. Zach Cozart, 2014 Cincinnati, 60

9. Emilio Bonifacio, 2009 Florida, 61

10. Alex Gordon, 2017 Kansas City, 62

--Houston Mitchell

Houston.mitchell@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimeshouston