In baseball, defense-independent pitching statistics (DIPS) measure a pitcher's effectiveness based only on statistics that do not involve fielders (except the catcher). These include home runs allowed, strikeouts, hit batters, walks, and, more recently, fly ball percentage, ground ball percentage, and (to a much lesser extent) line drive percentage. By focusing on these statistics, which the pitcher has almost total control over, and ignoring what happens once a ball is put in play, which the pitcher has little control over, DIPS can offer a clearer picture of the pitcher's true ability.
The most controversial part of DIPS is the idea that pitchers have little influence over what happens to balls that are put into play. Some people believe this has since been well established (see below), primarily by showing the large variability of most pitchers' BABIP from year to year. However, while this shows that BABIP individual may be volatile from year to year, there is a wide variation in career averages among pitchers and this seems to correlate with career success. For instance, there is not a single pitcher in the Hall of Fame with a below average career BABIP.
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