This is the glossary for the Daily Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Analysis we publish every day. It includes additional links to each stat’s glossary page on fangraphs.com incase you’d like additional information. Players are sorted alphabetically by their first name in the chart followed by the team for which they currently pitch.

We shade the stats to help our readers who are seeing them for the first time. The shades illustrate what are considered strong or weak rates in that category. Shading criteria is as follows for all columns except Team Defense which only shades the top and bottom 10%.

·         Dark GreenShading = Great for the listed starting pitcher.

·         Light GreenShading = Very Good for the listed starting pitcher.

·         Orange Shading = Well Below Average or Caution for the listed starting pitcher.

·         Red Shading = Danger for the listed starting pitcher.

Stats labeled 2011+ (SIERA, IP/G, GB/FB, and Hm/Rd xFIP) are calculated from the start of the 2011 season and include both 2011 and 2012. All other stats are strictly from the current season unless otherwise stated.

UZR/150 (Ultimate Zone Rating) is used for Team Defense. It is a rate stat which allows for teams and players to be measured on the same scale against each other. The teams with the highest positive scores have the best defenses, while the teams with the lowest negative scores are generally believed to have the worst defenses.

SIERA, or Skill Interactive ERA, runs on the same scale as ERA and is considered one of the, if not the best ERA estimator. It attempts to remove team defense and other factors the pitcher can’t control from the pitcher’s performance. SIERA allows for the possibility that pitcher’s have some control over batted balls against them.

IP/GS is the average innings per start for each pitcher.

GB/FB is a pitcher’s Ground Ball to Fly Ball rate. A pitcher with a GB/FB rate below 1 allows more fly balls than ground balls and vice versa. This stat is usually most important when used in tandem with Park Factors. Generally, higher ground ball rates are more desirable in smaller or batter friendly parks.

For Park Run Factors a 3 year average is used which can be found at Seamheads.com. ESPN.com park factors will be used for Citi Field (dimension changes) in New York and the New Marlin Stadium in Miami.

xFIP or expected Fielding Independent Pitching  is another ERA estimator, similar to SIERA, which is used because SIERA is not available for Home/Road or LH/RH splits.

wRC+ or weighted Run Created Plus is a metric used to compare offenses. Anything over 100 is above average and anything under 100 is below average. (Technically the break even line is 97 because of pitcher batting.) wRC+ is park and league adjusted making for an easier and more accurate comparison of teams and players.

K% is the percentage of batters faced or plate appearances that ended in a strikeout. It is more efficient than K/9. For example, if Pitcher A faces 3 batters and strikes 1 out and Pitcher B faces 5 batters and strikes 1 out in a single inning of work, they both have the same K/9, but Pitcher A has a better K% (33 to 20). Which pitcher was more efficient?

BB% is the percentage of batters faced or plate appearances that ended in a base on balls.

LD% is the percentage of total batted balls that are line drives.

HR/FB% is the percentage of fly balls (not total batted balls) that are home runs.

IFFB% is the percentage of fly balls (not total batted balls) that are infield flies.

Comb is a combination of six evenly weighted stats.  It includes: [(Overall rate Since 2011)+(Home/Road split since 2011)+( Last 14 Days)+(Opposing Team’s Home/Road split for 2012)+(Opposing Team’s  L/R split for 2012)+(Opposing Team’s Last 7 Days)] / 6