Super linear weights

Super Linear Weights is a method for evaluating the contributions of a baseball player towards his team. It was designed by Mitchel Lichtman and it calculates the total value that a baseball player contributes towards his team in terms of runs, where 0 represents the number of runs the average player adds. It uses linear weights to determine how many runs a player contributes on offense and UZR or Ultimate Zone Rating to determine how many runs he saves on defense.

It is important to note that Super Linear Weights measures value, or how much a player actually contributes to his team, as opposed to ability, or how good the player is independent of the context in which he plays (park, team, league, etc.) An example of another measure of value is Bill James' Win Shares. Some examples of measures of ability are Pete Palmer's Total player rating and Keith Woolner's Value over replacement player. Measures of value are often used to compose lists of the best players in a certain season or of all-time, whereas measures of ability are often used to predict a player's performance in future seasons.