BABIP is a big one for me as well.
Agree that Garbage In=Garbage Out.
Couple of thoughts…On offense, I would recommend looking at HHB, Quality At Bats (QABs), and probably OBP or OPS. Even though HHB is a subjective gauge by the scorekeeper, I generally find that those who are recorded as having the most HHB correspond to the best hitters on the team (or those that have the most potential to be). For me, it often tends to match up with what you see with your own eyes.
On pitching: I like looking at FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching), which gives you a sense for how the pitcher is doing overall without “punishing” her for potentially poor defensive play. I also like WHIP, which gives you a sense of how much base traffic there is each inning. Will look at S%, FPS%, BBs, Ks, and % of HHB. Apart from ERA, the pitching stats are harder for a scorekeeper to screw up as long as they paying attention because they don’t require any judgement (was it a ball or a strike?).
there are a couple areas of QAB that is wierd. First pitch solid singles aren't really a QAB.
certain parts of QAB are cool, and much easier tracked versus back in the day book. like number of pitches after 2 strikes.
I think QAB is garbage. I've seen bad hitters with high QAB and great hitters with low QAB
Just looked up what qualifies as a QAB.
Any single not marked as a hard hit ball (which is obviously super subjective) is not a QAB (sorry, slappers/great bunters).
A five-pitch at bat that goes strike, strike, two terrible pitches nobody would swing at, caught looking on a fastball down the middle with bases loaded and two outs in a tie game is a QAB.
A sacrifice bunt is a QAB even though sac bunts are usually bad for the offense.
Bad stat. Nice idea, but a bad stat.
OPS. ROE (helps get past inaccurate scoring) and RBI, Ks to walks, were all important to me