[Déjà Bru]

I'm a traditionalist. The sabermetric guys will be along soon to make your head spin with modern stats.

So, here's what I look for in players when I look at their stats, not their scout ratings:

• Batting - yes, my eye usually goes to AVG first but I force myself to look at AVG/OBP/SLG together. As you know, OBP includes walks and the more somebody gets on base, the more he's likely to score. SLG is a measure of power and basically more power drives in more runs. One shortcut is to look at OPS which is merely OBP+SLG. That may be the best batting stat of all and I use that plus Runs and RBI's to judge HoF-eligible careers.
• Pitching - yes, my eye usually goes to ERA but the statheads will be all over that one. For pitching, then, the key stat for me is WHIP which is walks and hits per inning. Also good to look at and compare to other pitchers are HR/9, BB/9, and K/9.
• Fielding - I am admittedly weak here. I usually rely on scout ratings alone, and I shouldn't. You cannot look solely at Assists (A) and Errors (E) without taking into account Total Chances (TC). Fielding Percentage (PCT) is supposed to do that for you, but it's boring. These days, unless one has bricks for hands, everybody is above .900 and you are comparing players with, like, PCTs of .982 and .987. Yet, the other stats shown now in OOTP: RF, ZR, and EFF are all fuzzily defined and therefore arbitrary (watch the statheads rip into me for that one). So I guess for fielding I would keep an eye on E, TC, and PCT together.
• Catchers have a couple of extra fielding stats that I would follow: PB, CS% and . . . drumroll, please . . . CERA (Catcher ERA). I actually like that relatively new stat. Take that, sabermetrics!