Most readers at least scan the league leaderboards The Seattle Times runs daily, and some read it as though the universe's essential truths are buried in there somewhere.

It's a great part of the national pastime. But the statistics that leaderboards and stadiums' big scoreboards present don't give readers the best information. For that, we need to nudge the stats into the 21st century .

Sabermetric league-leaders tables appear following this column, and we'll publish them each Tuesday. The numbers come courtesy of Sean Forman, the wizard behind Baseball-Reference.com, the most valuable baseball site on the Internet. A few of the stats in the tables are obvious, but here's an explanation for each, what it measures and why it's important.

OFFENSE

OPS: On-base plus slugging. This stat is the sum of the two key required skills for hitters, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. This replaces batting average as a more accurate measure of offensive quality.

RC: Runs created. There are 24 versions of this stat that's the best for showing which batters contribute the most quantity of offense overall. Forman uses the simplest formula: (H + BB) x (TB)/(PA) , which is hits plus walks times total bases divided by plate appearances.

OBP: On-base percentage. This stat indicates how well a batter is getting on base (the single most important component of offense). The formula is: (H+BB+HBP)/(AB+BB+SF+HBP) where HBP is hit by pitch, AB is at-bats and SF is sacrifice flies.

SLG: Slugging percentage. This stat indicates how well a batter hits for power. Calculate it by dividing total bases by at-bats.

HR/100 AB: Home runs per 100 at-bats. This indicates the percentage of at-bats a hitter knocks one out. Simply adding up a count of homers doesn't account for varying opportunities. Sluggers such as Barry Bonds don't get as many opportunities because they're being walked all the time (walks aren't counted as at-bats).

Net steals: Measures the usefulness of a base runner's stealing attempts. Because you need to steal two bases for every time you're thrown out, net steals is: SB — (2 x CS) — stolen bases minus double the number of times caught stealing.

Composite ERA: This stat neutralizes two factors that muddy the value of earned-run average, including the effect of who comes in to replace a pitcher pulled with runners on base. CERA blends the run-scoring value of homers, other hits and walks and delivers a number that better reflects individual accomplishment than ERA does.

BR/9: Base runners per 9 innings pitched. A useful rough indicator of quality that's not difficult to calculate based on what's on a scoreboard, and one used with Rotisserie schemes. You add hits and walks allowed, divide it by the number of innings pitched, then multiply by 9. It doesn't differentiate the kinds of base runners (a homer counts the same as a single), but generally, pitchers with a low BR/9 are effective.

HR/9: Home runs allowed per 9 innings pitched. Exactly what it sounds like, it complements the value of BR/9. A hurler who is stingy with homers can allow more base runners in general but gain an equal result.

K/9: Strikeouts per 9 innings pitched. Most in the Sabermetric world don't believe strikeouts are "bad" for a batter, but all agree strikeouts are important to pitchers' effectiveness.

K/BB: Strikeout-to-walk ratio. Walks are the other side of the strikeout coin. If you ever listen to Ron Fairly, you already know those walks grind you down. But many pitchers who harvest K's are also the culprits who surrender walks. A high K/BB ratio usually reveals a pitcher who has great "stuff" but has control, too — the Holy Grail of potential effectiveness.

Jeff Angus writes on the new baseball statistics, describing what they reveal about the game and how that affects the Mariners. He is the author of the book Management by Baseball and of the Web log at cmdr-scott.blogspot.com. He can be reached at jangus@seattletimes.com. Sean Forman teaches math in Philadelphia and is the creator of Baseball-Reference.com.