Preview of new utilities

[Andrew]

http://www.simgamingnetwork.com/blb/...lou/player.php

Keep in mind I'm still tweaking things but thought this might give you something fun to look at during the break.

[Clay]

Good thing I'm not very productive to begin with, because this would crush it.

[Ryan]

Good thing I'm not very productive to begin with, because this would crush it.

Thats what she said! Yeah, boom!!!

[Clay]

Thats what she said! Yeah, boom!!!

[Ryan]

Uh huh. Out of three!

[Carlos]

I only saw the menu and I already needed a tissue.

[Carlos]

Oh, this player metric system is going to make me go bananas with excitement. I love it.

By the way, in case anyone needs to know:

Black-Ink Test

Named so because league leading numbers are traditionally represented with Boldface type. The definition for the test that I'm using here was written up in Bill James's The Politics of Glory, p. 65-67. The essential point is to measure how often a player led the league in a variety of "important" stats. This method penalizes more recent players as they have 14-16 teams per league, while the older players had just 8. To get a point you must lead the league in that category.

* Batting Statistics Four Points for home runs, runs batted in or batting average
* Three Points for runs scored, hits or slugging percentage
* Two Points for doubles, walks or stolen bases
* One Point for games, at bats or triples

* Pitching Statistics Four Points for wins, earned run average or strikeouts
* Three Points for innings pitched, win-loss percentage or saves
* Two Points for complete games, lowest walks per 9 innings or lowest hits per 9 innings
* One Point for appearances, starts or shutouts

Note that Hall of Famers have a wide variety of values for the Black Ink Test, and the method is unforgiving of positional differences, but it is a neat little metric.


Gray-Ink Test

Essentially the same as the Black-Ink above, but it counts appearances in the top ten of the league. For each appearance the values are below. As with the Black Ink, this method penalizes more recent players as they have 14-16 teams per league, while the older players had just 8. To get a point you must be in the top 10 in the league in that category.

* Batting Statistics Four Points for home runs, runs batted in or batting average
* Three Points for runs scored, hits or slugging percentage
* Two Points for doubles, walks or stolen bases
* One Point for games, at bats or triples

* Pitching Statistics Four Points for wins, earned run average or strikeouts
* Three Points for innings pitched, win-loss percentage or saves
* Two Points for complete games, lowest walks per 9 innings or lowest hits per 9 innings
* One Point for appearances, starts or shutouts


Hall of Fame Career Standards Test

This test gives a score of 50 for an average Hall of Famer, with 100 as the max (note Babe Ruth is over 100 due to my simplistic addition of his pitching and batting values), though mine are lower due to some difference in positional adjustments that I'll explain below. It is used to measure the overall quality of a player's career as opposed to singular brilliance (peak value).

Also, I require a minimum of 20 points in this metric before the value is displayed for a player. Anything below that is meaningless.

This can be found in James's book on p. 174-176. All values are for career marks, and I've required 1000 at bats or 500 IP for the rate stats to kick in.

* Batting Statistics One point for each 150 hits above 1500, limit 10.
* One point for each .005 of batting average above .275, limit 9
* One point for batting over .300
* One point for each 100 runs over 900, limit 8.
* One point for scoring more than .500 runs per game.
* One point for scoring more than .644 runs per game.
* One point for each 100 rbi's over 800, limit 8.
* One point for driving in more than .500 runs per game.
* One point for driving in more than .600 runs per game.
* One point for each .025 of slugging percentage above .300, limit 10
* One point for each .010 of on-base percentage above .300, limit 10
* One point for each 200 home runs.
* One point if home runs are more than 10% of hits.
* One point if home runs are more than 20% of hits.
* One point for each 200 extra base hits over 300, limit 5.
* One point for each 200 walks over 300, limit 5.
* One point for each 100 stolen bases, limit 5.
* James's version: Defensive value: 20 points for catcher, 16 - shortstop, 14 - second base, 13 - third base, 12 - center fielder, 6 - right fielder, 3 - left fielder, 1 - first baseman, 0 - designated hitter
* My version: Defensive value: same as that computed for similarity scores. On a 0-20 range.

* Pitching Statistics One point for each 10 wins over 100, limit 25.
* One point for each 20 games over .500, limit 10.
* For each of the following a minimum of 500 innings is required before these points are added.
o One point for each .013 of winning percentage above .500, limit 15.
o One point for each .20 of ERA below 4.00, limit 10.
o One point for each 200 strikeouts over 1000, limit 10.
o One point for each .30 of BB/9IP below 4.00, limit 10.
o One point for each .30 of H/9IP below 10.00, limit 10.
* One point for each 1000 innings above 1000, limit 5.
* One point for each 100 complete games above 200, limit 5. Changed from James's slightly
* One point for each 30 shutouts, limit 5. Changed from James's slightly

Note that this system excludes relievers as there are no set standards for them.

[Carlos]

Player Leaderboards is beautiful as well.

This will definitely open up new ideas for writing.

[Ryan]

Yeah, thats pretty awesome. Pete Miller has 40 Hall Of Fame things.

Also, the draft tracker is pretty sweet as well. Being able to track each draft and look to see where those players are currently located is cool.

[Carlos]

I just found out that Miguel Padilla (59) passed Keppel (55) for most homeruns for a player by the age of 21.

This is going to be great.

Now, what is possibly missing, Andrew? I noticed that the awards page is not updated though player cards do mention the awards won. Is it possible for these cards to also display championships won?

[Clay]

I believe on the card it is tracking the in-game awards.

The Awards utility is tied to voting (like the All-Stars) so since we haven't used it yet, there's no data.

Now... CAN we go back and put winners in retro... don't know.

[Carlos]

How to ruin a pitcher's career.

Jerry Dean - yes, that famous Jerry Dean who retired at the young age of 25 - collected the most wins for a pitcher (51) by the age of 21.

However, he also garnered the most innings pitched by the age of 21 with 705.7 IP.

The closest? Jeff Franklin of Viriginia (then with Baltimore). He amassed 662.7 IP by the age of 21. Coincidence or not, he is now 25 and has already suffered two arm injuries totaling nearly 4 months of missed action. He has also seen his numbers steadily falter.

Virginia beware. Franklin is a free agent at the end of 1988 and buyers will likely have a lot to consider before buying into him.

[Ryan]

I believe on the card it is tracking the in-game awards.

The Awards utility is tied to voting (like the All-Stars) so since we haven't used it yet, there's no data.

Now... CAN we go back and put winners in retro... don't know.

Hope so.

[Carlos]

I believe on the card it is tracking the in-game awards.

The Awards utility is tied to voting (like the All-Stars) so since we haven't used it yet, there's no data.

Now... CAN we go back and put winners in retro... don't know.

Ah, I see. It would be cool to put that in. I can help if I was able to do such a thing.

[Clay]

How to ruin a pitcher's career.

Jerry Dean - yes, that famous Jerry Dean who retired at the young age of 25 - collected the most wins for a pitcher (51) by the age of 21.

However, he also garnered the most innings pitched by the age of 21 with 705.7 IP.

The closest? Jeff Franklin of Viriginia (then with Baltimore). He amassed 662.7 IP by the age of 21. Coincidence or not, he is now 25 and has already suffered two arm injuries totaling nearly 4 months of missed action. He has also seen his numbers steadily falter.

Virginia beware. Franklin is a free agent at the end of 1988 and buyers will likely have a lot to consider before buying into him.

Franklin will be pitching his last season in Virginia in 1988.