OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - quibbles and questions about OOTP WAR implementation

jaa36 · 07-14-2024, 12:41 PM

Thanks for response!

Actually Fangraphs DOES still use linear weights, and their WAR formula is open source- all of the info for it is here: https://library.fangraphs.com/misc/war/ and the variables they use (for the linear weights and FIP constant) year by year are here: https://www.fangraphs.com/guts.aspx?type=cn

You can debate whether this is the best construct or implementation of WAR (vs Baseball Reference, Baseball Prospectus or others) but I agree, the Fangraphs implementation is the framework that OOTP uses. And given the way that OOTP's engine works (based largely on DIPS), not to mention that they have historically pulled their projections from Fangraphs, this makes sense, though now that PBABIP varies from pitcher to pitcher, there's more reason to use a RA9-based WAR (a la Baseball Reference) than previously.

My question is (in part) whether OOTP actually calculates these linear weights (which I doubt) vs just uses the same numbers every year. I get that the formulas are complicated, I'd just like some visibility about how they're doing it. It's a game based on stats, and we don't really know the specifics of how they're deriving the primary value-based stats even over a decade after WAR was first included in the game.

07-14-2024, 12:41 PM	#9
jaa36 Hall Of Famer Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 3,123	Thanks for response! Actually Fangraphs DOES still use linear weights, and their WAR formula is open source- all of the info for it is here: https://library.fangraphs.com/misc/war/ and the variables they use (for the linear weights and FIP constant) year by year are here: https://www.fangraphs.com/guts.aspx?type=cn You can debate whether this is the best construct or implementation of WAR (vs Baseball Reference, Baseball Prospectus or others) but I agree, the Fangraphs implementation is the framework that OOTP uses. And given the way that OOTP's engine works (based largely on DIPS), not to mention that they have historically pulled their projections from Fangraphs, this makes sense, though now that PBABIP varies from pitcher to pitcher, there's more reason to use a RA9-based WAR (a la Baseball Reference) than previously. My question is (in part) whether OOTP actually calculates these linear weights (which I doubt) vs just uses the same numbers every year. I get that the formulas are complicated, I'd just like some visibility about how they're doing it. It's a game based on stats, and we don't really know the specifics of how they're deriving the primary value-based stats even over a decade after WAR was first included in the game.