So... while waiting for some clarity,
MAtt Arnold posted in this thread here back in 2024:
quibbles and questions about OOTP WAR implementation
Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Arnold
Each league year, depending on the totals, calculates different constants. So internally we more or less create a table like the Fangraphs guts table ( https://www.fangraphs.com/guts.aspx?type=cn) for calculating wOBA/WAR/FIP/etc.. |
For reference, Fangraph's Guts Tool Table is here:
Fangraphs Guts!
Their Library page on FIP is here:
Sambermetric Librabry: FIP
The FIP "Constant" for 1972 is 2.399.
This ties in when creating a spreadsheet to determine Carlton's 1972 Fangraphs FIP from his Stats & the Constant:
17 HR
87 BB
1 HBP
310 K
346.333IP
FIP = ((13*HR)+(3*(BB+HBP))-(2*K))/IP + Constant
Putting in 2.399 in the Constant, it rounds up to 2.01 which is what's reflected on Fangraphs' Carlton page.
If all of the Other Stats & Multipliers remain the same in OOTP's FIP calculation, the 1972 OOTP Constant would need to be roughly 3.134.
Let's see if that 3.134 accounts for the calculation "error" in Mike Torrez & Paul Paul Splittorff in 1972 OOTP:
4.36 Torrez - matching his OOTP FIP of 4.36 rather than his 3.62 Fangraphs FIP
3.49 Splittorff - very close to his OOTP FIP of 3.52 rather than his 3.62 Fangraphs FIP
It's not a perfect match, but it's extremely close.
The question of how OOTP comes up with a ~3.134 oConstant for 1972 if that's the case... no idea. Same for how OOTP calculates -FIP
Here's an example:
Torrez -FIP 1972-81:
106-117-101-107-099-106-098-099-098-106 Fangraphs
105-120-103-114-103-118-104-111-104-109 OOTP26
Focusing in on these:
Torrez -FIP 1974-80:
101-107-099-106-098-099-098 Fangraphs
103-114-103-118-104-111-104 OOTP26
Fangraphs has Torrez as a 101 -FIP pitcher on average from 1974-80, across 7 seasons.
OOTP has him as roughly a 108 -FIP.
7 relative to League doesn't seem to look like a lot when using it as a reference, but...
1974-80 -FIP --> -oFIP
87 --> 92 Carlton
93 --> 98 Sutton
101 --> 108 Torrez
6-8 -FIP is quite a bit. Especially when one doesn't know "why" to mentally account for the changes.
Anyway, it would be nice for someone who Knows what is causing this to check in.