Comparable players

[spacer15415]

Can anyone explain to me what the numbers next to the comparable players mean when you compare players. I forever thought it was a rating system but some players with very little talent have 1000 when some better players are 981.
I am playing around and wanted to do some comparable real life trades in a league where I redrafted everyone. So if Ben Revere and Drew Storen were traded I want to trade the most similar in my league on my versions of Toronto and Washington.. I was bored and trying something different.

[Winnipeg59]

I asked a similar question some time ago and the answer I received was that the comparison numbers generally showed how much "better" your player was - assuming your player rated 1000.

For example, PLAYER A has a list of comparable players below him with numbers of - 985, 975, 966, 948, etc. And PLAYER B has a list of comparable players with - 942, 936, 924, 898.

That shows that PLAYER A is slightly better than his highest comparable player, while PLAYER B is far better than his. You can judge what that means in a trade situation.

For very young players (and minor leaguers) the 1000 basically means they are all pretty much equals at that point.

And, although I rarely use this, checking the age box will specify the comparable list to your player when at that same age, as opposed to the entire career by default.

Hope that answers your question (and I'm actually correct of course)?

[spacer15415]

Thanks for the response, so it seems that won't help in my comparison but it makes sense now.

[sqidwerd]

I believe the comp scores are similar to Baseball Reference in that a high score means that that particular player is very similar to your player.

Similarity Scores

Similarity scores are not our concept. Bill James introduced them in the mid-1980s, and we lifted his methodology from his book The Politics of Glory (p. 86-106). To compare one player to another, start at 1000 points and then subtract points based on the statistical differences of each player.

Batters

One point for each difference of 20 games played.
One point for each difference of 75 at bats.
One point for each difference of 10 runs scored.
One point for each difference of 15 hits.
One point for each difference of 5 doubles.
One point for each difference of 4 triples.
One point for each difference of 2 home runs.
One point for each difference of 10 RBI.
One point for each difference of 25 walks.
One point for each difference of 150 strikeouts.
One point for each difference of 20 stolen bases.
One point for each difference of .001 in batting average.
One point for each difference of .002 in slugging percentage.
Then there is a positional adjustment. Each position has a value, and you subtract the difference between the two players' position. James just uses primary position, but we computed an average position for players who had more than one primary position. (See Ernie Banks)

240 - Catcher
168 - Shortstop
132 - Second Base
84 - Third Base
48 - Outfield (James distinguishes, but I don't have that data incorporated at the moment)
12 - First Base
0 - DH
Pitchers

Start with a thousand and then subtract the following:

One point for each difference of 1 win.
One point for each difference of 2 losses.
One point for each difference of .002 in winning percentage (max 100 points).
One point for each difference of .02 in ERA (max 100 points).
One point for each difference of 10 games pitched.
One point for each difference of 20 starts.
One point for each difference of 20 complete games.
One point for each difference of 50 innings pitched.
One point for each difference of 50 hits allowed.
One point for each difference of 30 strikeouts.
One point for each difference of 10 walks.
One point for each difference of 5 shutouts.
One point for each difference of 3 saves.
If they throw with a different hand and are starters subtract 10, relievers 25. For relievers you halve the winning percentage penalty. For all pitchers, the winning percentage penalty can be no larger than 1.5 times the wins and losses penalty. Relievers are defined as more relief appearances than starts and less than 4.00 innings per appearance.

We plugged all this in to create the lists you see on the player pages. Note that a player must have 100 innings pitched or 500 at bats before being considered, and to be truly accurate you need to look at whole careers, but it is fun to speculate all the same.

Not sure if this is how OOTP does it tho.
* Hank Aaron 1954-1976 23 142.6 3298 12364 2174 3771 624 98 755 2297 1402 1383 .305 .374 .555 240 73 155
782* Willie Mays 1951-1973 22 156.2 2992 10881 2062 3283 523 140 660 1903 1464 1526 .302 .384 .557 338 103 156
748 Barry Bonds 1986-2007 22 162.4 2986 9847 2227 2935 601 77 762 1996 2558 1539 .298 .444 .607 514 141 182
696 Alex Rodriguez 1994-2015 21 118.8 2719 10341 2002 3070 541 31 687 2055 1324 2220 .297 .382 .554 326 76 142
667* Frank Robinson 1956-1976 21 107.2 2808 10006 1829 2943 528 72 586 1812 1420 1532 .294 .389 .537 204 77 154
666* Stan Musial 1941-1963 22 128.1 3026 10972 1949 3630 725 177 475 1951 1599 696 .331 .417 .559 78 31 159
645* Babe Ruth 1914-1935 22 183.7 2503 8399 2174 2873 506 136 714 2214 2062 1330 .342 .474 .690 123 117 206
629* Ken Griffey 1989-2010 22 83.6 2671 9801 1662 2781 524 38 630 1836 1312 1779 .284 .370 .538 184 69 136
627* Carl Yastrzemski 1961-1983 23 96.1 3308 11988 1816 3419 646 59 452 1844 1845 1393 .285 .379 .462 168 116 130
611 Rafael Palmeiro 1986-2005 20 71.6 2831 10472 1663 3020 585 38 569 1835 1353 1348 .288 .371 .515 97 40 132
602* Mel Ott 1926-1947 22 107.8 2730 9456 1859 2876 488 72 511 1860 1708 896 .304 .414 .533 89 --- 155
* Hank Aaron 1954-1976 23 142.6 3298 12364 2174 3771 624 98 755 2297 1402 1383 .305 .374 .555 240 73 155

Sorry for the format, I'm lazy. Anyway, the number before the player's name is his similarity score, which are much lower than your example.

[spacer15415]

That is very cool, thanks for taking the time for that . It would be cool if we could just take the players in the current year for the comparison.