i need major help on something the average baseball fan will know

dave1927p · 08-08-2008, 03:02 AM

i need major help on something the average baseball fan will know, unfortuantly I not a big baseball fan and I don't really follow the MLB at all, but do attend the odd jays game.

Anyways I'm having some major problems trying to figure out many different things like the different pitcher types (which P should be which), and even the average player stats vs a minor leaguer stats vs a star player stats. I don't know any of the stats but am learning very, very slowly.

Is there a good baseball site that will teach me more about the individual stats (what they mean, what a good number is, what isn't... etc) to help me with this game? (and preferably not wikipedia)

thanks,
dave

kq76 · 08-08-2008, 03:39 AM

For starting pitchers (SPs) you want a guy who has pretty good endurance so he can last 5 or 6 innings or more. You also want him to have good stats too, but if a guy has good endurance and good stats then you want him starting so you can get as much out of him as possible.

You then want to run your best SP (your ace) out there as much as possible which means putting him in as your #1 SP and then maybe skipping your worst SP whenever you can to get your best guys even more starts.

For relief pitchers the same kind of idea generally holds. It's debatable which is smarter, to save your best reliever for the 9th inning (aka a closer) or, what I prefer, to bring him in whenever you have a close game and a high pressure situation like RISP and a good hitter up (aka a stopper), but that's up to you. The latter, to my knowledge is not really built into the game, but if you play your games out you can do it.

You then want to work backwards from there. If you're going the modern route then you have your 2nd best reliever be your #1 setup man (to work the 8th) or for the traditional route your 2nd best reliever to work in a situation where you'd like to use your stopper, but you've already used him or he's tired. You do that with the rest of the guys until you have your last as a mopup guy, to come into situations where it's really not close at all, they're way ahead or you are or you've just got nobody else to go to.

Stats people like to look at for pitchers are: ERA, WHIP and BB/K; or, what I prefer, things like: BB/9, K/9 and HR/9. Basically, a good pitcher keeps his walks and home runs to a minimum and gets as many strikeouts as possible. A pitcher doesn't have a whole lot of influence on hits so you don't need to pay much attention to that. You can get into more complex pitching stats, but get a good handle on those first. And of course, innings pitched is important too, but you can easily adjust how much you use your guys.

As for sites on stats, there are tonnes out there. I'd google "baseball stat glossary" or something like that or a particular stat you're interested in and "baseball glossary". Unless you're looking into the complex stats, what most sites out there are going to give you is not really debated. I understand you don't have that great of an opinion on it, but Wikipedia is pretty good on those stats.

EDIT: To know whether a player's ERA (or whatever other stat you are looking at) is good or bad, you really have to look at the particular league as a fictional league you create could be pretty different from MLB. You can usually find out the average pretty easily. I end up downloading a database to do this myself for MLB, but I imagine sites out there do some of it for you. You can't just look at the average however. You should look at what the best tends to be and what the worst tends to be, but keep in mind a guy might not be as good or bad as he looks if has only had very few innings. Then there's the concept of replacement value that you should look into which is basically what you could probably get from a guy whom you could bring up from AAA.

dave1927p · 08-08-2008, 03:52 AM

thanks for the detailed response. It helped clear up alittle bit of my confusion. Looks like i have alot of researching and homework to do before i start playing again. lol

So i'm guessing there really isn't something like an "average performance rating" in ootp9 similar to that of Eastside hockey manger?

kq76 · 08-08-2008, 04:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dave1927p

thanks for the detailed response. It helped clear up alittle bit of my confusion. Looks like i have alot of researching and homework to do before i start playing again. lol

So i'm guessing there really isn't something like an "average performance rating" in ootp9 similar to that of Eastside hockey manger?

"A lot of researching"? Eh, probably not. If you got all of what I said above then you probably know pretty much all you need to know.

Becoming familiar with those highs, lows, and averages of those stats will help, but, to be honest, even I don't really have those things memorized. That's probably good, though, because I look at a number of different leagues and I might get them confused between the leagues.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by average performance rating. I have demoed Eastside before, but I don't recall much. OOTP does have overall ratings for current and potential ability, but the current can take into consideration stats and ratings. Fortunately, that's customizable though. That is, you can select say the overall rating to be 50% on ratings, 30% on last year's stats, 15 on the year before and 5 on the year before that, or whatever combination you like. You can even select how detailed you want them, out of 5 stars, which is really out of 9, I think, when you take in the half stars, or up to 1-100 IIRC. You can do similar with the individual ratings too.

Kelric · 08-08-2008, 02:47 PM

The problem with asking what the average performance is is that there isn't really a standard average performance answer we can give you. It all depends on the league you are playing.

In a current day MLB league, the average ERA is going to be around 4.50, give or take some points. The average hitter is going to have a .269 batting average, a .336 on base percentage and a .423 slugging percentage.

You go back twenty years in baseball history, those numbers change. Go back 120 years, like we can in this game, and those numbers change even more. Create a fictional league, those could be stunningly below or stunningly above average. It all depends on what type of game you've created.

One simplified way of finding a good player from a bad player is going to be VORP, or Value Over Replacement Level. The higher the VORP, whether it be for a pitcher or a hitter, the better the player performed relative to his league.

dave1927p · 08-08-2008, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kelric

One simplified way of finding a good player from a bad player is going to be VORP, or Value Over Replacement Level. The higher the VORP, whether it be for a pitcher or a hitter, the better the player performed relative to his league.

Where do i find a players Value over replacement level?

Carplos · 08-08-2008, 07:14 PM

For batters, it will be on the main profile screen that shows the last three years, or under "Batting Stats 2" on various roster screens.

"Pitching Stats 2" for pitchers.

Simon_Nesbit · 08-08-2008, 07:27 PM

Seems to be the place to ask - is VORP purely statistically based in OOTP?

Carplos · 08-08-2008, 07:49 PM

What do you mean?

satchel · 08-08-2008, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dave1927p

So i'm guessing there really isn't something like an "average performance rating" in ootp9 similar to that of Eastside hockey manger?

Maybe the star rating? It's the number of stars a player has, often on the far right column of his ratings. It's 1 to 5.

dave1927p · 08-08-2008, 11:22 PM

thanks for all your help guys, i really appreciate it.
Another dumb question, What does LgAvg stand for and mean?

Kelric · 08-09-2008, 02:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simon_Nesbit

Seems to be the place to ask - is VORP purely statistically based in OOTP?

I have no idea what you're trying to ask.

VORP, being value over replacement level, is calculated against the replacement level of whatever league you are playing. You could be playing the 1917 historical MLB league, the current day MLB league, a 4 team league in England, a 152 team league in South Africa.... it doesn't matter. VORP will always be calculated against the replacement level of that league.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dave1927p

thanks for all your help guys, i really appreciate it.
Another dumb question, What does LgAvg stand for and mean?

League Average. It's the batting average for the entire league.

Carplos · 08-09-2008, 02:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by satchel

Maybe the star rating? It's the number of stars a player has, often on the far right column of his ratings. It's 1 to 5.

No because "avg performance rating" is a rating of how the player is playing, not their ability/talent/whatever.

VORP is the probably the closest you can come in OOTP, although it's not an average.

Simon_Nesbit · 08-09-2008, 02:53 PM

Ok, I'll use an example:

Two players, one rated 70/60/60 (Contact/HR/Eye), the other 60/30/50.

Both have near identical statistics for the year.

To they have near identical VORP values? Or does the VORP compare their ratings to those of the 'replacement' - and how is that calculated?

Kelric · 08-09-2008, 04:31 PM

VORP has nothing to do with ratings, just with their statistical output. It figures the replacement level player would produce X and these guys produced Y, so it gives Z as how much more valuable than X they are.

dave1927p · 08-09-2008, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kelric

VORP has nothing to do with ratings, just with their statistical output. It figures the replacement level player would produce X and these guys produced Y, so it gives Z as how much more valuable than X they are.

wow ...i feel really stupid because i don't understand that at all

Kelric · 08-09-2008, 05:20 PM

VORP. That link gives you a rough sketch without getting into details. Words from the inventor.

If you can't figure out why VORP is VORP, just always remember that the higher the VORP, the better the player performed.

dave1927p · 08-09-2008, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kelric

VORP. That link gives you a rough sketch without getting into details. Words from the inventor.

If you can't figure out why VORP is VORP, just always remember that the higher the VORP, the better the player performed.

thanks.

Simon_Nesbit · 08-10-2008, 07:01 AM

Thanks for that. Thought it would be - but is there any equivalent that could be used/created that utilises OOTP's ratings?

Carplos · 08-10-2008, 07:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simon_Nesbit

Thanks for that. Thought it would be - but is there any equivalent that could be used/created that utilises OOTP's ratings?

The overall player rating?

08-08-2008, 03:39 AM	#2
kq76 Global Moderator Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 10,703	For starting pitchers (SPs) you want a guy who has pretty good endurance so he can last 5 or 6 innings or more. You also want him to have good stats too, but if a guy has good endurance and good stats then you want him starting so you can get as much out of him as possible. You then want to run your best SP (your ace) out there as much as possible which means putting him in as your #1 SP and then maybe skipping your worst SP whenever you can to get your best guys even more starts. For relief pitchers the same kind of idea generally holds. It's debatable which is smarter, to save your best reliever for the 9th inning (aka a closer) or, what I prefer, to bring him in whenever you have a close game and a high pressure situation like RISP and a good hitter up (aka a stopper), but that's up to you. The latter, to my knowledge is not really built into the game, but if you play your games out you can do it. You then want to work backwards from there. If you're going the modern route then you have your 2nd best reliever be your #1 setup man (to work the 8th) or for the traditional route your 2nd best reliever to work in a situation where you'd like to use your stopper, but you've already used him or he's tired. You do that with the rest of the guys until you have your last as a mopup guy, to come into situations where it's really not close at all, they're way ahead or you are or you've just got nobody else to go to. Stats people like to look at for pitchers are: ERA, WHIP and BB/K; or, what I prefer, things like: BB/9, K/9 and HR/9. Basically, a good pitcher keeps his walks and home runs to a minimum and gets as many strikeouts as possible. A pitcher doesn't have a whole lot of influence on hits so you don't need to pay much attention to that. You can get into more complex pitching stats, but get a good handle on those first. And of course, innings pitched is important too, but you can easily adjust how much you use your guys. As for sites on stats, there are tonnes out there. I'd google "baseball stat glossary" or something like that or a particular stat you're interested in and "baseball glossary". Unless you're looking into the complex stats, what most sites out there are going to give you is not really debated. I understand you don't have that great of an opinion on it, but Wikipedia is pretty good on those stats. EDIT: To know whether a player's ERA (or whatever other stat you are looking at) is good or bad, you really have to look at the particular league as a fictional league you create could be pretty different from MLB. You can usually find out the average pretty easily. I end up downloading a database to do this myself for MLB, but I imagine sites out there do some of it for you. You can't just look at the average however. You should look at what the best tends to be and what the worst tends to be, but keep in mind a guy might not be as good or bad as he looks if has only had very few innings. Then there's the concept of replacement value that you should look into which is basically what you could probably get from a guy whom you could bring up from AAA. __________________ My OOTP Wishlist Your Recommended Team Nicknames, By City (A Crowdsourced Project)

08-08-2008, 03:52 AM	#3
dave1927p FHM Moderator Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Brantford, ON Posts: 2,888	thanks for the detailed response. It helped clear up alittle bit of my confusion. Looks like i have alot of researching and homework to do before i start playing again. lol So i'm guessing there really isn't something like an "average performance rating" in ootp9 similar to that of Eastside hockey manger? Last edited by dave1927p; 08-08-2008 at 03:57 AM.

08-08-2008, 11:22 PM	#11
dave1927p FHM Moderator Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Brantford, ON Posts: 2,888	thanks for all your help guys, i really appreciate it. Another dumb question, What does LgAvg stand for and mean? Last edited by dave1927p; 08-09-2008 at 01:49 AM.

08-08-2008, 03:02 AM	#1
dave1927p FHM Moderator Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Brantford, ON Posts: 2,888	i need major help on something the average baseball fan will know i need major help on something the average baseball fan will know, unfortuantly I not a big baseball fan and I don't really follow the MLB at all, but do attend the odd jays game. Anyways I'm having some major problems trying to figure out many different things like the different pitcher types (which P should be which), and even the average player stats vs a minor leaguer stats vs a star player stats. I don't know any of the stats but am learning very, very slowly. Is there a good baseball site that will teach me more about the individual stats (what they mean, what a good number is, what isn't... etc) to help me with this game? (and preferably not wikipedia) thanks, dave

08-08-2008, 02:47 PM	#5
Kelric Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Greater Boston Area Posts: 3,992	The problem with asking what the average performance is is that there isn't really a standard average performance answer we can give you. It all depends on the league you are playing. In a current day MLB league, the average ERA is going to be around 4.50, give or take some points. The average hitter is going to have a .269 batting average, a .336 on base percentage and a .423 slugging percentage. You go back twenty years in baseball history, those numbers change. Go back 120 years, like we can in this game, and those numbers change even more. Create a fictional league, those could be stunningly below or stunningly above average. It all depends on what type of game you've created. One simplified way of finding a good player from a bad player is going to be VORP, or Value Over Replacement Level. The higher the VORP, whether it be for a pitcher or a hitter, the better the player performed relative to his league.

08-08-2008, 07:14 PM	#7
Carplos Hall Of Famer Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Idaho Posts: 2,688 Infractions: 1/0 (0)	For batters, it will be on the main profile screen that shows the last three years, or under "Batting Stats 2" on various roster screens. "Pitching Stats 2" for pitchers.

08-08-2008, 07:27 PM	#8
Simon_Nesbit Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 260	Seems to be the place to ask - is VORP purely statistically based in OOTP?

08-08-2008, 07:49 PM	#9
Carplos Hall Of Famer Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Idaho Posts: 2,688 Infractions: 1/0 (0)	What do you mean?

08-09-2008, 02:53 PM	#14
Simon_Nesbit Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 260	Ok, I'll use an example: Two players, one rated 70/60/60 (Contact/HR/Eye), the other 60/30/50. Both have near identical statistics for the year. To they have near identical VORP values? Or does the VORP compare their ratings to those of the 'replacement' - and how is that calculated?

08-09-2008, 04:31 PM	#15
Kelric Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Greater Boston Area Posts: 3,992	VORP has nothing to do with ratings, just with their statistical output. It figures the replacement level player would produce X and these guys produced Y, so it gives Z as how much more valuable than X they are.

08-09-2008, 05:20 PM	#17
Kelric Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Greater Boston Area Posts: 3,992	VORP. That link gives you a rough sketch without getting into details. Words from the inventor. If you can't figure out why VORP is VORP, just always remember that the higher the VORP, the better the player performed.

08-10-2008, 07:01 AM	#19
Simon_Nesbit Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 260	Thanks for that. Thought it would be - but is there any equivalent that could be used/created that utilises OOTP's ratings?