{"id":92,"date":"2007-11-28T16:19:30","date_gmt":"2007-11-28T23:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mfooz.com\/bblog\/?p=92"},"modified":"2007-11-28T16:24:19","modified_gmt":"2007-11-28T23:24:19","slug":"team-selection-for-2007-abl-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mfooz.com\/bblog\/?p=92","title":{"rendered":"Team selection for 2008 ABL expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the ABL Winter Meetings on the 16th I needed to select a team to bring into the league. Going in, I figured it would be between Boston & Philly. Here’s how I decided. <\/p>\n

Fifteen players can be selected, so I made up lists of nine position players (eight from each non-pitching position plus a “DH”), three starters, and three relievers. Minimum requirements for the ABL are 175 ABs (125 for catchers), 70 IPs for starters, and 30 IP for relievers. <\/p>\n

I used OPS+<\/a> to rate the hitters. For pitchers I started with WHIP, then added some arbitrary factors to get something that roughly mirrors OPS+, that is, higher is better and average is 100. I came up with (2.25-WHIP)*110. (It’s listed as “WHIP+” in the tables below.) I weighted starters twice as much as relievers, based on innings pitched (six-inning starts). I then averaged the position players and pitchers separately to get team hitting and pitching ratings. The lists for Philly & Boston are shown below.<\/p>\n

philly_boston.png<\/p>\n

Of course, you choose the wrong guys here, and the method suffers. Notably absent are Beckett & Schilling, who are already in the ABL. Philly has no one<\/b> in the ABL.<\/p>\n

I did not consider fielding.<\/p>\n

In addition to Boston & Philly, I ran the numbers for a few other teams to see how they compared. The graph below shows the results.<\/p>\n

expansion_graph.png<\/p>\n

So Philly & Boston come out equal. That was no help at all! <\/p>\n

So the decision was down to hitting vs. pitching. I chose hitting. Also, Philly looks to have a very balanced lineup, and Utley & Rollins are a superior middle infield. The biggest temtations of Boston were Papelbon & Okajima, both of whom have sick numbers. Big Papi & Ramirez are pretty good too!<\/p>\n

Go Phillies! Go Perfectos!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the ABL Winter Meetings on the 16th I needed to select a team to bring into the league. Going in, I figured it would be between Boston & Philly. Here’s how I decided. Fifteen players can be selected, so I made up lists of nine position players (eight from each non-pitching position plus a … Continue reading Team selection for 2008 ABL expansion<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abl","category-stats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mfooz.com\/bblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mfooz.com\/bblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mfooz.com\/bblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfooz.com\/bblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfooz.com\/bblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfooz.com\/bblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mfooz.com\/bblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfooz.com\/bblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfooz.com\/bblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}