Thedatch
05-16-2007, 11:30 AM
I've never been much of a stat person myself...they tell tons of different stories all the time, and they can be manipulated too often. But one of my co-workers this summer has been working on what he calls a new stat, he calls it "worth"..basically he made this formula that calculates among others slugging percentage, fielding, and something he calls the homerun premium and it comes up with a number. You then compare that number to the player's current salary and you see whether he is being overpaid or underpaid.
Sure, it may be a shameless plug, but what he's really looking for is some feedback, and I know a lot of you guys could give some good constructive advice/criticism. The rankings are up here http://www.worklifewizard.org/main/salarycheckerUSA/bball_rankings
and the methodology he uses can be found here: http://www.worklifewizard.org/main/salarycheckerUSA/methodology
here's my thoughts on it. I think it's a fairly worthy calculation, but obviously it has its limitations. It's highly geared towards homerun hitters, basically the guys that, along with pitchers earn the most money. The worth of the little guys who get lots of hits but no homeruns is slanted since a big part of the formula is the homerun premium. But looking at say, number 4 and 5 guys, I feel like it's actually pretty effective. There are certainly no shockers in the numbers it comes up with. Ryan Howard and Big Papi are in the top of underpaid players, and A-rod comes as the most overpaid (he only used the top 14 players from ESPN's fantasy leagues, so i'm sure there are many more players that are overpaid than Arod :) )
So if you're into this kind of thing, please take a look at it and let me know what you think. We're also working on putting up a calculator on the site so people can plug in the stats for any of their favorite players and they can see what this player's "worth" is.
Sure, it may be a shameless plug, but what he's really looking for is some feedback, and I know a lot of you guys could give some good constructive advice/criticism. The rankings are up here http://www.worklifewizard.org/main/salarycheckerUSA/bball_rankings
and the methodology he uses can be found here: http://www.worklifewizard.org/main/salarycheckerUSA/methodology
here's my thoughts on it. I think it's a fairly worthy calculation, but obviously it has its limitations. It's highly geared towards homerun hitters, basically the guys that, along with pitchers earn the most money. The worth of the little guys who get lots of hits but no homeruns is slanted since a big part of the formula is the homerun premium. But looking at say, number 4 and 5 guys, I feel like it's actually pretty effective. There are certainly no shockers in the numbers it comes up with. Ryan Howard and Big Papi are in the top of underpaid players, and A-rod comes as the most overpaid (he only used the top 14 players from ESPN's fantasy leagues, so i'm sure there are many more players that are overpaid than Arod :) )
So if you're into this kind of thing, please take a look at it and let me know what you think. We're also working on putting up a calculator on the site so people can plug in the stats for any of their favorite players and they can see what this player's "worth" is.