Is there any way to access the stats from Open Leagues? This would be far easier to determine if I could just check out a stats table from an existing league.

Oh, just found the statistical snapshot - http://www.whatifsports.com/mlb-l/stat_snapshot.asp

This is good info, works for some of things things I was seeking.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 1/27/2012 9:13:00 PM (view original):
You think it leads to 20% more balls in play?   I bet I could find  10 examples  of 35+ plays w/o looking to hard..

It could be like UncleAl says, and the 30 play cap was designed for the OL setting. So if the average roster goes from 80mil to 68mil (or whatever) that may be a chunk of the difference. Beyond that nothing you posted looks odd to me. If you took guys that normally hit .300 in OLs and tracked how they perform in progressives, sometimes they'd hit .350+ because of the crummier pitching and luck/manipulation (maniupulation can mean ballparks too).

Posted by uncleal on 1/27/2012 7:35:00 PM (view original):

Posted by jimkelley87 on 1/27/2012 6:24:00 PM (view original):
How is the likelihood for a plus play calculated? If you hold pitching constant, will maximizing the sum of range factors maximize plus plays? Or are there other factors that come into play?

Taking the lowest range factor A+ player's range and highest range factor D player's range at each position gives you the following:

Position	A+	D	Difference
1B	10.74	9.11	1.63
2B	5.91	4.88	1.03
3B	3.6	2.81	0.79
SS	5.64	4.68	0.96
OF	2.81	1.8	1.01

What I'm thinking is that positions that have a larger difference in range factor between a good and bad player would give you the most "bang for the buck" in terms of plus plays when choosing a player with a great range factor. This would suggest that the letter grade range score matters most (by far) at first base, and least at third base. Am I approaching this correctly?

Your theory would work if all positions had an equal number of plays to make. However, many more baseballs are hit up the middle than in the corners. So 1B range isn't actually very important at all. (I generally do ignore 3B range, though, because even a D won't make more than 5 or 6 "-" plays a year, in general.)

Saying 1B range isn't important is incorrect.  An A+++ range 1B can get 30+ plus plays.

Yea, looking at the snapshot numbers, the likelihood of plays plays is as follows (taking the most recent batch):

	O/G:	PO/G:	A/G:	TC/G:	DP/G:		+/G:	-/G:
P	53.5	0.8	1.07	2	0.05		0.081	0.089
C	53.5	8.5	0.98	9.6	0.06		0	0
1B	53.5	20.7	1.86	22.7	1.39		0.056	0.101
2B	53.5	4.9	6.33	11.5	1.03		0.038	0.187
3B	53.5	1.8	4.62	6.7	0.28		0.031	0.147
SS	53.5	4.4	6.77	11.5	1.08		0.06	0.156
OF	53.5	4.2	0.1	4.4	0.0		0.1	0.1
LF	53.5	3.7	0.07	3.9	0		0.059	0.04
CF	53.5	5.1	0.08	5.3	0.01		0.06	0.126
RF	53.5	3.7	0.09	3.9	0.01		0.07	0.083

Ordered by plus plays, you have Pitcher, RF, CF/LF/SS, 1B, 2B, then 3B. Guess I'm surprised to see second base contributing so few plus plays, I figured that would be close to SS. When you take into account minuses though (plus play + minus play), 2B becomes the most important position range-wise. I think this is probably the best way of looking at it. Using this variable as a stand-in for "range importance" and E/G as a stand-in for "Fielding importance", and multiplying the two to obtain an all-around "Defensive importance":

	+-	E/G:	Def
SS	0.214	0.369	0.079
2B	0.225	0.274	0.062
3B	0.179	0.242	0.043
CF	0.185	0.14	0.026
RF	0.154	0.115	0.018
P	0.17	0.087	0.015
1B	0.159	0.072	0.011
LF	0.098	0.116	0.011
C	0	0.131	0

Hopefully this helps, and (as always) if you see any errors I made or have questions, let me know.

Posted by ncmusician_7 on 1/28/2012 2:11:00 PM (view original):

Posted by uncleal on 1/27/2012 7:35:00 PM (view original):

Posted by jimkelley87 on 1/27/2012 6:24:00 PM (view original):
How is the likelihood for a plus play calculated? If you hold pitching constant, will maximizing the sum of range factors maximize plus plays? Or are there other factors that come into play?

Taking the lowest range factor A+ player's range and highest range factor D player's range at each position gives you the following:

Position	A+	D	Difference
1B	10.74	9.11	1.63
2B	5.91	4.88	1.03
3B	3.6	2.81	0.79
SS	5.64	4.68	0.96
OF	2.81	1.8	1.01

What I'm thinking is that positions that have a larger difference in range factor between a good and bad player would give you the most "bang for the buck" in terms of plus plays when choosing a player with a great range factor. This would suggest that the letter grade range score matters most (by far) at first base, and least at third base. Am I approaching this correctly?

Your theory would work if all positions had an equal number of plays to make. However, many more baseballs are hit up the middle than in the corners. So 1B range isn't actually very important at all. (I generally do ignore 3B range, though, because even a D won't make more than 5 or 6 "-" plays a year, in general.)

Saying 1B range isn't important is incorrect.  An A+++ range 1B can get 30+ plus plays.

Extremes are extremes, though. An A+++ *anywhere* skews things and can be great D like that, and I don't like paying for it, personally. I've noticed little difference between an A 1B and a D 1B, however. Certainly not enough for me to care.

There's about as much difference (with regards to + and - plays) at 1B as the other positions (generally speaking).  The last time I used an A range 1B in a champs league (at Target Field), he had 20 + plays (which I think is fairly normal).  Normally, a D range 1B will have more - plays than + plays.  Whether or not good range is cost effective at any position is a different subject.

Extremes are extremes, though. An A+++ *anywhere* skews things and can be great D like that, and I don't like paying for it, personally. I've noticed little difference between an A 1B and a D 1B, however. Certainly not enough for me to care.

I'm with you Uncleal!!!!  As long as my SS has A fielding, and my 2B has at least B fielding, I can careless about their range or the defense of the rest of the players. I think it costs too much, and its benefits doesn't IMO justify the cost.  I'd sooner pay for better pitching than defense.