I remember discussions long ago in the forum about log5.  Mind you this means nothing to me - in that I don't understand it and have little interest in trying to. But I have a friend who is a baseball fan and a math teacher. The combination of those two elements has his interest piqued. Next week i will introduce him to the site and draft a couple of teams for a spring league.

Can you guide us to any forum discussions or other links about the math behind the operation of WIS baseball?

thanks,
bebechacha

Go to the team building search engine, search for a player, then click on "Stat Legend" in blue letters on the botton half of the page.  Below is the Log5 definition.
 

#765	General	Q.	What is normalization?
		A.	Normalization is adjusting a player's stats to a situation where not all the reference points are the same. Our engine uses Log5 normalization. For instance, every batter-pitcher matchup uses it. There are 4 key pieces to the algorithm: the hitter's stat, the pitcher's stat, the league average from the hitter's season and the league average from the pitcher's season. The final value can go up or down based on the relationship of the 4 values. This algorithm hammers home the point that a .280 hitter from a season where the league average was .250 is more valuable than a .280 hitter from a season with a league average of .275. And that it's more difficult to get a hit off a pitcher with a .240 OAV from a season with a league average of .255 than a pitcher with a .240 OAV from a season with a league average of .250. We attempt to represent these values broadly in our Player Search using our "norm" values represented with the "#" sign (such as OAV# or OPS#). These values use the historical averages for the pitcher's stat and the pitcher's league average. We also use Log5 normalization for fielding and determining errors. The 4 key pieces here are: fielder's fielding percentage (FPCT), the league average from the fielder's season at the position, the league average from the hitter's season at the position and the league average from the pitcher's season at the position. We also represent these values broadly in our Player Search (FPCT#). These values use the historical averages for the pitcher's league average and the batter's league average.

To reference this article use the following URL:

http://www.whatifsports.com/knowledgebase/KB_Article_Details.aspx?kbid=765

This is prefect!

Thank you marzacco for taking the time

bbcc

No probs, just cuttin' and pastin'.  Above info is courtesy of WIS R&D.

What does math have to do with baseball anyway?