I would note a couple of things:

1. Your expected % would lead three of the six divisions.

2. Your offense is based around "empty" OBP.  You're leading the universe in walks, but there just aren't very many hits mixed in.  I think there's a ton of emphasis placed on picking up low-OAV pitchers among OL managers.  When you combine that with walk-heavy OBP guys, you get into a kind of hitting death spiral.  You're 3rd in OBP, but effectively last in AVG (the ballpark isn't helping), and without steals to help move the walkers around...  You've got to be leading the universe in LOB as well.

One more:

3. I should actually be talking about how incredibly great your team is, and what horrible luck you've encountered, because you're 6-3 against me.  It'd make me feel better, anyway.

 the same thing happened to me once in safeco as well, where my team was in the low 3s in era, high obp, and high in steals, but ended up just missing the playoffs by 1 game. 

There's no such thing as "empty" OBP relative to cost.

Walks don't help if they are followed by outs.  

I've always found that high walk, high HR hitters don't perform as well as low walk, high HR hitters.   Guys like Sheffield won't hit as many HR's (or other xtra basehits) because they literally walk to much.  Less balls in play, less big hits.

Some people swear that no walk is a bad walk (under the avoid making outs, Moneyball theory) but at least in this game, I want the middle of the lineup (esp. batter's 4 and 5) to get hits not walk.

boogerlips=awesome
trentonjoe=bigdummy(bothofyou)

Posted by boogerlips on 3/1/2011 1:36:00 PM (view original):
There's no such thing as "empty" OBP relative to cost.

Relative to cost, no.  Relative to scoring runs, yes, when it's a team full of those guys.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 3/1/2011 1:54:00 PM (view original):
Walks don't help if they are followed by outs.  

I've always found that high walk, high HR hitters don't perform as well as low walk, high HR hitters.   Guys like Sheffield won't hit as many HR's (or other xtra basehits) because they literally walk to much.  Less balls in play, less big hits.

Some people swear that no walk is a bad walk (under the avoid making outs, Moneyball theory) but at least in this game, I want the middle of the lineup (esp. batter's 4 and 5) to get hits not walk.

I use AVG#, more balls in play and honestly those guys usually don't hit a ton of HR's and I believe that you overpay for HR's.

If you look at league data over time you'll find that in almost every era team OBP correlates to runs scored far more strongly than any other single team statistic...  In fact, during an argument a few weeks ago I happened to discover that in the past decade the AL team with the best OBP has led the league in runs scored 9 times and the other runs leader was a very close second in OBP with a huge slugging advantage.

Sure.  I believe that.  For the sake of contrarianism, I'd wager that:

1. Comparing teams with identical OBPs, the ones whose H/PA were higher score more runs that the ones whose were lower
2. More GMs here value preventing hits over preventing walks, whether or not they're "right" to do so

What's your reaction to those premises?

I always  look for bb/9; very rarely do I look for oav

Very informative thread. It is like watching Einstein and Opperheimer and Goofy discuss the therory of Relativity.

"If you look at league data over time you'll find that in almost every era team OBP correlates to runs scored far more strongly than any other single team statistic... "

Is there a way to do that in excel, simply?  I think there is, I just don't know how to do it.

I just kinda took a quick glance at a league that is almost done, and teams 1st and 2nd in OBP  are 1st and 2nd in RS but teams 3-8 are 3,4,6,7,11, and 13.  The team's  OBP are all within 4 points.

I am sure there is a correlation but how strong is it?  Just because it is the strongest correlation doesn't make it strong.

1. Comparing teams with identical OBPs, the ones whose H/PA were higher score more runs that the ones whose were lower

Is this true in your league?  In one that just wrapped up for me, I sorted teams by OBP and found 8 matched sets of 2-3 teams within a point or three of OBP.  In 6 of the sets, more hits meant more runs.  Tiny sample size, open league, flawed approach, etc.