Relative importance of ratings

[cfeedback]

Excel 2007 does offer one useful feature, more rows (>64k) = bigger databases. however it is buggy if you format the data

I also would still be running Windows 3.1 if I could get away with it. however with the now "old" Win XP MS finally got an OS as stable as Win 3.1 (although much, much larger and built upon Win NT). many corporate offices refuse to upgrade from Win XP and that led to a SP ver 3

Okay, last off topic post I swear.

The two Excel 2007+ features I use are the ability to sort more columns/rows simultaneous and have more conditional formatting rules on a single cell. I forget what the .xls limits are but every time I try to save in the old version it seems I run into them.

As far as XP for personal use, unless your computer just can't handle it, 7 is better in every way, shape, and form. I was an XP holdout for the longest time, in fact I skipped Vista completely even when I built a brand new top of the line PC about two years ago. Windows 7 is the first Microsoft OS I actually enjoy using (long time Mac user dating back to the late 80s).

Also, re: businesses...many corporations also still use the archaic IE6, which is the bane of web designers and security experts everywhere, because of custom built in house apps they're too lazy to upgrade. Luckily more and more sites are refusing to support IE6, so hopefully it goes the way of the dodo soon.

[libradawg]

I currently have a league for 1953 with a lot of high OPS batters. of 163 batters with more than 40 games, 17 have OPS > 1.000 (I boosted the batting sim settings)

16 of 17 have CON > 90, all have POW > 82, all have EYE > 90, SPEED is from 61 to 86, so naively this would say CON and EYE are more important than POW and SPEED is meaningless. however if I sort on each of these, many CON and EYE in the 90's have low OPS, but ALL POW >94 have an OPS of at least 0.836 with most in the 0.900's and seven with OPS > 1.000. (Six of top twenty in SPEED have an OPS of at least 0.900, so there is little correlation of SPEED with batting results.)

high POW is rarer than CON and EYE and so is a better predictor of high OPS. to round out the rest of my team I look for high OPS predicted or high peak which generally corresponds to high OPS. it turns out these additional batters usually have CON and EYE in the 90's and POW in the 80's

so the result is that power hitters with POW of at least 80 are the most desirable batters, even if they have to waddle around the base paths (like the older Babe Ruth). if they happen to have some speed so much the better since it may generate some steals, but high power gives more predictable results

Well, quite simply the SLG is the dominant number of OPS given its base standard alone. A good SLG equates to Hall of Fame OBP, so yes, Power ratings will increase the OPS faster. What is not addressed is what this does in any given, blind situation. For example, I can't throw a 70/90/70 to generic Lineup A and expect the win total to increase. It's begging for a .320/.600 line in the best-case scenario; far too many outs to outweigh the added production the hits eventually provide.

Furthermore it's a blind test, one that only figures to come into play when trying to spend wisely to build a bad team. This means A LOT of solo bombs. 90/70/70 gives me .300+ for batting average along with moderate speed and power, but now I'm forced to worry about Speed---legging out grounders becomes a must, as does turning singles into doubles via the SB. Even with 9 just like him I'm forced into small-ball.

A 70/70/90 does absolutely everything Contact did, and no real-life interpretation of "Eye" changes anything. Either you're drawing a ton of walks, or your pitch-selection is top-notch; either way you can stick 9 into a lineup and make pitchers miserable. Also, it doesn't matter what lineup you give me---there will be tangible uses for a guy like this. I say tangible because time spent looking for guys adept at making "good outs" is time wasted. OPS goes up slower but I'm minimizing outs.

A terrific example is how the 2010 race for NL ROY played out. Check out the OBP standings, namely the star power behind the names in the top 10. Focus on the guy who finished 4th, consider the 3 guys who finished ahead of him, then decide one of two things: 1. Did you vote for the right guy? 2. Which guy will have the better career?

[cfeedback]

A 70/70/90 does absolutely everything Contact did, and no real-life interpretation of "Eye" changes anything.

One thing to take into account with Mogul is that strikeouts factor into the Contact and Eye ratings--but not at the same relative weight. Predicted Ks increase/decrease Eye at a faster rate than Contact. The gist of it, is when you have two players who are like so:

Player A: .300 hitter, 90 eye, 120 Ks a season
Player B: .300 hitter, 90 eye, 50 Ks a season

Player A is almost certainly better because he'll draw far more walks at 90 eye than player B. I'm not listing all ratings because in this scenario for both players to be .300 hitters they're going to have different contact ratings (because of the strikeouts). But you get the idea--there's more to looking at an Eye rating in Mogul than just the number.

Actually, the same thing applies to most Mogul ratings. The ratings are based upon multiple factors, yet these factors are not of equal value. One of the best players I ever had for his ratings/overall was a player who hit about 15-20 doubles a year, no triples, but 35-40 HRs.

[cfeedback]

Hrm, was really late when I wrote that post last night. I'll go on a little because this is one area of scouting talent that still excites me and I feel I can sometimes get a small edge online because not everyone looks at this stuff.

Anyway, there point I'm really trying to get across is that Mogul overvalues or undervalues certain predicted stats in it's ratings--and looking for that can give you the edge up. For any given 2 hitters with the same rating (such as both having 85 power), in my experience the following are what to look for:

Strikeouts: Lots of Ks are good. I'm not going to get into the RL argument of whether not striking out a lot is good, but in Mogul I'm convinced it's unimportant. The player who strikes out more is likely to have a higher average and higher walk rate than the player who strikes out very little.

2B:3B:HR Ratio: Mogul underestimates the value of the homerun in its ratings. The player who's power is largely homerun based will perform better.

Base Stealing vs Steal Tendency: You want the former to be higher. If both are extremely high it's not a big deal, but a guy with say an 88 steal tendency and 80 base stealing is an out making machine.

Again, I'm talking about comparing players OF THE SAME RATING. Can't stress this enough. Obviously a player who hits 50 doubles and 40 HRs is more valuable than a player who hits 20 doubles and 40 HRs. But the first player is going to have a significantly higher power rating. I'm talking about 2 players who both have 85 power--and I promise you the one who's 85 power is more HR based (either via predicted stats or career performance if you don't want to look at those) is more valuable.

For pitchers, I don't have as many things I look for--but the one important one is HR rate. Again, it's a rating that Mogul undervalues. You can have 2 pitchers with the exact same vitals but one has a 50% higher predicted HR rate--and they're not equally valuable. (Hint: the lower HR rate is better)

Last thing I look at is health. Now this one is a bit more subjective, but even at the default injury settings I think Mogul places too much emphasis on health in the overall rating. A player at 90 overall and 70 health is almost always more valuable than a player with 90 overall and 90 health--even when you factor in the less playing time.

And that's all I have to say about that. Feel free to tell me I don't know what the hell I'm talking about.

[joelwest]

Okay, last off topic post I swear.
...many corporations also still use the archaic IE6, which is the bane of web designers and security experts everywhere, because of custom built in house apps they're too lazy to upgrade. Luckily more and more sites are refusing to support IE6, so hopefully it goes the way of the dodo soon.

I wish the same could be said for ANY version of MSIE, namely that websites begin refusing to support any version of MSIE. that would prompt anal retentive IT departments to revise their policy that any software that did not come with the OS is "bad"

the first thing I do when I use a new computer is dump MSIE and the built in windows explorer for shareware

the next thing that needs to go is MS Outlook, the best tool ever designed to rapidly spread viruses

regarding Win 7+, I will switch to it only when I have a piece of hardware that XP does not support. that is the only reason I have ever upgraded from any version of Windows beyond ver 3.1

[joelwest]

Well, quite simply the SLG is the dominant number of OPS given its base standard alone. A good SLG equates to Hall of Fame OBP, so yes, Power ratings will increase the OPS faster. What is not addressed is what this does in any given, blind situation. For example, I can't throw a 70/90/70 to generic Lineup A and expect the win total to increase.

everyone tailors BBM to suit their own tastes or to create their own challenge. I personally want all my batters to bat OPS 0.900 even if this is "fantasy". hence I would never even consider the type of batters you are referring to

regarding pitching I recently relearned that in most cases it is movement and control in the 90's or at least the 80's that guarantees a pitcher to be in the top 10% in his league. most of these pitchers have a peak in 90's, but not all.

strangely enough some pitchers with a peak as low as 81 can lead a league in ERA, even with control and movement not at least in the 80's. to find these pitchers you have to look for predicted ERA, not raw pitching stats