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What Makes A Player Most Valuable? In his 2000 Season Summary, Dave Rosengard raised the issue of what makes a player valuable. In response, Joe Balento offered his own opinion on how performance, and perhaps how the League MVP, should be determined. I invited further responses and comments, and received several. This page takes you through the whole schmear to date. You can scroll through it all, or, if you prefer, jump around using the following menu: 1. Dave Rosengard's Column (Excerpts) 1. Dave Rosengard's Column (Excerpt) "This year we had enough players each week so people seem dedicated. Balento led the league with most at-bats, hits, RBIs, and HRs but had 10 more losses than wins (17-27). Savell had the highest BA and OBA, was second in SLOB to Dan Schneider, and was third in hits, HRs, and RBIs, but was 4 games under .500 (12-16). Some other leading hitters had similar losing records (Kotik -5, D'Alessio -4, Martinez -4, Gerber -3, Schneider -3). I would think the guys with high RBI, HR, and BA would have a higher W-L record. I was talking to Larry about this and he believes this phenomenon may be due in part to the process of creating and attempting to balance out teams. Maybe we should discuss this at the Winter Meeting." 2. Joe Balento's Article "A New Look at Numbers -- by Jose Balento "In 1998 a mathematician and baseball fan found a new way to measure a players performance on the field. His name is Michael Hoban. He wrote a book titled "Baseball's Complete Players" It's a book I recommend highly. He developed a way to put a players numbers in perceptive and see who really are the best ball players. He called it The HOBAN EFFECTIVENESS QUOTIENT! The HEQ score. Mr. Hoban says that batting average is not the way to measure a player season. "In 1980 George Brett hit .390 and won the M.V.P. and in the other league Mike Schmidt hit .286 and won the M.V.P. But who had the better season? Most people would say Brett but Hoban says is it's Schmidt and it's not even close. By using all those other numbers they put up Hoban came with the HEQ offensive scores of 547 for Brett and 624 for Schmidt. To find out more find and read this book! "The formula for finding a player HEQ offensive score goes like this: "1 point for a single- 2 points for a double - 3 for a triple and 4 for a home run. "BUT THAT'S NOT ALL! IT'S ALSO: "1 point for a run scored -- 1 for an RBI 1 for a stolen base and 1 haft a point for a walk. "I am not to sure how he came up with these numbers but as you may have guessed I applied this formula to stats of the Softball for the Love of it League. With one change I gave a full point for a walk. "And folks, here are the HEQ offensive scores for the players who had 100 or more plate appearances in our league in the year 2000:
"A HEQ score of 300 means a player (in our league) had a Superstar Season. A HEQ score of 250 means a player has had season worthy of the Weinberg and or Balento Awards. A HEQ score of 200 means a player has had a very very good season indeed. A HEQ score of 150 means a player..... Well that depends on how a player has played. If a player has had like 50 ABs or so than he/she has had a good season. However, a player with over 100 ABs then his/her season was not so good. A HEQ score of 100 is an acceptable season for anyone. In fact it is this writers opinion that the HEQ score of 100 should be the standard require to win the Batting Title or any of the major awards (Weinberg, Balento and Davey). Mainly because a player has to play a lot to get better than 100! You see the more one plays the higher the score can be. That's the way it's designed. "Anyway this is just a suggestion. If you're confused, you can get the book a speak of online at Barnes and Noble. If you can't get the book then I guess we have something to talk about when next I meet you! "Yours Truly Jose L. Balento "P.S. In my next correspondence I will make my picks for the Softball for the Love of It All Star Team!" [Webmaster's Note: Jose has taken the time to articulate his opinion on how performance, and perhaps how the League MVP, should be determined. What's your opinion? I'd be happy to post any comments or thoughts you might have.] 3. Rich Inserro's Response (compiled statistics) "Lawrence, "Geek that I am (and presuming Gerber would do this anyway), I adjusted everyone's HEQ to assume that they played a full 46 game season. For those with 10 or more games played, Gerber comes out on top with 376. If you include all players, Loarte has a whopping 598. But we all realize those stats we padded at the friendly confines of Dobbs Ferry. "Feel free to quote me. Two sets of stats in the attached spreadsheet."
4. Paul Spriggs' Response "Larry, "I think Jose has hit upon a barometer that is fair to all . . . if my vote counts. "Yes to the proposed plan. "(Plus if I had played a whole season I would have been in the 220 area.)" 5. Derek Martinez's Response "Larry - Please look over and Post on site "I'll give you and an example from SBFTLOI final stats. 6. Ian Lebowitz's Response "Larry, "It's an interesting formula; but I think the plate appearances should be 70 or 80 to get more people into the running. I think wins ought to be a factor somehow. Vernick and Tovar had a huge amount of wins for the teams they played on compared to others; I find that to be interesting. I consider the all-around player who can throw, play strong defense, be a leader on the field, and run as well as the offense stats to be the MVP. "- (ready to play), Ian" 7. Bill Vernick's Response "Jose, I agree with your "HEQ" summary. I think it's a good way to tell if a player has made the contributions necessary to win the coveted MVP Award. Also, I think anything that has me coming in 4th is great, because that's as close as I would ever get to MVP. "However, I would like to factor in a few more things. "According to this new system, it seems that most of our excellent pitching would not be taken into account. So I think we need a seperate HEQ for pitchers. "I also think that helping a team win is an important part of MVP (hence the "valuable"). So shouldn't we closely examine our won-loss records and factor that in? (heh-heh, maybe that would push me all the way up to 3rd). "In addition, there are a number of things people contribute that must also be taken into account, as they make SBFLOI what it is (whatever it is):
8. Additional statistics I have compiled in response to Derek's and Ian's observations Derek's preference to consider performance per at bat, and Ian's preference to consider different at bat thresholds, led me to compile the following chart, which I offer without comment for whatever you may choose to make of it:
Here is a spreadsheet I created which adds the new calculations to our existing 2000 Season batting statistics. I do want to make one point, which is that the future of our League depends on continued active participation by our players. We should therefore support and encourage those who consistently show up for games (translated into high AB levels), including those that have to travel a significant distance (be it to come to Manhattan, or to come to Dobbs Ferry). I also think that, if all other things are equal, the player that is able to sustain a high level of performance over a greater number of occasions (i.e., more ABs) is more likely to so perform on a given instance than one who has achieved that level of performance over significantly fewer occasions. As always, I welcome and offer to post additional thoughts you may have. 9. Joe Balento's Follow-Up Article In the last issue of what will now be called Balento Speaks! I wrote about the HEQ Score. A new means of measuring a player performance on the field of play. It has come to my understanding that I have caused some confusion and that maybe the Hoban Effectiveness Quotient needs a little more explanation. O.K.! Now one person said that "but people who lead in games or plate appearances will always be on top of this scoring system" Well my friend that happens to be the idea behind the HEQ. This system IS meant to measure ones performance but also his/her participation. It is a single RAW score that represents what a player has produced throughout the entire season with NO ADJUSTMENTS involved. Another point was given that a player with 35 homers and 50 walks will always have higher score than say a player with 20 homers and 100 walks. All right then let's take a look at this. Player A 20 HR =4x20 or 80 HEQ points + 100 walks or 100 HEQ points for a total of 180 Player B 35 HR=4x35 or 140 HEQ points + 50 walks or 50 HEQ points for a total of 190 Notice now that player A is only 10 points behind player B. If player A were to exceed B in 2B and or 3B then player A may in fact surpass player B's HEQ score. In reading Mr. Hoban's book I too thought it seemed the system favored sluggers, but that just it. It seemed to favor sluggers! Big case in point. The year 1995 and in 217 at bat season Phil Kotik (the Willie Mays of our league) hit a still league record 25 home runs. In this same year shortstop Joe Gerber in a 335 at bat season hit a mere 13 home runs. Gerber also had 37 walks that season while Kotik had just 20 walks. Now let us take a better look at what these to great players did. First the HEQ formula. 1B + 2x2B + 3x3B + 4xHR +RBI's + R + BB = HEQ Score Phil Kotik HEQ points for 1B 2B 3B HR RBI's R BB Total Score Joe Gerber HEQ points for 1B 2B 3B HR RBI's R BB Total Score I think these numbers speak for themselves. Upon doing more research I have found that Joe Gerber's score is the highest ever in the history of the Softball for the Love of It League. I closing I must say I never said nor suggested that the player with the HEQ be named the MVP. What I was trying to say was the PLAYERS that HEQs in the neighborhood of 100 or so be the true candidates for our various awards. I know that in my last issue of Balento Speaks I promised that I would make picks for the SFTLOI all star team but I guess I will have to save it for a future issue. (Whenever that will be.) 'Till then Thank You and God Bless. Yours Truly Jose L. Balento Return to Softball For The Love Of It Page
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