MLB 2011 Underway!

After the first five action days of the MLB season we have five different MLB category winners. Gotta love the parity. :-P

All-Time Standings

Nm	Days	Total		NYC		S&P		NBA		MLB
		Pct	Win	Pct	Win	Pct	Win	Pct	Win	Pct	Win
Pike	82	.660	15	.549	11	.716	14	.518	6	.525	1
Fredo	82	.654	21	.546	6	.649	27	.511	11	.600	1
Munny	82	.563	7	.581	4	.588	4	.571	15	.575	1
Hans	82	.556	11	.572	10	.613	15	.591	11	.650	1
Shelly	82	.532	5	.537	14	.511	4	.557	8	.650	1
McCauley	82	.518	11	.569	15	.470	7	.580	12	.575	0
Biff	82	.517	9	.604	15	.544	7	.604	5	.425	0
Ramius	82	.500	3	.544	7	.409	4	.568	9	.500	0

(standings through 4/15/2011)

BTW, more reports are in the pipeline. Toward the top of the list are:

• Best/worst single-day performances by Rivals (total and component scores) for NBA 2010-11 and overall.
• Best/worst single-day NBA totals from the recently concluded NBA 2010-11 season (field-goal pct, 3pt pct, ft pct, off reb pct, etc - qualified days only)
• Final NBA 2010-11 Rival standings.

Baseball 2011

With the 2011 MLB season rapidly approaching, I've been working to adapt the system to baseball from basketball.

A couple notes:

• NBA will continue to be the official action sport until baseball accumulates a sufficient basis for comparison. We elected not to use 2010 data to prime the 2011 pump, if you will.
• Even after NBA passes the torch to MLB, NBA data will still be passively collected.
• The first action day featuring MLB categories will likely be Monday April 11.
• After much deliberation, we've settled on the three official MLB meta-stat categories:

1. Ground Ball Percentage (grounders/balls in play)
2. Strike Percentage (strikes/pitches thrown)
3. On Base Plus Slugging

So for each day, these three categories will be summed across all games played. If the action criteria is met and the day has action, these categories will factor into the daily competition.

These categories seemed arbitrary, fundamental and far reaching. One thing I wanted to avoid was quantity-based categories. I somewhat regret the use of Points per Game in NBA this season. It can easily be skewed by a few games that go to overtime. The hope was to find categories that were mostly independent of one another. But realistically it is nearly impossible to find three relevant categories in the same sport that are completely independent of each other.

You could certainly argue a lower strike percentage might promote a higher on base percentage and a higher ground ball percentage might promote a lower OPS (among many relationships, surely). While the three aren't perfectly independent they should at least be enough-so to appease that action-junkie, rapscallion Hans Gruber.