SOM's NY Bias

[joethejet]

Hey someone explain to me why A Rod is a 2e8 playing SS again this year despite playing a TOTAL of 6 innings at the position last year!

If he were playing in any other city he'd be a 4 e88.

Just one example of what I'm sure are many, Edgardo Alfonzo is a 4e41 at 2b despite not making an error in 12 innings and 8 chances. Now, I won't argue about him being a 4 at 2b, but an e41? Where'd that come from? He didn't make a single error there! And, he made only 8 errors at 3b so it's not like he's a stone mitt.

Why is this the case, because SOM is headquartered in the NY Area. Incredibly inconsistent. :(

Jet

[genevajack]

Im a White Sox fan and Aaron Rowand had one hell of a trip to NY last year. Made several great catches. Its no small reason why he's a 1 this year (he does deserve it) Those New Yorkers love him.

[blueiguana]

Hal Richman is an unabashed Yankee fan -- he would not deny that. Certainly a little of that bias comes through.

For A Rod, though, is the SS rating unfair? He was a gold glove SS before he came to the Yankees; is there any doubt that he would be at least a 2 if he moved back there again? I don't know about Alfonzo, so I can't comment, but I'm not troubled by the A Rod rating.

[visick]

Yeah but Fonzi was once a decent 2nd. baseman...

[albert2b]

I'm not saying the good folks at SOM DON'T have a NY bias (I remember Don Mattingly almost always got a better card he deserved in the 80s)......but I'll say that the ARod thing isn't the first time they've done something like this. Back in the late 90's or maybe even earlier this decade, I can remember there were a couple of seasons Vinny Castilla (then of the Rockies) played no more than 1 game at SS and yet SOM gave him a 3e8 (not positive about the e-rating...just remember it was ridiculously low) in those years. I believe he was a 2 at 3B back then. I guess in SOM eyes, Arod>Castilla, thus he gets a 2 at SS :roll:

Anyway, I just wanted to point out there was some precedence set before ARod.

[blueiguana]

The primary quibble I'd have with A Rod's SS rating is the nature of the SOM game. Unlike something like Diamond Mind, SOM prides itself on being replicative or reality -- that is, they like to think that if you play out a season with the cards, you'd get results somewhat similar to the actual results. One reason they often give poor defensive ratings at seconday positions is to prevent you from throwing off this realism in replay by playing a guy out of position. Maybe they figure that this isn't a real concern with A Rod (its not like a replayer is going to bench Jeter to put A Rod at SS), but I think that is some of the rationale behind the traditional practice.

[Mean Dean]

I'm really surprised that someone who knows card construction as well as Joe does can't see the logic under which A-Rod gets his 2e8. The reason A-Rod is a 2e8 is because, if he played every day at SS, he would be about a 2e8. A-Rod is still in his prime, and won a Gold Glove at SS two years ago. He was moved off SS [i:e4d1626d61]only[/i:e4d1626d61] because of Jeter's history with the Yanks. Alfonzo, OTOH, was moved off 2B because he had trouble physically handling the position. He has a very bad back. At the rate his game is breaking down, I would not be surprised at all if Alfonzo were out of baseball altogether a couple of years from now. The two men are not comparable athletes, fielders or players.

(As [b:e4d1626d61]blueiguana[/b:e4d1626d61] points out, the fact that the Yanks do have Jeter and don't have another 3B allows SOM to give A-Rod his deserved rating. That's not always the case, and if the "draft league" goal of rating by ability conflicted with the "replay" goal of using the players as their real-life team did, SOM would have no choice but to give the rating that better served the replay. Here, there's no conflict and they can have their cake and eat it too.)

David Wright is a 3. Is that NY bias? Everyone in the world expected him to be a 2.

What SOM has is, not NY bias, but simply more information about NY players. In Wright's case, the piece of information that they have that most non-New Yorkers don't is that Wright made some big errors and misplays in the late innings of some close games. Sometimes, having more information means they overrate the player; sometimes (and honestly IMO this happened in Wright's case), it means they underrate the player. Overall, IMO, having more exposure to the player means that they're generally more accurate evaluating him, and I wish they had this much information about every city's players.

[bleacher_creature]

I'll take a NY bias over an LA bias any damned day of the week. :D

I live is Seattle. Trust me, A-Rod can play SS. This is actually the beauty of SOM coming out in this instance, because a game that had no room for subjective ratings would be inferior.

[john duff]

I've got no real beef with the ARod rating at SS, though truth be told, he should probably be a 3. I'm a little dubious as to his rating at 3b. A 1? The guy can't charge a ball to save his life.

My big beef is with Jeter as a 2. Every serious defensive analyst on the planet will tell you that Jeter is a below average SS. He's excellent on popups and is of course a smart, heads-up player. BUT HE CAN'T REACH GROUNDBALLS!!!! Seeing as how this is the primary job of a SS, why do we have to suffer through another season of Jeter as a 2?

[SEANCALHOON]

I look at it this way, and having come to this thought only this year, if A-Rod was on another team he would be the SS, and be a heck of a good one. It would be a toss up if he played in Baltimore with Tejada, but most other teams he would be the SS.

Plus, I believe SOM takes a look at a players history when determining the error range rating, if someone knows for sure please let me know.

Therefore, I don't have a problem with him being a 2e8. If he were at SS that would be his rating, or close to it.

I actually hated this last year since I thought it was wrong to give him a rating at SS that was so good, since he primarily played 3B. However, I think A-Rod has proved his defensive capabilities at 3B by now, and was always an excellent SS, so I am alright with the ratings. If anything he should receive a 3 at SS, but I can live with it.