Thoughts on my first team please

[l.strether]

Well, at least we agree that Choo is a better value in stadiums other than Petco. As to Petco, the one versus three range rating is a debatable one. Yes, in Petco, the differnce could override Choo's greater obp and greater slugging versus righties (even with the park factor), even though performance v. righties is a more significant factor than performance v. lefties; since there are substantially more righty starters than lefty ones, that is a given. However, even Petco teams have to play on the road, and while Choo provides speed, superior offense, and a great arm at Petco, he provides the offensive production in regular and power parks that Ichiro's production cannot nearly approach.

Also, I'm curious to why you discount reading the columns for interpreting possible production: they (along with other data on the card) are the only information we have for doing so. Yes, the numbers on the card on equal: a home run on a 7 in a column denotes six times the possibiliy of a home run on a 10 or a 12. However, taking that into account, you use the columns and their various and varying "number hits" to interpret the possibilities of both positive and negative results. We then use other information on the cards--such as running numbers or N or W power ratings--to amend those results.

We may, as you have done, formulate ratios and formulas from these columns to expand upon these results, but you can NEVER do so without deriving information from these columns. Also, these ratios and formulas do not justify themselves. You must explain how you derived these formulas from the given information on the cards, and you must explain why these formulas or ratios actually support your various statements and arguments....which you never did when asserting your xbh/h ratio as a way of determining the value of one card over another.

Anyway, good luck on your season...I will be nothing but pleased if your team proves my evaluation and prediction wrong.

[geekor]

I think you are forgetting how BA works for Strat.

Ichiro BA = 38/107 (-1 for the 1 HBP, no other walks) = .355
Choo BA = 28/86 (due to all the walks) = .325

Not as much of a difference as you claim, especially considering the fact that their total bases are very close to each other. Really Ichiro has more pure hits, but mostly singles. Whereas Choo has less hits, but more walks and xbh's. plus Ichiro has the dreaded w, which in Petco might not matter but on the road....

It's not that Ichiro isn't useful or good. Choo does cost 1 mil more. But Ichiro's low OBP doesn't suit the rest of his card, which is really a speedy OB type of guy, but with not so good OBP. I wouldn't want that card in the middle of me lineup with all of that negative clutch.

[ShakeyBoomer]

I do not discount reading the columns. I discount them as singular columns as compared to reading the total of the 3 columns as a whole. One individual column means nothing when compared to the total of the card.

When you did my team evaluation I.strether you also failed to take into account just how many left-handed starters I was facing or how many of them are disproportionately reverse lefties. Those factors greatly impact the analysis.

[l.strether]

Although I mostly agree with your evaluation of the two cards, I'm not sure why you discussed my opinion on Strato Batting Average...I never discussed that. I did discuss total hits, obp, and slugging potential on the right side of the card, which--due to the significant prevalence of Rh starting pitchers over lefty ones--are, to a great degree, telling in themselves. In other words, the reading of the cards that gives equal value to both sides of the cards is not an accurate representation of the card's probable production, since production versus righties is a greater factor in total probable production than production versus lefties.

That being said, Choo's production versus lefties does not differ greatly than Ichiro's since there is not enough hit differential there to overcome Choo's xb production even on the left side

Anyway, I definitely agree with you that Choo is a superior middle of the order guy. Hower, considering the righty-lefty differential, I would definitely take Choo over Ichiro as a leadoff man in non-petco parks due to his greater OB probability and much greater slg probability, and I would probably take him even in Petco because of his greater OBP probability in Petco and his significantly greater production probability in most other parks.

[l.strether]

And Shakey....I did consider the whole card when I used the columns. I only mentioned the first and third columns because those are where the production--significantly, if not totally--occurs on both cards. I never said I was just using those columns to the exclusion of evaluating both cards in their entirety.

Also, I have no way of seeing how many lefty starters are in your league, but considering I have never, in the 200+ leagues I've played in, seen one with more (or as many) lefty starters than righties, I feel very comfortable in assuming than your league has significantly more right starters than lefties