2037: EVERYTHING'S RELATIVE, RIGHT?

[bschr682]

Yep. If the padres can sign one of those guys (macahdo/Harper) and hopefully structure that deal in such a way that it’s not completely untradeable, that’s a huge win for them. Even if it’s an overpay.

[udlb58]

Take a hitter, say the very busy J.J McQuade. You see an contact on the high end of average, average to low average power, well below average eye. So a rather mediocre hitter. Probably below average overall. Again, you don't need to know anything else about league ratings, or other SS ratings. Overall, you can add in his glove and wheels and see a starter, but that's it. A decent starter. Had we had relative ratings, I doubt he ever gets that big of a deal.

I wholeheartedly disagree. It was pretty obvious what McQuade was when he was a free agent (a roughly league average hitter and above average defensive SS). It isn't like he was signed by a league newb (Brett had how many years in the league at the time?) and he was quickly acquired by Stephen, who also knows the league in-and-out. A very good defensive SS (or CF) who's also a solid hitter will get a big free agent offer 10 times out of 10.

The ratings change isn't really going to make much clearer, IMO. All leagues have different ratings shifts and scales that are used that a new member has to get used to. I don't know of any other leagues that use relative ratings, so if you're coming from a league that has been around awhile and has ratings shift, you can also miss out on what a good player is in the current view (i.e. a 5 contact is pretty terrible in any 1-10 rating league)

[Ted]

Take a hitter, say the very busy J.J McQuade. You see an contact on the high end of average, average to low average power, well below average eye. So a rather mediocre hitter. Probably below average overall. Again, you don't need to know anything else about league ratings, or other SS ratings. Overall, you can add in his glove and wheels and see a starter, but that's it. A decent starter. Had we had relative ratings, I doubt he ever gets that big of a deal.

I wholeheartedly disagree. It was pretty obvious what McQuade was when he was a free agent (a roughly league average hitter and above average defensive SS). It isn't like he was signed by a league newb (Brett had how many years in the league at the time?) and he was quickly acquired by Stephen, who also knows the league in-and-out. A very good defensive SS (or CF) who's also a solid hitter will get a big free agent offer 10 times out of 10.

The ratings change isn't really going to make much clearer, IMO. All leagues have different ratings shifts and scales that are used that a new member has to get used to. I don't know of any other leagues that use relative ratings, so if you're coming from a league that has been around awhile and has ratings shift, you can also miss out on what a good player is in the current view (i.e. a 5 contact is pretty terrible in any 1-10 rating league)

Interesting. I think then where we disagree is calling McQuade a "solid hitter". I always thought he was a below average hitter. Even in his YS days. I felt his stats were buoyed by Ron picking his spots with him extremely well, and so people thought he was a better hitter than he was. My thought was that his stats (which I again considered a mirage) and his abundance of green bars allowed people to believe he was a better hitter than he was, and that the new rates show what he is, a below average hitter, even at short (admittedly some of this is also due to aging, but that should ahve been taken into account with the conrtract as well). Also, the idea is less that Brett (or any other experienced GM) couldn't identify talent properly, but rather that it was more difficult to in general. We've all had the discussions about whether something was a "high 7" or "low 7". Combined all this with Brett's stated obvious need at short at the time, and you can see how easy it gets to talk yourself into a player being worth more than he is. We've all done it. That was more my point. Now, with all the average players clustered together, there's really less of a way to talk yourself out of a player being average. You might still want to say "With most of the players being clustered around the middle, I want to believe this particular one is towards the high end of that middle." But you have to acknowledge he's sill not exciting, or elite in any way.