Fun Tool of the Day: BBA/MLB Similarity
Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2019 2:50 pm
I blame this whole thing on Joshua, who wrote me note saying “Is there a way in OOTP to compare BBA players to MLB players by similarity score?”
As far as I know, there is not…but it reminded that way, way back in the day of the FOBL, I had created a spreadsheet tool to do just that—using Bill James’ work to compare my OOTP players to guys of the, ahem, “real world.” I remembered it was great fun seeing who Lewis Hubbell was most like, and Lee Mckittrick, and even lowly George Alvarez. There was something in this that made these guys feel even more real.
So I dug it out.
Of course, the database was completely out of date (at least 15 years too old). So I used the trusty old Interwebs to pull a fresh Lahman database, and did a half hour’s work pasting together career stats and re-connecting all the old formulas. And Viola! (or as I prefer to think walla!), I had my tool.
So, heart pounding, I went to the game and started pulling data from BBA players, literally dying to see what I’d find.
Since Joshua had asked, I started with Atlantic City…and if you’re starting with Atlantic City, you have to go to Adrian Salazar and Bucky Dornster, right? I plugged Salazar’s stats in and did the Excel sorting magic on MLB players, and found that the MLB guy most similar to Adrian Salazar is … J. D. Martinez.
Here’s the full list:
Pretty cool, eh? There are oddities, of course. OOTP players don’t perform exactly like MLB players, so sometimes the actual similarity scores will be moderately low. Martinez’s 928.7 is not super close, but easily within shouting distance. Jose Abreu’s 926 isn’t bad either. I also like looking down the list and seeing the occasional odd entry like 1934’s Don Hurst.
Regardless, though, this is a pretty solid list of players, and (for me anyway) puts a kind of image in mind when I think of quality.
Adrian Salazar is J.D. Martinez with a chaser cocktail that includes parts of Nolan Arenado, Bryce Harper, Anthony Rizzo, and Paul Goldschmidt.
Yes Very cool.
Here’s Bucky Dornster:
Now this is interesting. First, there are no guys with 900 scores, so Dornster is an unusual player by “real life” standards. And look at that wild list of eras! Ray Boone from the 60s, Hank Bauer and Wally Moon from the 50s, Sam Chapman from the 40s. Casey Blake is his number 1 guy, and he played in the 2000s.
**** Edit: I had to update this list from the first posting due to thick fingers on my part. Dornster actually does have 900+ comps, but they are still from all over the place when it comes to eras.
I like this, too. Bucky Dornster is kind of like that Cadillac you build from parts over the years. Tell me that doesn’t get your mind going on what he might be like to watch play from a box seat down the third base line.
I’m going to be doing a bunch more of these…and I’ll post them as I go…but in the meantime I’ll stop here to actually post the spreadsheet tool along with some instructions so you can play with it yourself. It’s a little fragile, meaning you have to do it right or you can break it…but it’s been great fun.
As far as I know, there is not…but it reminded that way, way back in the day of the FOBL, I had created a spreadsheet tool to do just that—using Bill James’ work to compare my OOTP players to guys of the, ahem, “real world.” I remembered it was great fun seeing who Lewis Hubbell was most like, and Lee Mckittrick, and even lowly George Alvarez. There was something in this that made these guys feel even more real.
So I dug it out.
Of course, the database was completely out of date (at least 15 years too old). So I used the trusty old Interwebs to pull a fresh Lahman database, and did a half hour’s work pasting together career stats and re-connecting all the old formulas. And Viola! (or as I prefer to think walla!), I had my tool.
So, heart pounding, I went to the game and started pulling data from BBA players, literally dying to see what I’d find.
Since Joshua had asked, I started with Atlantic City…and if you’re starting with Atlantic City, you have to go to Adrian Salazar and Bucky Dornster, right? I plugged Salazar’s stats in and did the Excel sorting magic on MLB players, and found that the MLB guy most similar to Adrian Salazar is … J. D. Martinez.
Here’s the full list:
Code: Select all
Name POS StartYr EndYr Similarity
J. D. Martinez OF 2011 2018 928.7
Jose Abreu 1B 2014 2018 916.8
Don Hurst 1B 1928 1934 896.4
Glenn Davis 1B 1984 1993 894.2
Nolan Arenado 3B 2013 2018 886.6
Bryce Harper OF 2012 2018 878.5
Anthony Rizzo 1B 2011 2018 877.5
Yoenis Cespedes OF 2012 2018 877.0
Paul Goldschmidt 1B 2011 2018 871.5
Jim Gentile 1B 1957 1966 870.1
Regardless, though, this is a pretty solid list of players, and (for me anyway) puts a kind of image in mind when I think of quality.
Adrian Salazar is J.D. Martinez with a chaser cocktail that includes parts of Nolan Arenado, Bryce Harper, Anthony Rizzo, and Paul Goldschmidt.
Yes Very cool.
Here’s Bucky Dornster:
Code: Select all
Name POS StartYr EndYr Similarity
Casey Blake 3B 1999 2011 931.9
Ray Boone 3B 1948 1960 927.2
Sam Chapman OF 1938 1951 922.5
Bobby Higginson OF 1995 2005 918.9
Ty Wigginton 3B 2002 2013 918.9
Melvin Mora 3B 1999 2011 916.7
Hank Bauer OF 1948 1961 913.3
Al Smith OF 1953 1964 909.3
Wally Moon OF 1954 1965 908.2
**** Edit: I had to update this list from the first posting due to thick fingers on my part. Dornster actually does have 900+ comps, but they are still from all over the place when it comes to eras.
I like this, too. Bucky Dornster is kind of like that Cadillac you build from parts over the years. Tell me that doesn’t get your mind going on what he might be like to watch play from a box seat down the third base line.
I’m going to be doing a bunch more of these…and I’ll post them as I go…but in the meantime I’ll stop here to actually post the spreadsheet tool along with some instructions so you can play with it yourself. It’s a little fragile, meaning you have to do it right or you can break it…but it’s been great fun.
