Let me think aloud here and break it down, see if anything happens...

First off, the Triple Crown Leaderboard doesn't make any sense at all. The guy in 11th Place has more of all 3 than the guy listed #1. And the AVG % scores aren't even in order. In fact, nothing's in order from what I can see, so either we're all idiots, or, ESPN are idiots. I'm thinking the latter.

As for the Main (July) Leaderboard ... they default the list ranking w/ HRs. And in there "tiebreakers" section, they seem to favor HRs, then RBI, then AVG. They treat it, tho, as 3 games in 1 - with the person who wins all 3 getting the Triple Crown.

For HR "game" the first tiebreaker is RBI, then AVG
For RBI "game" the first tiebreaker is HR, then AVG
For AVG "game" the first tiebreaker is HR, then RBI

Personally, I don't agree that HRs should necessarily indicate the most VALUE. HRs don't necessarily win games as much as RBIs - but at the same time, RBIs are dependent upon who's on base already (out of your control). I think AVG is quite important, because the more hits you get, the more likely you are to drive in runs and win games. I'll look at that in a bit, but for now...

Another thing to consider, and perhaps this explains how ESPN ranks us. Here's a chart of how we're doing, with our overall percentile rankings for each category. I also added a column for AB's, out of curiosity. The standings are ESPN's default:

Code:
 
     HR   RBI   AVG   ABs   %ile  (HR/RBI/AVG)
      
DM   13    42  .438    89   95.4 / 98.0 / 96.2
PL   13    31  .447    94   95.4 / 82.8 / 97.2
DJ   13    43  .358    95   95.4 / 98.5 / 68.5
JG   11    26  .298   121   59.5 / 53.0 / 41.0
DA    3    10  .386    44   19.8 / 20.0 / 29.1
Okay, maybe this tells us nothing. If they seemed to prefer HRs and then RBIs, DJ would be ahead of PL. Okay, screw that chart.

We need to decide which is most important: HR, RBI or AVG. Let's see...

Mauer has a .375 AVG w/ 8 HR, 54 RBI
Dunn has a .261 AVG w/ 31 HR, 71 RBI

Dunn produced 71 RBI for his team while hitting only 26% of the time. Mauer produced 54 RBI for his team while hitting 37.5% of the time. Who's worth more?

Mauer produced 54 RBI in 328 ABs = 6 ABs/RBI
Dunn produced 71 RBI in 364 ABs = 5.1 ABs/RBI

Does that tell us anything? Dunn produces more often, albeit mostly from HRs. MIN has scored 502 runs (11% from Mauer) and CIN 511 runs (14% from Dunn). Granted this is a small sample, but perhaps says something about HRs being more important than AVG. It also assumes that RBI are the most important indicator, even tho who's on base is out of the batter's control.

You would think that the more HRs you hit, the higher your RBI total should be, but that's not true in PL's case. He has the highest AVG, same HRs, but trails in RBI by over 10.

Looking at the standings again, and assuming that the stats are from "one batter" who hit those stats, who was most valuable? Let's take a look at the Top 3:

Code:
DM   39/89  13  42  .438  - Productive & efficient 
PL   42/94  13  31  .447  - Hits worth less to the team? 
DJ   34/95  13  43  .358  - Most productive, less efficient
I suppose Efficiency could mean overall production w/ the least amount of work (ABs). OR, what if it meant overall production when one produces (with lesser AVG)?

If the season ended with the stats above, I'd probably declare DMC the winner, even tho in the past I probably would've just looked at it and awarded it to DJ. But it is obvious that 1 RBI difference doesn't make up for .080 less in AVG. Is it? Or isn't it? What about PL's high AVG but 11 fewer RBI?

However, it's more difficult determining who'd be in 2nd and 3rd. If PL had 40 RBI, then he'd be arguably the 1st Place winner, followed by DM and DJ. But he doesn't. Should he be considered #2 if DM is #1? Is being down 11 RBI worth more than .089 in AVG (i.e., is .447 significantly better than .358)? Just visually looking at the Top 3, I'd probably put PL #3 just because of the lack of RBI. But the question remains - what if he had 33, or 36, or 38, or 39??

But wait one second here!

Maybe THIS is how ESPN ranks us... Let's look at that %ile chart again, and compute "scores" by adding our 3 %ile ranks:

Code:
 
     HR   RBI   AVG   ABs   %ile (HR/RBI/AVG)    TOT %ile
      
DM   13    42  .438    89   95.4 / 98.0 / 96.2    289.6 
PL   13    31  .447    94   95.4 / 82.8 / 97.2    275.4 
DJ   13    43  .358    95   95.4 / 98.5 / 68.5    262.4 
JG   11    26  .298   121   59.5 / 53.0 / 41.0    153.5 
DA    3    10  .386    44   19.8 / 20.0 / 29.1     68.9
Could that be it? Could our standings be determined by how we're each doing versus everyone else playing the game, combined? Should it? Shouldn't it??

If PL's high AVG is better than 97.2% of everyone overall, and DM's RBI are better than 98% overall, then didn't DM do a little better?

DJ got the highest RBI total (98.5% overall), but his AVG is only 68.5% overall, well less than PL's 97.2%.

Could this be our answer??

Everything else remaining the same, if DJ gets one or two more HRs and DM and PL don't, will the increase in %ile ranking push him to #1 for most HRs and RBI, despite AVG?

I don't fucking know - but I do know I'm getting a headache.


I studied Italian for 2 semesters. Not once was a "C" pronounced as a "G", and never was a trailing "I" ignored! And I'm from Jersey! tongue lol

Whaddaya want me to do? Whack a guy? Off a guy? Whack off a guy? --Peter Griffin

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