WPA Central

I just read the long thread over at the Reds discussion forum and it was pretty much the same discussion that goes on anywhere when WPA pops up.  I think two major things are misinterpreted about WPA.

One, it’s not trying to overtake other stats that are more of an ability measure and predictive.  It will show that relievers are used properly or misused, but it won’t tell you who the better reliever is.  It’s up to the team to decide who pitches when.  WPA is what it is and honestly isn’t all that informative.  But it does answer one specific question very well.

Two, people misuse the “a run is a run” argument.  Scoring the winning run in a 1-0 game in the first inning is the same as the last inning, looking backwards.  But when playing the game, you can’t assume your team is going to win.  When you score a run in the first, you don’t have any knowledge of how the next 8 innings will go.  But when it’s 0-0 in the 9th, you KNOW that 0 runs were scored over the first 8 innings.  If you end up winning the horse race, the whole race is important.  But just getting out quick doesn’t guarantee the big prize.

Anyways, Dave, what is the alternate score box and how would it be used.  I assume it has something to do with the pitch/field split…  Good stuff, I’m excited to throw this around.

I’m all george grande giddy about seeing how this unfolds this season.

I’m suspecting for the mostpart guys with good batting averages, good OBPs, good OPS, good RC etc etc….will land in higher tier for this as well.

But verrrrrry interested to see if this does point out some players who if you only look at their OPS for example you might not get accurate picture of contribution. And the vice versa of course. I think there will be a few players on reds worth a second look…......

(I have a hunch that Jiminez was one of those underrated guys last year for example). 

-Mike
aka prose14
aka BadFundamentals

I downloaded the excel WPA page but the “macros” are disabled.  I saved it to a different location but it says the macros in the project are not enabled.  Could you help with this?

Hi Tim,

I’m guessing that you have your Macro security set on “High.”  In Excel, look at Tools/Macro/Security.  Make sure you’ve set your Macro security to medium.  That should do the trick.

If it doesn’t work, please let me know.

dave

Studes,

It worked.  Thanks. Now I can track my great Pirates games

I don’t know if this is still an active board, but I believe I have found a new and interesting use for WPA.  Article here: http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/story/2005/9/5/18366/80853

Thanks for access to the spreadsheet; I am going to try to incorporate its use into future studies rather than the historical data at walkoffbalk.

Thanks again.