In the late 80s, our basic game league had a manager who in addition to keeping the requisite league pitching and hitting stat categories, also kept fielding stats. We all thought he was a little nuts but since he was in charge of putting out the newsletter, we got to see them every month.
At least the APBA fielding ratings (flawed as it is) did have some bearing on his fielding stats. The point of this article is to get a sense what stats categories (beyond the very conventional ones) does your league keep. Also, is it spelled out in your league’s constitution exactly which stats the manager is required keep?
I realize that in computer leagues, the question is a moot point. The stats are kept for you. ALL the stats. So there isn’t really a decision to be made. But in basic or master board game leagues it’s quite different. And quite different from each other.
The Illowa APBA League has evolved in stat keeping in the first couple of years. In its first three years (1975-1977), managers didn’t tally hitters’ strikeouts or walks. Interestingly, a look at our historical stats show that not all managers got on board with record keeping with these stats at the same time. Indeed, our last holdout didn’t start recording batters’ strikeouts until 1989.
Following the Major League’s lead, we recorded the Game Winning RBI (GWRBI) which was immensely popular (please sense the sarcasm). We ditched it as soon as the majors did. We don’t include the GWRBI in our historical register.
The only other change we’ve made was to add batters’ HBP starting in 2004. In hindsight, that was probably a long time coming.
Other than that, we keep the standard categories. For hitters G, AB, R, H, 2B, 3B, HR, RBI, BB, K, SB, HBP, AVG, SLG, OBP. For pitchers, G, GS, CG, IP, H, R, ER, BB, K, W, L, Sv, ShO, ERA.
As I said, those who play Master Game have a vested interest in recording different stats than those who play basic game. In the basic game, it has no bearing how many homeruns CC Sabathia gave up but in the Master Game with his ‘G’ HRA rating it is a little more interesting to see if over a course of a full season if he was able to lower his longball rate.
The same could be said for balks, wild Pitches, caught stealing, and even pick-offs.
So just curious… beyond the conventional ones, what stat categories does your league keep? Which ones, if any, did you ditch?
TBL mandates:
Batting: G,AB,R,H,RBI,2B,3B,HR,BB,K,IBB,SB,CS,SH,SF,HBP,DP,E,PB,Avg,OBP,Slg
Pitching: G,GS,CG,SHO,W,L,S,IP,H,R,ER,HR,BB,K,IBB,WP,Bk,HB,ERA,Pct,E
Although I think we have one manager who resolutely refuses to keep IBB. I don’t know the history behind that one.
Steve,
The key word in your comment is “mandates”.
When a league gets past its “casual” phase and enters its “serious” phase, it’s not a sin to lay down some ground rules esp. when it comes to expected stats.
I’m not sure what happened with the IAL and the K situation (waiting 14 years). I remember vaguely the manager saying that hitters’ strikeouts was a “negative” stat. We countered with “so are pitchers losses” and so on.
It would be fun to keep track of IBB. It’s one more stat to keep track of, though and would only affect one player, Albert Pujols.. (just kidding, I have him)