Measuring the Accuracy of Baseball's Win-Percentage Estimators

Zach Fein by Analyst Written on September 06, 2008
Baseball_feature
(Page 2 of 2)
Team Wins Exp.Wins Diff.
Atlanta 62 68.5 6.5
Cleveland 68 73.9 5.9
Toronto 75 80.0 5.0
San Diego 54 58.0 4.0
Seattle 55 58.9 3.9
Philadelphia 77 80.3 3.3
Baltimore 63 65.7 2.7
Boston 83 85.7 2.7
Chicago Cubs 85 87.7 2.7
Oakland 64 66.5 2.5
Detroit 67 68.7 1.7
LA Dodgers 71 72.6 1.6
Arizona 71 72.0 1.0
Washington 54 54.7 0.7
Chicago Sox 79 79.6 0.6
St. Louis 75 75.4 0.4
Minnesota 78 78.3 0.3
NY Mets 79 79.1 0.1
NY Yankees 75 74.7 -0.3
Cincinnati 63 61.4 -1.6
Colorado 67 65.4 -1.6
Milwaukee 81 78.5 -2.5
Pittsburgh 60 57.4 -2.6
San Francisco 60 57.2 -2.8
Kansas City 60 57.1 -2.9
Florida 72 67.6 -4.4
Texas 69 64.4 -4.6
Tampa Bay 85 79.1 -5.9
Houston 74 67.7 -6.3
LA Angels 85 75.8 -9.2


Because the Angels have won so many close games, their closer gets more save opportunities, and they have won more games than expected. Tampa Bay is also at the bottom for "lucky" teams—and guess what, the Blue Jays should have more wins than them!

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Differential formulas

W% = X * (R - RA) / G + .5

Where X is for different methods...

Palmer-RPW: 1 / (10 * sqrt(runs per inning))

Tango-RPW: 1 / (RPG / 2 + 5), where RPG = (runs allowed + runs scored)/(games played)

RPW=10 : 0.1

RPW=RPG : 1 / RPG

~~~

Ratio formulas:

W% = (RS^x)/(RS^x + RA^x)

Where x is for different methods...

Pythagenport: 1.5 * log(RPG) + .45

Pythagenpat: RPG^.287

Pythag-1.83: 1.83

Pythag-2: 2

~~~

Others

Ben V-L: W% = 0.91 * (RS-RA) / (RS+RA) + .5

Soolman: W% = (0.102 * RS - 0.103 * RA) / G + .505

E.Cook: W% = 0.484 * RS / RA

Double Edge: W% = (RS / RA * 2 - 1) / (RS / RA * 2)

Kross: For teams with RS>RA, W% = RS / (2 * RA) , and for teams with RA>RS, W% = 1 - RA / (2 * RS) . I used the first formula for teams with an equal number of runs scored and runs allowed.

(1)
...
Share This  
Crop_45x45
or to post this comment

2 Comments

There are no comments yet. Get the conversation started by leaving the first comment

Loading more comments...
posted just now
  • Loading...
  • Nobody has liked this comment yet
Cancel

This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete

665
reads

2
comments

written on September 06, 2008 Stats

The best newsletter on the web

Subscribe Now

We will never share your email address


CBS Sports Official Partner
Certain photos copyright © 2009 by Getty Images.
Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Getty Images is strictly prohibited.