Adj(usted) PAR: Adjusted Points Above Replacement. A method of scaling value by positional scarcity in points leagues. Calculated by multiplying expected points by VORP, yielding the formula ((xPts^2)-(xPts*rPts))/rPts
aPk: Actual Draft Pick. Where a player is taken in a draft. Used to calculate scalar inefficiency.
BB (or Bernie's Bombers) Roster: The roster composition for my head-to-head points leagues. Starts one each at catcher, first base, second base, third base, and shortstop, four outfielders, five starting pitchers, two relief pitchers.
BB (or Bernie's Bombers) Scoring: The scoring system specific to my head-to-head points league. For hitters, one point per hit, walk, run, RBI, or stolen base, one point per single (on top of the one for a hit, two total), two per double (three total), three per triple (four total), and four per home run (five total), -1 point per strikeout and error. For pitchers, 3 points per inning pitched, one point per strikeout, -1 point per hit or walk given up, -2 points per earned run, 4 points per complete game, 2 points per shutout, 10 points per no-hitter, 6 points per win, -3 points per loss, 5 points per save.
H2H: Head-to-head league, in which two teams match up in a given week. Can be either points or categories.
PAR: Points Above Replacement. The number of points a player is expected to get over a player of the same position who should be available at any given time and/or is just barely good enough to start. Calculated by xPts-rPts.
Points league: A league in which each outcome has a pre-determined point value.
Position scarcity: An informal term denoting how many good players are at a position and/or how poor a position is at replacement level.
pVORP: Partial Value Over Replacement Player. Used to calculate value in a roto league. Is equal to a player's production minus replacement production at position divided by the expected production from a team of replacement players for a single statistic.
Replacement/Replacement Player: The expected best player available at a position on the waiver wire, or the player you should expect to get if you fill a starting position last among your league.
Rotisserie (or Roto) league: A league in which each category is calculated constantly over the course of a season. Teams are awarded points equal to the inverse of their standing in a category. In a league of x teams, the 1st place team in a given category gets x points, second gets x-1, third gets x-2, and so on down until the last place team gets one point. Counting stats are summed throughout the season, rate categories are taken using a true average (i.e. the batting average is calculated by taking the sum of all hits by active players and dividing by all at-bats by active players). Generally, a league is described as "a x b", where a is the number of categories used for hitters and b is the number of categories used for pitchers. For the vast majority of leagues, a=b.
rPts: Replacement-level points. Calculated, generally, by averaging the two or three lowest-point-total draftable players and the two or three highest-point-total waiver wire players in a points league. For a league of x teams starting y players at a position, this means averaging the expected point totals of players (x*y)-1, (x*y), (x*y)+1, and (x*y)+2 when players are ranked in descending order of expected point totals. For example, in a ten-team league that starts one second baseman per team, rPts is the average of the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th highest point-total second basemen.
Scalar (or Draft) Inefficiency: A formula that assigns a number to every draft selection based on where the selected player is ranked and the placement of the draft pick. Calculated by the formula 10*[(aPk-xPk)/(10+aPk)]. The formula yields a negative value when a player is taken earlier than expected and a positive value if a player is taken later than expected. Allows for equivalencies between separate draft actions. Generally speaking, for an acceptable pick this value is not less than -1 (the value of reaching for the #51 player with a median pick in the fifth round).
Standard Points League: Scoring system used for a standard points league. For hitters, 1 point per total base, run scored, RBI, walk and stolen base, -1 point per strikeout. For pitchers, 3 points per inning pitched, 10 points per win, -5 points per loss, 5 points per save, 1 point per strikeout, -1 point per hit or walk issued, -2 points per earned run.
Standard (or 5x5) Roto League: The most common rotisserie format. The categories are batting average, home runs, runs, RBI, and stolen bases for hitters. For pitchers, the categories are strikeouts, wins, ERA, WHIP, and saves.
T-Test: A statistical test to determine if a value is significantly different from an expected value given the data set from which it comes, or if two distributions have different means. Would be used, for example, to determine if a player's home run total is outside his career average, or if two teams have significantly different batting averages based on the individual batting averages within team.
T-Test: A statistical test to determine if a value is significantly different from an expected value given the data set from which it comes, or if two distributions have different means. Would be used, for example, to determine if a player's home run total is outside his career average, or if two teams have significantly different batting averages based on the individual batting averages within team.
VORP: Value Over Replacement Player. Calculated using (xPts-rPts)/rPts. Yields a decimal which is the percentage of points player X scores that are above replacement for a points league.
VUM: Value Under Maximum. A position-scaled percentage of best possible performance for a statistic (e.g. steals, RBI) in a roto/category league. Can be calculated for an individual stat with the formula (2x-min(l))/(max(p)+max(l)-min(l)), where x is the projected performance, max(p) is the highest projection at the position, max(l) is the best projected performance in the league, and min(l) is the lowest projected performance in the league. An aggregate can be created for a player by adding the VUMs for each individual statistic (or 1-VUM for a negative statistic such as WHIP, where lower values are better).
xPk: Expected pick. Where a given player is expected to be chosen in the draft. For my purposes, calculated by ranking players in ascending order by the average of their rank in xPts and their rank in adj PAR, with ties broken in favor of a higher xPts value.
xPts: The expected number of points a player is projected to accrue over the course of a season based on preseason projections. For the most part, this blog uses ESPN's 2011 player projections unless otherwise noted.
