It’s not a different value for counting stats for each type of player, so a SB is worth the same from a SS or a C, but it adjusts the stats such that it assumes you have a team full of replacement level players and only gives points for marginal stats.

I assume for this you have to take some sort of average level for replacement players. Otherwise, what if Figgins was the first non-drafted 3B? Or half the replacement OFs are speed guys, and half are power hitters?

Think of it this way…

The price guide determines the value of each stat by looking at what the average is for each stat among drafted players and how the stats are distributed among them. In the end, the stats of different players add up to give final standings, with an average and a distribution of the stats.

The SGP system takes known final standings and a known distribution to determine the relative value of a stat. So the way that the two systems value stats is the same.

The price guide then looks at each player and figures out how many points their stats are worth, and then subtracts out a baseline in each position. That baseline is simply who it determines to be the most valuable replacement player.

The SGP system does this in reverse order. It subtracts out what it determines to be replacment level player at each position, and then calculates the points that each player’s stats generate.

Since I assume that your baseline replacement player has to be an average of some sort, these systems do exactly the same thing.

The difference is in how it determines what each stat is worth relative to each other, which is really what you’re trying to get at with valuation systems in general. One uses standard deviations to estimate it, the other uses known variance in final standings. I’d guess that the ratio of SB value to HR value (or pick any two stats you want) is pretty close between your SGP system and the z-score system on this site if the z-score system is given the same league configuration settings as your SGP system.

The fact that Figgins is only $12 reassures me a little.

Does the positional stat adjustment base things on z-scores, or does it do a SGP-type analysis?

Maybe I’ll crunch some numbers on my spreadsheet (I don’t have as pretty a program as Mays for generating dollar values, sad to say) and see what I can get.

Related to SGP, does anyone have a resource for providing average final standings, as well as standard deviations and ranges, for fantasy leagues in various configurations? I’ve looked for this before but I’ve not been able to find something that says “the average HR score in a 12-team Yahoo! style mixed league is 200, the SD among HR scores is 20, the average range is 75″ or whatever. The limited data that I have is my fantasy leagues, and that’s limited to about 20 leagues or so over the last 5-6 years, which isn’t very useful.

Anyway, it again comes down to replacement level. We know that 1st basemen on the whole provide much better raw stats than catchers, so we adjust accordingly. But we could take that a step further and say exactly which categories are easier and tougher to find from a free agent at each position.

Saying that 40 steals from 3B is the same as 40 steals from 2nd base is the same as valuing a catcher and 1st baseman the same who put up the exact same raw stats. Basically, what Todd’s valuation system does is quantify replacement level everywhere rather than just one number for each position.

If you think of a points league, it’s easy to value players. You simply add up the total points and subtract the next best non-positive valued player’s point total from everyone at the position. This would be equivalent to a valuation system that doesn’t adjust every category by position, but just uses one overall number.

And damn, this stuff is so hard to explain! Whether you agree it’s correct or not, I just hope I’m explaining the system well enough so you guys understand what I’m talking about.

40 steals from 3rd base is the same as 40 steals from 2nd base or 40 steals from a catcher when it comes to winning your league.

In fact, often times getting 40 steals from 3B and foregoing say 20 HRs from an average 3B puts you behind the 8-ball when it comes to power stats, since you need to make up for it elsewhere.

In the end, if a steal is worth 1.2 HR, then someone with a 100 R, .300 AVG, 80 RBI, 10 HR, 0 SB line is worth exactly the same as someone with a 100 R, .300 AVG, 80 RBI, 0 HR, 12 SB line, whether that player plays 3B or 2B or C.

At least, I’ve never seen a convincing argument otherwise.

I guess I’ve always considered the ease of acquiring SBs from free agent MI would be balanced by an equal ease of acquiring power stats from free agent CI… Definitely some food for thought.

Would you value them even higher?

@Derek: I’m just teasing, but I did like your use of superlatives. :-)