Explanation of Rankings

This page is serves as a guide to the Rankings page, which can be found here.

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Which players are eligible to be ranked?

For batters, everyone with at least 170 plate appearances in a given full season will appear. For pitchers, everyone with at least 50 innings pitched will appear. For mid-season rankings, these cutoffs are half as high (i.e. 85 plate appearances and 25 innings pitched).

Why is the sample size threshold so low?

This is for a couple reasons. For one, the formulas used to rank players are calculated on a rate basis, not a cumulative one, which allows for a greater variety of sample sizes possible to compare. On a more fundamental level, though, I did not feel it was fair to exclude players just because they could not play a full season for whatever reason. Sure, it's possible that some players would not rank as high if they had more playing time, but that doesn't mean their stretches of success are undeserving of admiration.

However, context is still crucial. For the convenience of the reader, the number of plate appearances is listed for all hitters, innings pithed for all pitchers, and games for all players (specifically games started for starting pitchers).

What's the difference between a starting pitcher and a relief pitcher?

For the purpose of these rankings, all qualified pitchers (by the thresholds listed above) who started at least 50 percent of the games they appeared in are considered starters. If they fall below this threshold, they are considered relievers. This is indeed an arbitrary cutoff, but given that the distinction between starters and relievers has become increasingly blurred in recent years, a line needs to be drawn somewhere.

What formulas are used to rank players and teams?

The exact formulas used to rank teams, pitchers, and batters are a secret. However, the formulas all attempt to measure the quality of players and teams while factoring in ballparks and the quality of opponents.

What do "Offense Rank" and "Defense Rank" mean?

For a given team, Offense Rank factors in what it takes to score (a mix of batting and baserunning stats, with a bias towards batting). Similarly, Defense Rank factors in what it takes to minimize the opponent's scoring (a mix of pitching and fielding stats, with a bias towards pitching).

How is a team's overall rank determined?

A given team's rank is determined by the combination of their offensive and defensive performance. You may notice that a team's ranking isn't always perfectly correlated with their win-loss record—perhaps indicating that a team did better or worse than they "should" have.