News Bulletin: Village Idiot Uses VORP!

[1998 Yankees]

Yes, I was that backward oaf who, in a recent thread, questioned the validity of sabermetrics as they are employed in this game. However, as I was in the process of taking over award voting and hall of fame induction in my game using traditional parameters, I quite ironically have come across a situation in which I find VORP to be useful!

I had never used my custom award, as I could never think of a category that was not obvious (Fireman of the Year = most saves, just look it up in history) or was not tedious to research and select (Comeback Player of the Year). Besides, I did not want to have another exclusive batter or pitcher award; one each plus Rookie of the Year seemed appropriate.

Still, I was disturbed by that blank column during manual award voting so I thought harder and finally came up with the idea of a Most Popular Player Award. Who is currently the most popular player in my game? Enduring popularity, not momentary fame for a fantastic season or two. The way Hank Aaron was popular in 1975 when he batted .234 with 12 HR's and 60 RBI's and still was an All-Star at age 41.

How to capture this in the game? The popularity part is easy. How about the longevity? Well, VORP. I know it's designed to reflect a player's relative value to the league, it does correlate somewhat with the players that I consider the best of each season, it's applicable to batter and pitcher, and it accumulates over time.

So, I used the custom view that you see below, sorting by national popularity and using career VORP as the tie-breaker. You will note that a SS currently holds the award in SL1 [see posts #11 and 12 for correction - thanks, Dagrims] and a SP has it for SL2.

Will the reward be repetitive? Sure, the same guys may be on top for years until their performance declines and popularity drops as a result, or until they retire. But that is what I wanted for this award.

Anyway, I found it ironic that after stirring up the ruckus in that other thread, I had found a use for VORP after all. It's still malarkey otherwise, though.

[koohead]

this thread should have included a poll

1. 98 is an idiot
2. popularity is a bunch of malarkey
3. Vorp is still a bunch of malarkey
4. All of the above

[1998 Yankees]

I'm feeling the love here.

[Kelric]

Village oaf? Well you are a Yankees fan...

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by Kelric

Village oaf? Well you are a Yankees fan...

Bah. Sticks and stones. The Giants beat the Patriots, you know.

I'm waiting for those saberfanatics to come in here swinging their, well, sabers.

[wlight1]

Talk about lovable village idiots, how about Mao-You Jung!

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by wlight1

Talk about lovable village idiots, how about Mao-You Jung!

Yeah, I checked. He stinks. Must be one of those clown princes of baseball.

[koohead]

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

Bah. Sticks and stones. The Giants beat the Patriots, you know.

I'm waiting for those saberfanatics to come in here swinging their, well, sabers.

HA! Love it. Take that!

[Kelric]

The who beat the whatnow? The only thing I saw Sunday night was the Puppy Bowl.

Just the Puppy Bowl...

Puppies....

*rocks back and forth muttering* puppiespuppiespuppiespuppies....

[conception]

I don't really know where vorp comes in, but I don't think the "most popular player" is an entirely bad award. I enjoy looking at histories and seeing the awards. I usually just name a team MVP award, since the award is only for my purposes, but the problem is that I have the league MVP more often than not.

[Dagrims]

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

You will note that a SS currently holds the award in SL1 and a SP has it for SL2.

Putting down the light-SABR for a moment, I noted that it's actually a LF who should be holding the award in SL1, not a SS.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by conception

I don't really know where vorp comes in, but I don't think the "most popular player" is an entirely bad award. I enjoy looking at histories and seeing the awards. I usually just name a team MVP award, since the award is only for my purposes, but the problem is that I have the league MVP more often than not.

VORP in this instance is to recognize long-term contribution (value) to the game. There had to be some way of breaking the tie, as quite a few players in a league will be extremely popular nationally at any point in time. That I chose to make it career VORP rather than season VORP is that Hank Aaron thing, respect and admiration for one of the great elders still in the game.

Originally Posted by Dagrims

Putting down the light-SABR for a moment, I noted that it's actually a LF who should be holding the award in SL1, not a SS.

Ah, good eye, Dagrims! You're right, of course. Those screen prints are from my, uh, system analysis copy of OOTP at work. I just dummied up a league and simmed a couple of decades this morning to generate enough career VORP for an example. I can assure you that I am much more careful with the real show at home. Really!

[Dagrims]

I am hard at work deriving the most reliable indicator of a player's popularity. I started off calling it Popularity Over Replacement Players, or PORP. Because these replacement players are generally not in as good physical condition to hold up to the daily grind of a long baseball season, I further refined the formula and now call it Popularity Over Replacement Players (Oft-Injured Substitute Entrants), or PORPOISE. There are those old-schoolers who much prefer breaking a national popularity tie by career RBI, but my claim is that this finds the most deserving recipient only by accident, whereas my formula is completely on-PORPOISE.

Does any of this make sense to you, self-proclaimed village idiot? Is there a flicka of comprehension in that brain of yours?

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by Dagrims

Does any of this make sense to you, self-proclaimed village idiot? Is there a flicka of comprehension in that brain of yours?

Duh, whaaa?

Voice: "I'm sorry. Brain capacity exceeded. Shutting down operations immediately."

[Who Killed Kenny?]

Originally Posted by Dagrims

my formula is completely on-PORPOISE

ROFL, I love puns.

[RchW]

I think that the use of VORP by this um person,... I wont even insult all the fine village idiots who remain free and clear and compete with their own natural God given talents,... I think that VORP is a cancer on our game. I mean what's wrong with just counting RBI's, those of us that can count, past 100, that is. There needs to be an investigation, maybe a witch hunt. After all where village idiots fear to go you'll find witches I'm sure.

This VORP and I've heard RC/27 and FR, err I mean RF. They're all dangerous. We need to have a test, hell let's just dunk 'em in the lake until they spit out the truth. We have to clean up our game and if a few VORPERS drown in the process who cares.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by RchW

I think that the use of VORP by this um person,... I wont even insult all the fine village idiots who remain free and clear and compete with their own natural God given talents,... I think that VORP is a cancer on our game. I mean what's wrong with just counting RBI's, those of us that can count, past 100, that is. There needs to be an investigation, maybe a witch hunt. After all where village idiots fear to go you'll find witches I'm sure.

This VORP and I've heard RC/27 and FR, err I mean RF. They're all dangerous. We need to have a test, hell let's just dunk 'em in the lake until they spit out the truth. We have to clean up our game and if a few VORPERS drown in the process who cares.

Glad to see you finally came to your senses. I thought you were a computer dork with a calculator in your pocket.

[Bonedwarf]

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

I'm feeling the love here.

Well put it down, you could be arrested!

Seriously, your screenshots just opened a new world to me. I didn't even realise you could just drag and drop award winners. I've not fiddled with OOTP 8 much so far. (Got as far as setting my league up. Have been stuck waiting to find the time and inclination to pick team logos.) I get the feeling there is a huge amount of stuff I don't know about in the game.

[bp_]

Originally Posted by Dagrims

I am hard at work deriving the most reliable indicator of a player's popularity. I started off calling it Popularity Over Replacement Players, or PORP. Because these replacement players are generally not in as good physical condition to hold up to the daily grind of a long baseball season, I further refined the formula and now call it Popularity Over Replacement Players (Oft-Injured Substitute Entrants), or PORPOISE. There are those old-schoolers who much prefer breaking a national popularity tie by career RBI, but my claim is that this finds the most deserving recipient only by accident, whereas my formula is completely on-PORPOISE.

Does any of this make sense to you, self-proclaimed village idiot? Is there a flicka of comprehension in that brain of yours?

When is OOTP going to get PORP and PORPOISE in the game? I'm sick of waiting for it frankly.

[Left-handed Badger]

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

Duh, whaaa?

Voice: "I'm sorry. Brain capacity exceeded. Shutting down operations immediately."

Yeah, man. What can those VORPers expect from us. With our brains working on 8 byte and all.