Friday, April 05, 2013
Federal League 1914-15
?Rather than asking "was the Federal League a major league", like Neyer asks, I prefer simply knowing: "what percentage of the time was a major-league quality batter at the plate", and similarly for major-league quality pitcher on the mound, and you can extend further for players on the field.
Even today in MLB 2013, that number is not 100% for players at bat, because of pitchers-as-batters. I think answering my question opens up the doors for further usage. The WHA featured rookie Wayne Gretzky and old-timers Bobby Hull and Gordie Howe. But it also featured Slapshot's Jeff Carlson. The USFL had Herschel and Steve Young, but I'm sure plenty of other players never to come close to the NFL. This opens up the door to then establishing the quality of the Japan league, AAA, AA, even college ball. Jeff Zimmerman for example went from the draft to a MLB field in two months. I would therefore qualify him as a top-level talent in his last year of college. Of course, that doesn't preclude Harper and Stras from being considered top-level talent, any more than if Steve Young never had the chance to take over in SF.
Anyway: percentage of players considered top-level talent. It's a harder question, but a more useful answer. Of course, there are are those who think the question is TOO hard to answer. What counts is not the ultimate answer necessarily, but the process to take that can possibly lead to an answer. That's the fun part.
Recent comments
Older comments
Page 1 of 151 pages 1 2 3 > Last ›Complete Archive – By Category
Complete Archive – By Date
FORUM TOPICS
Jul 12 15:22 MarcelsApr 16 14:31 Pitch Count Estimators
Mar 12 16:30 Appendix to THE BOOK - THE GORY DETAILS
Jan 29 09:41 NFL Overtime Idea
Jan 22 14:48 Weighting Years for NFL Player Projections
Jan 21 09:18 positional runs in pythagenpat
Oct 20 15:57 DRS: FG vs. BB-Ref
Apr 12 09:43 What if baseball was like survivor? You are eliminated ...
Nov 24 09:57 Win Attribution to offense, pitching, and fielding at the game level (prototype method)
Jul 13 10:20 How to watch great past games without spoilers