Baseball Rankings - 3/3

[MiamiCajun32]

RPI is almost predetermined as they will give every conference points for their name. Have you noticed how our conference has been doing head to head against other conferences. Our conference is way tougher than anyone in the money conferences will ever admit. Only in America can you be one of the last 4 teams standing and end up ranked 9th in the country. Rankings are prejudiced to say the least and absurd to say the most. Go Cajuns!!!

that's why Yale is #16 and Dartmouth is #5 in rpi, although both 1-2 records. Its the IVY league being so overrated.

[Cajun_RH]

that's why Yale is #16 and Dartmouth is #5 in rpi, although both 1-2 records. Its the IVY league being so overrated.

Those two teams have played a combined 6 games. Which is why it is entirely too early to use RPI as a measuring stick.

[GoneGolfin]

43rd in RPI per http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2014/rpi

I do not think anyone has these calculations down perfectly yet. Warren has one set of numbers, Boyd has another, and mine differ slightly from both of them. I did peek under the covers of Warren's data (not possible with Boyd) and I think he may be calculating SOS incorrectly ... in particular it may be OWP (but also possibly OOWP). I sent him a note to discuss ... will see if he responds.

In any event, for those interested in the details as to how OWP is calculated for a given team ...

- Take the Div. I W/L record for each of your opponents and remove the results of your games against that team.
- Calculate the above winning percentage for each opponent to four decimals of precision.
- Weight that winning percentage by the number of games played against each respective opponent.

DO NOT sum the weighted W/L records of each of your opponents (non-Cajun games) and then calculate the percentage on that summed W/L record. This will yield a different result. This *seems* to be what Warren Nolan is doing.

Example:
Southern Mississippi is 6-6 overall. However, they are 6-3 in games not involving the Cajuns. Hence, for OWP purposes we use .6667 * 3 (weighted by three games played).

- Then take all of the calculated weighted percentages and add them. Divide that sum by the total number of games played. You then have your OWP.

Note: OWP calculations do not use the home/road weightings that WP calculations use.

Example using Cajun opponents ...

Eastern Illinois (2-10) ... 1-7 in non-Cajun games = .1250 * 4 (games) = .5000
Northwestern State (6-4) ... 6-3 in non-Cajun games = .6667 * 1 (game) = .6667
Southern Mississippi (6-6) ... 6-3 in non-Cajun games = .6667 * 3 (games) = 2.0000
LSU (9-2) ... 9-1 in non-Cajun games = .9000 * 1 (game) = .9000
Alabama (5-5) ... 4-3 in non-Cajun games = .5714 * 3 (games) = 1.7143
--
Total: 5.781/12 games = .4817 (note the above uses rounded figures to four decimal places)

This is obviously different than the summed 49-50 record (.4949) ... and in some cases, the difference can be much more significant.

Thus we have the following RPI calculation for UL ...

WP = .7937
OWP = .4817
OOWP = .6137
SOS = .5257
--
RPI = .5927

On Warren's site, if you look at the SOS page, he calculates an opponents winning percentage of .4949 (49-50) by summing the weighted W/L record of each Cajun opponent and calculating the winning percentage. His SOS comes to .5249. His OOWP calculation is thus .5849.

Brian

[cajunhawk]

I do not think anyone has these calculations down perfectly yet. Warren has one set of numbers, Boyd has another, and mine differ slightly from both of them. I did peek under the covers of Warren's data (not possible with Boyd) and I think he may be calculating SOS incorrectly ... in particular it may be OWP (but also possibly OOWP). I sent him a note to discuss ... will see if he responds.

In any event, for those interested in the details as to how OWP is calculated for a given team ...

- Take the Div. I W/L record for each of your opponents and remove the results of your games against that team.
- Calculate the above winning percentage for each opponent to four decimals of precision.
- Weight that winning percentage by the number of games played against each respective opponent.

DO NOT sum the weighted W/L records of each of your opponents (non-Cajun games) and then calculate the percentage on that summed W/L record. This will yield a different result. This *seems* to be what Warren Nolan is doing.

Example:
Southern Mississippi is 6-6 overall. However, they are 6-3 in games not involving the Cajuns. Hence, for OWP purposes we use .6667 * 3 (weighted by three games played).

- Then take all of the calculated weighted percentages and add them. Divide that sum by the total number of games played. You then have your OWP.

Note: OWP calculations do not use the home/road weightings that WP calculations use.

Example using Cajun opponents ...

Eastern Illinois (2-10) ... 1-7 in non-Cajun games = .1250 * 4 (games) = .5000
Northwestern State (6-4) ... 6-3 in non-Cajun games = .6667 * 1 (game) = .6667
Southern Mississippi (6-6) ... 6-3 in non-Cajun games = .6667 * 3 (games) = 2.0000
LSU (9-2) ... 9-1 in non-Cajun games = .9000 * 1 (game) = .9000
Alabama (5-5) ... 4-3 in non-Cajun games = .5714 * 3 (games) = 1.7143
--
Total: 5.781/12 games = .4817 (note the above uses rounded figures to four decimal places)

This is obviously different than the summed 49-50 record (.4949) ... and in some cases, the difference can be much more significant.

Thus we have the following RPI calculation for UL ...

WP = .7937
OWP = .4817
OOWP = .6137
SOS = .5257
--
RPI = .5927

On Warren's site, if you look at the SOS page, he calculates an opponents winning percentage of .4949 (49-50) by summing the weighted W/L record of each Cajun opponent and calculating the winning percentage. His SOS comes to .5249. His OOWP calculation is thus .5849.

Brian

Mind...Blown...

[CajunT]

Those two teams have played a combined 6 games. Which is why it is entirely too early to use RPI as a measuring stick.

NM

[GoneGolfin]

not useful to look at. Yale is #16.

The really crazy part about this ...

Yale has only played three games ... all versus LSU. Thus, now that the two have played, LSU takes a huge OWP hit (and our OOWP is affected somewhat). This is because Yale's record in non-LSU games is 0-0 or .000. Weight that .000 by three games and LSU takes a huge hit in OWP. LSU's OWP is .3564. Had they not have played Yale this weekend, their OWP would be .4901. Stunning difference ... especially since OWP is 50% of the formula.

This is just one reason why RPI is silly early in the season.

Brian

[wcd35]

Brian, do you calculate the OOWP the same way? That is to say, just take the calculated OWP value for a team and add them up? So take EIU's OWP*4 + NWST OWP*1 + ...

Also, just double checking, the adjusted WP only factor into your WP, right? So just apply the 1.3 or 0.7 to your own games. OWP and OOWP are 1.0 weighted numbers

[Cajun90]

baseball will be baseball and all teams will drop one or two along the way ....

To put some perspective on that.....UCLA won it all last year and lost 17 games. Eighteen of the teams that finished the regular season in Baseball America's top 25 finished with fifteen losses or more.

Win 80% of your games in baseball and you are almost assured of being among some of the elite programs in the nation.

[GoneGolfin]

Brian, do you calculate the OOWP the same way? That is to say, just take the calculated OWP value for a team and add them up? So take EIU's OWP*4 + NWST OWP*1 + ...

That is correct.

So while your own W/L record does not contribute to your OWP ... you can see that it does contribute to your OOWP. That is ... your own W/L record sans the W/L record against your opponents.

Brian

[GoneGolfin]

Also, just double checking, the adjusted WP only factor into your WP, right? So just apply the 1.3 or 0.7 to your own games. OWP and OOWP are 1.0 weighted numbers

Correct ... per the "Note:" I provided in the above post.

"Note: OWP calculations do not use the home/road weightings that WP calculations use."

Brian