Chris Williams shares what information he’s collected about APBA with TAB readers!
Q. Certain Board sets contain a Master Game Pitching Grade Conversion Chart. However, they’re based on the old pitching conversion scheme, i.e., 1-5 = D, instead of 1-4 = D. How do you use this and other pitching innovations that were created based on the old scheme with cards that were issued recently? Do you just add one to the master grade? Conversely, if you use an innovation based on the current scale, do you make adjustments when using card sets that use the old scale?
| Original Master Game conversion guidelines from 1976 | Conversion Guidelines released in 2002 |
| 1-5 Grade D | 1-4 Grade D |
| 6-10 Grade C | 5-9 Grade C |
| 11-15 Grade B | 10-14 Grade B |
| 16-20 Grade A | 15-19 Grade A |
| 21-25 Grade A&C | 20-24 Grade A&C |
| 26-30 Grade A&B | 25-30 Grade A&B |
A. Subtracting 1 point for all sets printed prior to 2000 is easy and makes everything uniform relative to the newer sets (i.e. 1-4, 5-9, 10-14. etc.). Thus, the current scale remains intact across the board.
The scale remains consistent doing what you suggest, but the grades were derived differently, so the MG grades are not off for certain years. If we knew exactly when they started creating the MG grade first, we could create a simple little chart. Again, I’m thinking that the grades were fine up through about 1990 or so. After that, the new conversion probably needs to be in effect.
The way the MG grade was computed was never changed. The conversion was changed because somebody, after 25 years or so, realized they weren’t accounting for the targeted platoon rating of roughly -1. The conversion brought the basic game into line with the Master Game. For a number of years, the Basic Game Grade was computed and then the MG grade was created by using an ERA breakdown on the Basic Game Grade. In this case, the MG grade would be off by one.
At some point the Master Game Grade began to be computed first and then the Basic Game grade was created from the conversion. Now the BG grade was slightly off. It was sometime around 1990 or so when they put them on the same track, but APBA really ought to release information like that. You’re dealing with two separate animals.
On HGLM Home Run Ratings for the Basic Game
From best to worst it goes H, G, L and M. Think of them as Hardly Any, Good, Lots, and Mucho.
“H” Pitcher roll 11-46, homerun is changed to the highest numbered double on the board.
“G” Pitcher; roll 11-26, homerun is changed to highest numbered double on the board.
“L” Pitcher; roll 11-22, double is changed to homerun (PRN 1).
“M” Pitcher; roll 11-34, double is changed to homerun (PRN 1).
That conversion assumes a more modern 2B to HR ratio. That system could easily be made season specific. If you want specificity all you have to do is look at the 2B HR ratio, compute the 2B/HR ratios on the chart, and then adjust them to what you want. Just ensure the M and H are offsetting and the G and L are offsetting.
On W’s
Everybody’s reads the rants of several guys on ABTL regarding the undue influence of the (W) on the ERA of pitchers. There’s no doubt that when you convert a Master Game Grade 5 to the Basic Game that he becomes better than a 9(W) converted.
This is nothing new. It’s always been that way and is just one of the quirks of the system. Most APBA players, if they had never seen the pitcher’s MG Grade, probably wouldn’t really care even if they did notice.
The pitching system was originally envisioned as rather comprehensive, a meld of his ERA and his value to the team based on endurance (how many innings he pitched), and how many games he won.
Dick Seitz never once said he was trying to reproduce the pitcher’s stats exactly. Obviously, games won aren’t always solely the fault of the pitcher and that’s where you can say Seitz was using the pitching to influence the standings a bit. This is pretty clever, especially back when he did it.
The (W) is kind of interesting as it adds more plate appearances to the game and the effects of the (W) vary according to the grade of the pitcher. The (W) is a much bigger handicap to a D pitcher than an A pitcher and most of it is just because of how many batters each faces. For instance, if the league averages three EBH #’s per batter card, the D, with no other rating, will give up about 15% more EBH’s than the A with no other rating.
When you add the (W), you create a situation where there are less outs on the batter cards, so it takes more appearances to get you to 27 outs (ERA is based on 27 outs). In those extra appearances, you can expect more of everything not just the extra two outs. It compounds. It’s not so much that the (W) displaces a double play (although there is a slight negative value there) as in the long run it’s just two outs to the pitcher. So, when that happens, what’s going on is that you’ve added, in most cases, at least two more plate appearances.
That’s the way the system is. And it works just like it was designed to work. It has its quirks, but the author knew that.
An alternative already exists, in the Skeetersoft pitching system. Skeetersoft pitchers are not graded like APBA pitchers. Same sort of process, but a different application of the variables. Suffice it to say that the main variable, by far (maybe 80-85% of the total weight of the grade), is relative ERA. I.e., the pitchers ERA relative to the league (and there are many definitions of “league”, by the way). The other variables used cannot affect the grade by more than 2 MG points either way. The pitcher could have a W/L record of 25-4 and still be a B if that’s what the ERA says.
What’s that have to do with the (W)? Well, if you look at the SkS pitching system, you’ll see that the 9 is rated a bit higher on the scale than a 5. In that way the effects of the (W) are ameliorated a bit. Not completely, but certainly the 9 will still be a better pitcher for most of the game, even with his (W).
This, of course, was one of the reasons for the system. If we’re going to go to all the trouble of computing the MG grades, let’s use them in a basic sort of way and that we did. The Skeetersoft MG-BG conversion table is better than APBA’s.
The R rating turns strikeouts with bases empty into a groundout, third to first.
Stay tuned for “On Pitching Part II”
