FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

This page collects focused questions that deserve a direct answer or a purpose-built table.

Question 1

What are the 10 worst Official Awards for League Most Valuable Player versus Sims MVP?

This table compares the official league MVP-type awardee's simulated total wins to the simulated total wins of that season's league-leading player. More negative differences mean the official choice fell farther behind the site's league MVP.

This FAQ uses the same official MVP line as the rest of the site, beginning in 1911: the BBWAA MVP from 1931 on, with the earlier League Award and Chalmers Award predecessors before that. Secondary MVP-like selections, such as TSN or Guide honors, do not count here.

Question 2

How does simulated WAA compare with conventional WAR and conventional WAA in individual seasons?

Simulated WAA and conventional WAA are the most natural first comparison here, because both are average-baseline measures rather than replacement-baseline ones.

Conventional WAR answers a related but different question. It begins from replacement, so it is usually higher, and it is best read alongside WAA rather than as the same kind of number.

Conventional WAA and simulated WAA are both wins-above-average measures, but conventional WAA gets there differently: batting is measured against the league's non-pitcher average, fielding against positional average, and then standardized positional adjustments are added. In contrast, sim WAA compares league-year position batting only; compares directly to the league-year position fielding, like conventional WAA; and requires no position-specific constant adjustments, because their desired effect is already inherent in the simulation logic.

Because of those differences, the two WAA systems do not measure exactly the same thing. Often they come out fairly close, which makes comparison worthwhile. But they are not interchangeable, and some seasons, especially the shortstop examples below, show that the gap can become meaningful.

To explore that baseline shift, the table adds a simple Sim WAR-like column. It is defined as simulated WAA plus a heuristic replacement credit of 2.1 times the player's appearances divided by 600. This does not claim to be the true replacement level in the simulation. Instead it mimics the conventional WAR add on to conventional WAA. That lets us see whether moving the baseline from average to replacement makes the simulated WAA values feel closer to conventional WAR.

This table is illustrative, not exhaustive.

Question 3

Who won multiple league MVPs and multiple MLB Player of the Year awards?

These tables count repeated first-place finishes in the site's WAA-based award system. Only players with 2 or more such awards are shown.

The first table counts league MVP-style finishes within each league season. The second counts overall MLB Player of the Year finishes across both leagues.

Question 4

What are the number of non-HOF-member careers above a chosen level of WAA wins; and what are the number of Hall of Fame members below a chosen level of WAA wins?

This FAQ uses the same 5+ year career universe as the rest of the site's career boards. For this question, every non-HOF career is counted simply as Out, including careers shorter than 10 seasons.

The counts here use >= for non-HOF careers at or above the threshold and <= for Hall members at or below it.