Number 10

Using The "Serious" Extra Innings Ratings Spreadsheet

Back in February 2023 I began an eight team, 154 game draft league using National League players from the 1971 season. In preparation for this, I created an excel spreadsheet that will rate 420 batters and 200 pitchers at a time. The file is posted below for anyone who would like to download. There are a few things about the spreadsheet before you decide to use it. It won't create any of the subjective ratings- Stolen Bases/Base Advance, and Defense (SD, LD, T1). It also doesn't give the batter ratings against lefty/righty pitching. I'll get back to those two things later, but for now, let's talk about rating a team. First thing you are going to do is import the stats you will need and set them up in a separate spreadsheet. It needs to be separate, because you will only need certain stats in the Ratings spreadsheet. When I got the '71 batting stats from Baseball-Reference.com, I kept only what I needed, and deleted all the other columns. I also moved columns around so they would fit the same format as the Ratings spreadsheet. So, this is what this separate spreadsheet should look like (top figure is batting, bottom figure is pitching):

Note the headings needed for the Ratings spreadsheet. Since I am doing a draft league, I don't use the data in column C (batting spreadsheet- top figure). However, I do select the entire spreadsheet and using the Data drop down menu I sort everything by position. As you can see in the top figure above, the first two players listed are pitchers. So, for my purposes, I select all the players in column B and copy them to column A in the Ratings spreadsheet. Then I copy everything in the separate spreadsheet from columns D through O and paste them to columns D through O in the Ratings spreadsheet (I do omit the headings when I copy from the separate spreadsheet). I also manually enter the batter's position and how he bats in the Ratings spreadsheet in columns B and C (see Willie Stargell below). Remember, the Ratings spreadsheet can rate 420 batters at a time. If you want to do more than that, then you will need to copy and paste the formulas that are found in the color-shaded cells. When you paste the data into the Ratings spreadsheet, it should look like this:

As you can see, starting in column W are the ratings for the batters walk and strikeout ratings, along with his power ratings. At this point, all the hitting data you pasted into this spreadsheet will rate the batters for walks, strikeouts and power. The final output is up to you. I like to select columns G through V and right click to select Hide. Then I put a heading of "L" in column AD and "R in column AE under which I will enter the lefty/righty batting average ratings given in Extra Innings (see download link below). The pitcher's output will look like this, and all you would need to add is the ERA Adjustment:

Like the batting ratings, you can hide the columns you don't want if you decide to print from the spreadsheet. It's not that much added work, and after that you are all set to do the subjective running and defense ratings. I am not a very complicated gamer. Unless something extraordinary occurs in a given season, I'll go by the following for the stolen base rating: 40+ SB = S; 20-39 = AAR; 2-19 = AR; 0-1 = SLO. Of course, use whatever you want. For base advance, I just look at runs scored. Lots of runs (real scientific, huh!) = AAR. Fair to Midland amount of runs = AR. Very low run numbers = SLO. The defense ratings of SD, LD and T1 for me present a challenge. Everyone has an opinion on how to measure the fielding range of a player, and that being said, there's nothing wrong with going with some of these new metrics like Range Factor, etc. Total chances could be another way to go and I have used that as a reference, but not for every player. Sometimes just reading about teams and players can give a good idea of how to rate a player for his defensive range and his throwing arm. For '71, guys like Joe Morgan have been SD probably most of their careers, so I rated Joe SD. Roberto Clemente is a T1 outfielder in my book, so he gets the rating. Bobby Valentine got an LD at short, and I based that on what other EI gamers rated him for that season. Am I right or wrong? Who knows! But the decision has been made, and it will soon be time to roll those bones and see what happens!

Here's the link to download the spreadsheet: Extra Innings "Serious" Ratings Sheet (can rate 420 batters and 200 pitchers)