My Little Project: The MVR Baseball Stat Thing
Alright, so I got this idea a while back. I watch a ton of baseball, always have. And you know how everyone talks about WAR and OPS and all that? Sometimes I felt like those numbers didn’t quite capture everything. Like, the little things a player does that really help the team win, but don’t always show up big in the box score. So, I decided to try and track something myself. I started calling it my ‘MVR’ stat – kinda like ‘My Value Rating’, just a personal thing, you know?
First thing I did was just grab a notebook. Old school, yeah. I figured I needed to define what I was even looking for. What makes up this ‘MVR’? I jotted down some ideas:
- Good baserunning, like taking an extra base.
- Smart defensive plays, even if not an error or assist.
- Moving runners over.
- Maybe even things like breaking up a double play.
Getting started was messy. I picked my favorite team to focus on, just to make it manageable. Then I started watching their games, like really watching, notebook in hand. I tried to mark down every time a player did one of those ‘MVR’ things I listed.
It got complicated fast. How do you put a number on ‘smart defensive play’? Or how much is ‘taking an extra base’ worth compared to ‘moving a runner over’? I spent a few evenings just trying to assign points. Like, maybe +1 for an extra base, +0.5 for moving a runner? It felt totally random at first.
Trying to Make Sense of It
I tried using a spreadsheet after the notebook got too cluttered. I put player names down one side, and dates across the top. Then I’d tally up these little ‘MVR’ points I was inventing. Man, it was tedious. Rewinding plays, trying to decide if something counted. Did that outfielder’s positioning save a run, even if he didn’t touch the ball? That’s the kind of stuff I was wrestling with.
I ran into problems pretty quick:
- It was super subjective. What I thought was a great play, someone else might ignore.
- It took forever. Watching a 3-hour game turned into a 5-hour analysis session.
- Comparing players was tough. A speedy outfielder had way more chances for baserunning points than a slow catcher. How do you adjust for position?
I tinkered with the points system a bunch. Tried adding negative points for mistakes, like bad baserunning errors. Tried weighting things based on the game situation – like a good play in the 9th inning is worth more. It just kept getting more complex.
What I Ended Up With
After a few weeks of this, I kinda scaled back. The super detailed point system wasn’t really working or telling me much more than just watching the game carefully already did. It was too much work for a fuzzy result.
So, I simplified. Instead of points, I just started keeping notes. Like, qualitative stuff. Player X: great jump on steals this week. Player Y: saved a run with positioning on Tuesday. It became less about a single ‘MVR’ number and more about building a narrative of a player’s contribution beyond the standard stats.
In the end, I didn’t create some revolutionary new baseball statistic. My whole ‘MVR’ project kinda fizzled out in terms of creating a hard number. But the process? It actually made me watch the games differently. I pay way more attention now to the little details, the positioning, the baserunning decisions. Even without a spreadsheet, I feel like I have a better sense of that ‘hidden value’ I was looking for.
So yeah, that was my little experiment with the ‘MVR’ stat. Didn’t change the world of baseball analytics, haha. But it was a fun little project, kept me busy, and honestly, I learned a lot just by trying.
