Glossary

Win Shares are calculated using the formula in the book Win Shares by Bill James. If you don't have the book and would like to take a look at the calculations, "Patriot" has a very detailed seven part walk through on his site.

If you are wondering why the Win Shares totals do not exactly match those totals in the Win Shares Book, there are a couple of reasons:

• The first, and possibly the biggest reason is that this site uses different park factors than Bill James did. Any difference in park factor can alter the distribution of offensive and defensive Win Shares as well as other parts of the formula.
• Possibly, the second biggest reason is that this site keeps decimal points, where as Bill James rounded to the whole number. This is done to keep the values as accurate as possible.
• Next, when figuring Catcher's claim points, the book only uses opponent's stolen base data from 1987 until present. This site uses this data from 1954 until present. On the flip side, the book uses sacrifice allowed data from 1931 until present, while this site only uses it from 1956 until present. This difference in data available will alter catcher claim points, which will also slightly alter the other positions as well.
• When calculating Runs Created for offensive Win Shares, the same RC formula is used except for that RISP data is not included.
• When calculating Pitching Win Shares, the book includes an adjustment for pitchers hitting below a certain level. This site does not make that adjustment since a pitcher's offense (or lack of) should not affect his pitching Win Shares.
• Finally, Catcher's ERA is not included in calculating claim points. This is done mainly because of lack of data available, but also because of possible inaccuracies. Some pitchers use a "personal" catcher, which will cause the games caught for each pitcher to be unequal. For example, Eddie Perez was Greg Maddux's personal catcher while Javy Lopez caught the majority of the other games. It is inaccurate to compare their catcher's ERA's since they caught different pitchers.