Best of the Best

as of Sept 16, 2020

Have you ever wondered as a player where you ranked with all the other 200 players who were fortunate enough to wear the Brampton uniform over the teams 16 seasons? Luckily, I found someone who asked and answered that same question for his team. Thank you, Mark Walters. Mark had attached a series of PDF files outlining the prowess of his Niagara Metros over it’s 35-year history. Mark has a close relationship with the team as many of you know, having been a Metros player/manager/GM/P.A. announcer, and is in the COBA Hall of Fame. Over his tenure with the team, he estimates he’s seen at least 1,400 of the Metro’s games which easily qualifies him as an authority on Metros baseball. Since Mark teaches EXCEL at Niagara College, he used his expertise to create spreadsheets depicting his team’s great history and graciously helped me get started on this massive project. I began this project in early July, and if I knew how hard this was going to be, I’m not sure I would have started it. Although I spend far too much time trying to be perfect, I still made many mistakes, enough for me to delete everything and start over 4 times. So, I’m hoping this version will be my last.

To answer his question of who the GOAT Metro’s are, he used an old Bill James methodology to objectively calculate who were/are the best of the best players. The formula was called Approximate Value (PAV). It takes all the guessing and subjectivity out of the equation; the data reveals all we need to know.

The formula assigns a point value using the key categories below, based on each player's performance, allowing us the ability to compare pitchers against batters. The formula is used to determine each player's performance-driven player's Approximate Value (PAV). Once we have the Approximate Value, we can run it through a series of 6 weighted metrics which results in a players Valuation Point.

Only seasons where batters with 60 PA and pitchers with 15 IP have been used.

Batting Categories – GP, R, H, TB, RBI, BB, PA/K, SB, OPS, AVG

Pitching Categories – G, GS, IP, H/9, K/9, BB/9, W, SV, ERA, WHIP

I need to apologize to those players who played in the first couple of seasons as much of their stats were incomplete. I don’t have the stats that can truly measure just how good those players were. They could matchup with any of the players who followed them years later.

The Royals minimum batting and pitching numbers used in the web site are a little different than the ones used in this exercise.

Web site minimums Batting – 100 AB for career totals

Pitching – 50 IP for career totals

Approximate Values – Batting – 60 AB per season

Pitching – 15 IP per season

This ensured that we’ll involve more players when calculating the Approx. Value.

If you need more clarification please refer to the Mark's Twitter page. He explains the process much better than I can.

I will offer a short explanation on each of the pages below:

1 - You will find only the top 5 batters and pitchers for each season according to their Approx. Values. The total Value is the sum of all those players that met the AB and IP requirements. You can clearly see how the team has made a steady progress throughout it's history.

2, 3 - You will see by this busy page how the Valuation Point was calculated using the weighted metrics of the Approximate Value.

Column 1 - The Player Totals or Approximate Value are the totals comparing each of the players with the rest of team over his career.

Column 2 - Columns 2 and 3 are worth 30% each of the Valuation Point Total. The Approximate Value

Column 3 - The average Total Points per season is worth 30% of his Valuation Point Total

Column 4 - This rewards players for their length of service which is worth 10% of the Valuation Point Total. The next 3 columns are all worth 10% each of the Valuation Point Total

Column 5 - The players highest score from all his seasons.

Column 6 - The players lowest score from all his seasons.

Column 7 - This represents the difference between the players highest and lowest Approx. Values.

Column 8 - After adding each of the totals from the columns you will get the players Valuation Point. This is the measurement by which all the teammates are compared with. As Mark put it "every measure of a player's value is included in the final Valuation Points."

The numbers will bear out just how good some of the inaugural players were with Ken Appleby and Ryan Knight cracking the top all-time 10 Batters list. The numbers confirm their greatness.

On the other side of the plate are 4 pitchers Jaineel Purohit, Joe McLaughlin, Chris McCanna and Jesse Edmunds all had careers good enough to earn their place in the top 10 of all pitchers.

4, 5, 6, 7 - These pages are self explanatory. using the players Approximate Values will determine their standing within these categories. These tables reveal who are the top 10 players in each of these categories.

8 - This is where the cream rises to the top. The top of each of the 3 lists are full of active players. Many of them are making numerous appearances on these lists.

It's hard not to imagine what the (Best Season and Career) lists would look like if the original players were still with the team. There were so many good players back then that didn't get the credit they deserved. They couldn't compete, because of the high turnover year after year. The growing pains killed them.

Batting:

Vic Speciale - 4 appearances in top 10, 9 times in top 30

Marco DiRoma - 3 times in top 10, 6 times in top 27

Joe Ferreira - Once in the top 10 and 5 times in the top 42

Andrew Thomson - once in the top 10 and 6 in the top 50

Yannick Rickli - once in the top 10 and 5 times in top 50

Pitching:

Mike Burke - 2 times in top the 10, 10 times in top 50

Joey Nonis - 2 times in the top 10, 9 times in top 50

Joe Ferreira - 3 times in the top 10 and 6 times in top 50

Steve Hough - once in the top 10, 6 times in the top 50

R.J. Page - 2 times in the top 10, 4 times in the top 10