Post by inthestands on Aug 27, 2020 9:23:33 GMT -5
Pro softball is set to return in 2 days. On August 29 Athletes Unlimited will premiere its brand new method of playing pro softball. Athletes Unlimited softball boasts a new scoring model that rewards BOTH team wins and individual performances. And team rosters will fluctuate wildly from game to game as the 4 point scorers become captains and re-draft teams for the next game. Athletes Unlimited softball also has compensation of $1 Million lined up for its 56 players and profit sharing for those same players for up to 20 years beyond their retirement.
To say that Athletes Unlimited wants to disrupt pro sports is an understatement. This is completely different than any pro league that has ever debuted in the US. This a hybrid of traditional sports and fantasy sports where individuals choose players and win based on the individual production of those players.
Athletes Unlimited is a new experiment in pro sports, so you might expect players to adopt a "wait and see" approach before joining. But that is not the case! The 56 person Athletes Unlimited roster is LOADED with elite fastpitch talent. The 2021 US Olympic team will be represented with players such as legendary pitcher Cat Osterman, Amanda Chidester, Haylie McCleney, Michelle Moultrie, Aubree Munro, Janie Reed, Kelsey Stewart, Taylor Edwards and Hannah Flippen. There are also plenty non-Team USA Olympians including Danielle Lawrie from team Canada and Danielle O'Toole from Team Mexico. Plus plenty of other NPF stars including Megan Wiggins, Sierra Romero, Keilani Ricketts, and Shelby Pendley.
The basics of the scoring system are this-- hitters score 10 points for a single or a walk, 20 for a double, 30 for a triple, and 40 for a home run. If you are caught trying to steal you lose 10 points. For pitchers, you receive four points for each out recorded and 10 points are lost for each earned run allowed. If you are one of the top performers, you earn 60 points for #1 MVP, 40 points for #20 MVP, and 20 points for #3 MVP. In addition to the individual points, each player on the winning team is awarded 50 additional points. The top 4 point scorers from the games become captains for the next game; they draft a new team fantasy softball style and the games began anew. Because player performance goes up and down, there will likely be heavy turnover on each team from game to game.
The scoring makes sense to me, but to really see what a game would be like I decided to run the numbers in a model. At first I wanted to do this with an NPF game, but I could not find a single NPF box score available online (cue eye roll), so I decided to to it with the two games of the 2019 NCAA WCWS Final between UCLA and Oklahoma.
As you may remember, UCLA defeated Oklahoma in 2 straight games to win the 2019 national championship. In game 1 UCLA won in a rout 16-3, and in game UCLA won 5-4. Let's see how the numbers played out in both games if it was scored using the new Athletes Unlimited scoring model:
After working through the results the first thing that surprised me is that hitters are only awarded for hits. Certain stats I have been trained to love over a lifetime of watching baseball and softball like the RBI, batting average, and run scored are all completely worthless. But after my initial shock I eventually saw the logic in this-- hitting is the one stat entirely in the hitters control. A player could log a hit for every at bat in an entire season and never score an RBI because no other teammates were on base, or may never score a run because the hitters behind her are abysmally bad. Athletes Unlimited scoring based on hits and walks isolates the performance metrics of the hitter not directly reliant on any teammates.
Similarly, many of the pitchers stats are now useless. The strike out, the earned run average, or the opponents batting average are no longer useful. All that matters now is outs recorded versus earned runs. So while hitters have been stripped of stats related to their teammates, pitchers are now HEAVILY reliant on the defense behind them to earn points. Stats like the strike out and opponents are entirely in the pitchers control-- but earned runs and outs have a huge defensive team component. Pitchers are still dominant in fastpitch softball, but with the new scoring system they are more reliant on their team and perhaps a tad less dominant.
As you can see from the numbers above for game one, UCLA destroyed Oklahoma and put up 16 runs. Rachel Garcia also had a nice game from the circle with 5 innings and only 1 earned run. Interesting how even with a massively productive offensive night, only 2 players-- Briana Perez and Aaliyah Jordan, scored more on offense that pitcher Rachel Garcia. And Perez and Jordan did not get the most hits that night-- they only had 2 each. Kinsley Washington went 4-4 but her best hit was a double. The takeaway? Singles aint enough! If you want to have a chance at an MVP slot as a hitter you MUST hit for power.
The point system also favors pitchers who go the distance and pitch all 7 innings. If you make it all 7 innings you earn 84 points. You can give up 4 runs (-40 points) and still have more points (44) than someone who goes 4 for 4 with 4 singles. And, as you might have guessed, the system puts an ultra heavy emphasis on pitchers who can also hit. Someone like Rachel Garcia who has a decent game from the circle can greatly increase her point total if she also gets a hit or two. In game 1 Garcia had a home run and added 40 offense points to her 50 pitching points. 90 points for Garcia in game 1 was the highest point total in each game by 30 points-- and that is before you add in the points for MVP and winning the game. Garcia's production from both offense and defense pushed her point totals sky high. This point system highly favors a Athletes Unlimited player like Keilani Ricketts who can pitch and hit.
Also interesting to note that under the Athletes Unlimited system pitchers can also get negative points. In game 1 of the 2019 WCWS Final Oklahoma pitcher Nicole Mendes only recorded 3 outs and gave up 4 earned runs for a net score of -28.
When it came time to award a #1 MVP I had no doubt that the honor belonged to Rachel Garcia. But picking MVP #2 and #3 was much harder. Both Briana Perez and Aaliyah Jordan had 2 hits including a home run, and had the same total points (50). Ultimately I decided to give the #2 MVP to Briana Perez because she had more RBI-- so much for the RBI stat being meaningless eh? It will be interesting to see how the Athletes Unlimited scorers break ties when top players have the same point totals. I bet they will use traditional stats like runs, stolen bases, and RBI to decide much like I did.
The 50 win points are a massive boost-- the 50 points are equal to a home run and a single, or two doubles and a single. The net effect of this will be to make it basically impossible for someone on a losing team to become a captain, unless they have a massive night and are awarded some of the MVP points.
I also included points from game 2 of the WCWS in the image above. Game 2 was much closer than game 1 with UCLA narrowly edging Oklahoma with a 5-4 victory. Oklahoma infielder Sydney Romeo let all point scorers with 70 points after recording a home run, a double, and a walk. UCLA infielder Briana Taultalafua was not far behind with 2 singles and a home run and 60 points. Both pitchers (Rachel Garcia and Giselle Juarez) were solid but not spectacular. #1 MVP came down to Romero and Tautalafua. Romero had 10 more points but Tautalafua had more hits and was part of a winning effort in a close game-- so is she not more "valuable?" But ultimately I decided to go with the higher point winner and awarded #1 MVP to Romero and #2 to Tautalafua. #3 MVP was challenging-- Aaliyah Jordan scored 50 points with a home run and a single. Rachel Garcia was ok from the circle with 7 innings pitched and 4 earned runs for 44 points. Garcia also scored 20 points from the plate but they were from walks. Another hard call but I ultimately sent to honor to Garcia who had higher points and anchored UCLA's defensive effort.
If these 2 games represented an Athletes Unlimited Series the 4 new captains would be Rachel Garcia (350 points), Brianna Tautalafua (240 points), Briana Perez (240 points), and Briana Perez (230 points). All players were from UCLA. The closest Oklahoma player was Sydney Romero with 130. So the next round of teams would almost certainly be highly different and would provide a completely different game experience. In Athletes Unlimited individual points matter, but the win is still the best way to be among top players point totals.
This all said, it will be interesting to see if it is embraced on a wide scale. There is no question the scoring system is very intricate and perhaps that will be its downfall. Having to have a degree in mathematics to figure out scoring may prove fatal. On the other hand it could light up the field and drive some very aggressive and exciting ball.