Schaefer 2016: New! Different! (Better?)

[Benjamin Grimm]

Voting for the 2016 Schaefer Mets Player of the Year Award will begin on Monday, April 4, the Crane Pool Forum has announced. This will be the twelfth season that Crane Pool Forum members will be participating in Schaefer voting. The Schaefer Mets Player of the Year Award was established in the 1970's, and Schaefer points were awarded by Mets broadcasters Lindsey Nelson, Ralph Kiner, and Bob Murphy. The award was re-established by the Crane Pool Forum in 2005. Third baseman David Wright has been the winner in in six of the eleven years of the revived prize. The other winners were Johan Santana in 2008, Jose Reyes in 2011, Daniel Murphy in 2013, Lucas Duda in 2014 and Jacob deGrom in 2015. Voting will no longer take place in the forum itself. Instead, voters will go to http://potg.ultimatemets.com and fill in an online Schaefer ballot. Voting for each game will open automatically as soon as the box score has been pasted into the Ultimate Mets Database. This will usually be the morning after each game has been played, but may in some circumstances be considerably later than that, according to CPF spokesmodel Benjamin Grimm. Voting will stay open for up to two weeks, after which the votes are tallied and the results are posted in the IGT thread. In addition, says Grimm, each month a Schaefer Mets Player, Pitcher, Relief Pitcher, and Bench Player of the Month will be named.

Yes, Schaefer will continue, but it will be different. I have come up with a new method of voting that will take up a lot less of my time, but may as a result cause a further decline in participation. That's a tradeoff that I'm willing to make. This will be a one-year experiment. The level of participation will determine whether we'll see more Schaefer in 2017. Either way, I plan to vote for every game in 2016, even if it turns out that I'm the only one doing so.

Here are the differences:

There will no longer be the individual POTG threads in the forum. Voting will instead occur at http://potg.ultimatemets.com.

It is currently possible for you to vote for games from the 1964 season. This will allow you, if you're interested, to see how voting will work. These games won't ever be tallied, so you can feel free to enter whatever numbers you want. Don't worry too much about examining old box scores from over fifty years ago!

The online form will enforce the rules (no more than 6 points per player, no more than 10 points per game).

Since all of the voting will be stored in UMDB database tables, the magic Schaefer spreadsheet that I've been using since 2005 has been retired. Custody of the spreadsheet is still in dispute. The Smithsonian has requested it as part of their collection, but the Swedish government is trying to stake a claim. We hope that this will be resolved amicably.

I should, therefore, no longer have to fix spelling errors, or prorate votes that total over 10 points.

It will also no longer be possible to vote for players who did not participate in the game for which the votes are being cast.

Voting will have to wait until box score data has been pasted into the UMDB. That means that the practice of opening a POTG thread shortly after the game will no longer occur. Instead, I will post an update in the game's IGT to let you know that the game is ready for Schaefer voting. Typically, this will be the following morning, but it could be a few days, or even weeks, later, depending on my availability. (I'll be away for almost three weeks this summer, and while I'm overseas I don't expect that I'll be keeping up with box scores.) If you like voting right after the game, I suggest you log your votes somewhere, either electronically in your favorite app, or on a piece of paper, or in Magic Marker on your elbow. You can then enter your votes later, when the game becomes available.

I expect that games will be open for at least two weeks, as opposed to the two business days that had previously been the norm. This means that we won't know the Players of the Month for April until some time in mid-May. In the past I used to make announcements like "voting for Tuesday's win over the Marlins will close on Friday morning, some time after 10 a.m." Now, instead, I may say something like, "voting for all games between April 3 and April 20 will close on the morning of May 5, some time after 10 a.m."

And here's what remains the same:

The rules are the same. Points will still be awarded just as Lindsey, Ralph, and Bob used to do it.

There will still be the six Player of the Month threads, which should look pretty much the same as you're used to.

I'll still post the results for each individual game, either in this thread or in the individual IGT threads. (Final determination has not yet been made.)

[Guest themetfairy]

This sounds like a worthy experiment. I'll be there voting with you.

Thanks for setting this up!

[Guest d'Kong76]

Cool, thanks! Took a test ride in the first win of the season.

[Edgy MD]

You can post to social media whenever a nu game is up for votes.

[Guest themetfairy]

I have two questions -

1) Is it possible to segregate pitching statistics from offensive statistics, so we don't have to look up and down the list to figure out how the pitchers did?; and

2) As a related question, will a pitcher's hitting statistics be included with his pitching stats or listed separately?

[Guest d'Kong76]

Edgy MD wrote: You can post to social media whenever a nu game is up for votes.

Uh, and here!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Edgy MD wrote: You can post to social media whenever a nu game is up for votes.

I guess I could. I still have yet to tweet, but there is the UMDB Facebook page.

[Benjamin Grimm]

themetfairy wrote: I have two questions - 1) Is it possible to segregate pitching statistics from offensive statistics, so we don't have to look up and down the list to figure out how the pitchers did?; and 2) As a related question, will a pitcher's hitting statistics be included with his pitching stats or listed separately?

1. That's a good idea. Right now I'm just listing it in box score order, but I guess I can maybe do a separate section for pitchers. Or maybe just a different background color so it's easier to spot. Don't know if I'll get to it before Opening Day, but I'll keep it on my mental to-do list.

2. Maybe I can do that as well. It would have to be on the same line item, though, because if the form had two lines for each pitcher that would make the validation more complicated.

[Guest themetfairy]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: themetfairy wrote: I have two questions - 1) Is it possible to segregate pitching statistics from offensive statistics, so we don't have to look up and down the list to figure out how the pitchers did?; and 2) As a related question, will a pitcher's hitting statistics be included with his pitching stats or listed separately? 1. That's a good idea. Right now I'm just listing it in box score order, but I guess I can maybe do a separate section for pitchers. Or maybe just a different background color so it's easier to spot. Don't know if I'll get to it before Opening Day, but I'll keep it on my mental to-do list. 2. Maybe I can do that as well. It would have to be on the same line item, though, because if the form had two lines for each pitcher that would make the validation more complicated.

Great - thanks!

[seawolf17]

Excellent!

[Vic Sage]

i'm in

[nymr83]

I don't know that i'll vote, but I welcome the forum not being flooded with POTG threads, a voting link in the IGT would be more than sufficient

[Edgy MD]

Is it possible to display the scorecard next to ballot, to allow the voter to view the players' performances in context?

[Fman99]

Pretty slick. I am resolving to vote more this year.

[Guest cooby classic]

Nymr83 wrote: I don't know that i'll vote, but I welcome the forum not being flooded with POTG threads, a voting link in the IGT would be more than sufficient

I thought I was the only one that felt that way

[Benjamin Grimm]

Edgy MD wrote: Is it possible to display the scorecard next to ballot, to allow the voter to view the players' performances in context?

Unfortunately, no. Scorecards don't come about until after the season, when Retrosheet posts its play-by-play data. (Which reminds me that I still haven't processed the scorecard data for 2015.)

I don't expect that the brief line of stats included on the voting form would really be sufficient for determining how to allocate points. It would probably make sense to refer to an online box score instead.

[nymr83]

cooby wrote: Nymr83 wrote: I don't know that i'll vote, but I welcome the forum not being flooded with POTG threads, a voting link in the IGT would be more than sufficient I thought I was the only one that felt that way

perhaps we are the silent majority!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, let me apologize for continually annoying you for the last eleven years!

(Although, if one thread a day "floods" the forum it means that there's not much else going on.)

[Guest themetfairy]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: It would probably make sense to refer to an online box score instead.

That would work!

[Guest cooby classic]

Oh now Ben Grimm you haven't annoyed us!

[Ceetar]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Well, let me apologize for continually annoying you for the last eleven years! (Although, if one thread a day "floods" the forum it means that there's not much else going on.)

I think it's more when you go through them updating, or someone goes through them voting, and suddenly 7/8 of the top posts are voting threads.

[Guest cooby classic]

Yes that's it. I don't mind the threads at all.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Thing #53 I do that's annoying and boring, vote on five Schaefer
threads at a time and disrupt the top of the board. haha

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm going to watch tonight's game on TiVo-delay tomorrow morning, so the first box score of the season won't be posted to the UMDB until late morning at the earliest.

I'll post a notice in the IGT thread when the voting thread becomes available.

http://potg.ultimatemets.com

As mentioned earlier in this thread, if you want to vote immediately after the game, just record your votes on paper or electronically (as you prefer) and you can enter the values later.

[Guest d'Kong76]

[youtube:1tmmbei8]cAQPKz7ki8E[/youtube:1tmmbei8]

[Zvon]

I think I did it right. I got a green page after submission.

Would it be possible to have a running tally on the side so we can see when we hit ten points? Sometimes last second considerations require a redistribution of points.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Zvon wrote: I think I did it right. I got a green page after submission.

Green is good! Your vote has been registered.

Zvon wrote: Would it be possible to have a running tally on the side so we can see when we hit ten points? Sometimes last second considerations require a redistribution of points.

That's a good idea. I'm not sure if I'll get to that any time soon, but I'll keep it in mind.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Pretty slick! Thanks for building it.

[ashie62]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: I'm going to watch tonight's game on TiVo-delay tomorrow morning, so the first box score of the season won't be posted to the UMDB until late morning at the earliest. I'll post a notice in the IGT thread when the voting thread becomes available. http://potg.ultimatemets.com As mentioned earlier in this thread, if you want to vote immediately after the game, just record your votes on paper or electronically (as you prefer) and you can enter the values later.

Voted.....it is all that and a bag of chips!

[Fman99]

Super easy. I predict it will allow me to vote more often. Thanks BG