Ranking tennis players: Method (part 2)

Having previously decided on service games won and lost with no surface adjustments in assessing an individual tennis match, it remains now to take the step from judging a single match to combining the results of over 7000 matches (an approximate total for a full ATP World Tour, ATP Challenger Tour, and Davis Cup World Group season) into an overarching rating.

Ranking tennis players: Method (part 1)

My last post concluded with the statement that I would be presenting a tennis ranking system based on the answers to two questions: How did you play, and who did you play? Before building such a system, however, it is first necessary to decide on the meanings of the questions themselves. I’ll tackle the queries in order.

Ranking tennis players: Motivation

When introducing a statistical system in sports, it’s always worth considering what purpose the system will serve. In this case, since the system is a ranking of tennis players, assessing the rankings used by the ATP, the main officiators of men’s tennis, is a natural starting point in determining whether a new system intended for the same purpose can be of use.

The top 5 postseason relievers ever

To complete the set of postseason lists (or at least the positive ones), here are the top 5 relievers of all time by Championship Probability Added. It’s a top-5 list rather than a top-10 because relievers haven’t been a major postseason factor for nearly as long as starters or position players, and because it’s harder for most of them to accrue as much positive value. (Negative value is much easier, but that’s for another post at another time.)

The top 10 postseason starting pitchers ever

Having gone through the best hitters in playoff history, the natural course of action is to switch over to the side of the game that tends to dominate October – the pitchers. So here are the 10 best starting pitchers in playoff history, in reverse order.

Lance Berkman: Stealth October Superstar

As promised, here is the breakdown of the overpowering, overlooked postseason career of the third-ranked hitter in Championship Probability Added:

The 20 best postseason hitters ever (by one method, anyway)

Since the postseason evaluation of this year's Hall of Fame ballot turned out to be so pitching-heavy, here’s something to counterbalance it: the top 20 postseason hitters of all time, by Championship Probability Added, with accompanying breakdowns of their performances.