[EM] Re: Condorcet baseball rankings

[Paul Kislanko]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: election-methods-electorama.com-bounces at electorama.com 
> [mailto:election-methods-electorama.com-bounces at electorama.com
] On Behalf Of Ted Stern
> Sent: Friday, October 29, 2004 6:28 PM
> To: election-methods at electorama.com
> Subject: [EM] Re: Condorcet baseball rankings
> 
> On 29 Oct 2004 at 15:40 PDT, Paul Kislanko wrote:
> > You can't substitute "games-won" for "votes". They are two 
> different things.
> >
> > I take things seriously, including mathematical logic.
> 
> [Insert old joke about balloonist in clouds and mathematician 
> on the ground]
> 
> >
> > If you were "implying that Condorcet completion methods 
> such as RP or
> > Beatpath could be used to evaluate the round-robin winner 
> when no team is
> > undefeated by any other" you are mistaking both sports 
> contests and voting
> > methods.
> >
> > It is much more likely that the hundreds of rating systems 
> developed for
> > comparing sports teams who haven't played head-to-head 
> would be applicable
> > to a voting system than it is for a voting system to be 
> applicable to
> > sorting out who's the best team in a sporting event.
> >
> The Boston Red Sox may have won, in part, because they have 
> followed the
> "Moneyball" credo seriously for several years in order to put 
> together a more
> powerful team on their budget than conventional baseball 
> statistics would have
> predicted.  So I think my original question isn't *too* far off topic.

OK, connect "moneyball" to voting systems....


> 
> Otherwise, you can ignore simply ignore this thread if you 
> think it too
> frivolous ;-).
> 
> If you're willing to engage in a less serious but 
> constructive discussion,
> then help me out here: I don't think that total games won is 
> the optimal
> criterion for the best team in a division.  What would be a 
> better measure?
> And why doesn't MLB use it?

I guess you don't think "total votes in favor of" means anything, either. If
as you suggested, MLB has "nearly" a round-robin schedule (it's not even
close, but that was your assertion not mine) and you say total wins in a RR
schedule is not optimal, we must necessarily conclude that you believe a
Condorcet winner is not optimal. 

I don't disagree, but I'd like to see your argument that a CW is not
optimal.

> 
> Ted
> -- 
> Send real replies to
> 	ted stern at u dot washington dot edu
> 
> Frango ut patefaciam -- I break that I may reveal
> 
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