How Does The APA Equalizer Handicap System Work?
The handicap system is based on “(innings-safeties)/win”. In other words, how many times can I let you shoot (on average) before I need to worry about you winning the game? Obviously, the better you shoot, the lower your innings per game will be, and the higher your skill level. Non-performance shots and safeties (they are different) do not count toward your inning total for that match. Your average is based on only your best scores. The bad scores don’t count at all. Only your last 20 scores count. Old scores are dropped. If you don’t have 20 scores in yet (like new players), then your average is based on the best scores:
1 score: That’s your average.
2 scores: Average the 2.
3 scores: Average the best 2 scores.
4 scores: Average the best 2 scores.
5 scores: Average the best 3 scores.
6 scores: Average the best 3 scores.
7 scores: Average the best 4 scores.
8 scores: Average the best 4 scores.
9 scores: Average the best 5 scores.
10 scores: Average the best 5 scores.
11 scores: Average the best 6 scores.
12 scores: Average the best 6 scores.
13 scores: Average the best 7 scores.
14 scores: Average the best 7 scores.
15 scores: Average the best 8 scores.
16 scores: Average the best 8 scores.
17 scores: Average the best 9 scores.
18 scores: Average the best 9 scores.
19 scores: Average the best 10 scores.
20 scores: Average the best 10 scores.
After that, only the base 10 of your last 20 scores count. Old scores
are dropped off as new ones are added.
The scores are averaged and will fall into one of these skill levels:
RANGE SKILL LEVEL
0.00 – 2.00 7
2.01 – 3.00 6
3.01 – 4.00 5
4.01 – 5.00 4
5.01 – 7.00 3
7.01 – 10.00 2
Note that the system does not allow any scores or averages
greater than 10 innings per game.
The place where the system gets sneaky is the ‘applied scoring’. This
is most likely the part that your league operator doesn’t want to tell
you. Then again he may not know it very well, as it is a little
complicated. Basically, the applied score is a means to help prevent
sandbagging. The way it works is this:
Say you’re a six who’s afraid of going up to a seven.
You know that the cut-off for being a seven is 2.00 innings
per win or less.
You play well enough to win but pad your innings to make sure
that your score for that match is over 2.00 innings per win.
Your league operator inputs a score for you of say: 5 games in
15 innings (3.00 innings per win). The APA system will give you
an ‘applied score’ based on your winning percentage instead of
that 3.00 score you worked so hard to get.
These applied scores are used for every match you win in which you shot
more innings than your skill level indicates. A side effect of the
applied score system is that it is next to impossible to drop a skill
level while maintaining a winning percentage above 50%.
Here are the applied scores for the various skill levels/winning
percentage combinations:
S/L WIN APPLIED S/L WIN APPLIED
% SCORE % SCORE
7 100 1.1 6 100 2.1
7 90 1.1 6 90 2.1
7 80 1.2 6 80 2.2
7 70 1.3 6 70 2.3
7 60 1.4 6 60 2.4
7 50 1.5 6 50 2.5
7 40 1.6 6 40 2.6
7 30 1.7 6 30 2.6
7 20 1.8 6 20 2.8
7 10 1.9 6 10 2.9
5 100 3.1 4 100 4.1
5 90 3.1 4 90 4.1
5 80 3.2 4 80 4.2
5 70 3.3 4 70 4.3
5 60 3.4 4 60 4.4
5 50 3.5 4 50 4.5
5 40 3.6 4 40 4.6
5 30 3.6 4 30 4.6
5 20 3.8 4 20 4.8
5 10 3.9 4 10 4.9
3 100 5.1 2 ALL 7.0
3 90 5.1
3 80 5.2
3 70 5.3
3 60 5.4
3 50 5.5
3 40 5.6
3 30 5.6
3 20 5.8
3 10 5.9
The score being added counts toward the winning percentage. For example,
I’m a seven with a 90% winning percentage. Last night I beat a six in our
super-30 league 7 to 4 in 16 innings with 2 safeties. Since the safeties
don’t count, my league operator will enter into his computer that I won my 7
games in 14 innings instead of 16. The APA software will compute innings per
win and come up with a score of 2.00. Then the software notices that I have
a 90% winning percentage and that my applied score is 1.1. That 1.1
score is what will get stored in my records. It wouldn’t matter if I had
taken 200 innings to beat the guy – I still would have gotten the applied score
of 1.1, because I WON AND SHOT WORSE THAN MY WINNING PERCENTAGE INDICATES
I SHOULD.
Applied scores are only used for WINS, so if I had lost my match, say
6 to 6 in 16 innings with 2 safeties, then I would get a 2.33 score in my
records. That’s (16 innings minus 2 safeties) divided by 6 wins.
Also notice that the applied score for all 2s is 7.0, and that 7.0 is
actually a 3 skill level. What this does is prevent anybody from being a
2 with a winning percentage. Any time a 2 gets a winning percentage they
are automatically bumped up to a 3, since at that time their best scores
will be better than 7.01.
The system is fairly complicated, but it’s designed pretty well. It’s
actually the fairest system I’ve come across. It’s possible to
sandbag in this system, but that is true for any handicap system.
