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The current roster features power-hitters, baserunners, and a defense worth writing home about.

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Back Story
The Red-Legged Superbas (or “Superbas” for short) was created by a group of then-employees of a geotechnical engineering firm in the San Francisco bay area. It took time for an idea that was first spearheaded by now-General Manager Jeff Wisniewski and now-Vice-President of Operations Joe Gray to catch on with the general public. In a short yet historic conversation in December 2005 along the eastern corridors of the company’s Mare Island field office, Jeff and Joe put in motion a complicated stream of multi-dependent variables that would ultimately create the Red-Legged Superbas, a feared softball team in Northern California, and the prototype for a modern-day beer league softball team.

Team Rules

The first rule of softball club is, you do not talk about softball club.
The second rule of softball club is, you do not talk about softball club.
The third rule, every player will play at least three innings in the field.
The fourth rule, if you do not play well at a position, you will not play that position.
The fifth rule, we will always bat the maximum players allowed.
The sixth rule, no player can wear the number 1.
And the last rule, winning the game is more important than remaining friends.

Team Ordinances

A player will donate money into a fund for a beer keg every time he strikes out.
Full offensive statistics will be kept. Explanation of batting statistics.
Awards will be presented at midseason and at end of season. Explanation of awards.
A player will receive an automatic invitation if he appears in four or more games the previous season.

Team History

Season	League	Coach	Record
2007 – Summer	Concord Municipal “D” – Tuesday	Wisniewski (Player/Coach)
2006 – Summer	Concord Municipal “D” – Wednesday	Wisniewski (Player/Coach)	2-9-1

Front Office

President and General Manager: Jeff Wisniewski
Vice-President of Operations: Joe Gray
Vice-President of Player Development
Vice-President of Communications
Vice-President of Sales and Marketing
General Counsel

Coaching Staff

Head Coach: Jeff Wisniewski
Bench Coach
Pitching Coach
Hitting Coach
First-Base Coach
Third-Base Coach
Bullpen Coach
Fielding Coach
Strength and Conditioning Coach

2007 Summer

No.	Player Name	Position	Appearances
3	Jeff Wisniewski (Player/Coach)	SS	–

East Side

No.	Player Name	Position	Appearances
10	Carlo Quinonez	P	–
16	Jeff Adams	DH	–
19	Chris Leo	OF	–
20	Dyelan Grace	1B	–
21	Tim Evans	OF	–
27	Andy Orr (Captain)	3B	–
41	Wright Cole	DH	–
51	Michael Atiyeh	OF	–

West Side

No.	Player Name	Position	Appearances
5	Eric Grace	CF	–
8	Kevin Ghalambor	P	–
14	Brooks Ramsdell (Captain)	2B	–
23	Jesus Espinoza	OF, P	–
00	Joe Gray	C	–
–	Gabriel Hernandez	RF, C	–
–	B.H. Bronson Johnson	RF	–
–	Airto Smith	RF	–

Archive

Explanation of Awards | Discussion of Batting Statistics | Explanation of Batting Statistics | Players

Explanation of Awards

At the midpoint and end of each season, players are awarded for on-field production and off-field class. The following are the descriptions for each award.

Midseason
- Top Defensive Player
  At the midseason point of the season, the best defensive player receives the “dopie” award.
- Top Offensive Player
  At the midseason point of the season, the best offensive player receives the “opie” award.
- Most Improved Player
  At the midseason point of the season, the player that exhibits the greatest improvement receives this award.
- Biggest Disappointment (so far)
  This award goes to the player at the midseason point who has performed the least.
- Biggest Surprise (so far)
  This award goes to the player at the midseason point whose welcomed production has surprised the most people.
Season
- Most Outstanding Player
  This award goes to the player that produced the most offensively and defensively throughout the season.
- Top Defensive Player
  At the end of the season, the best defensive player receives the “dopie” award.
- Top Offensive Player
  At the end of the season, the best offensive player receives the “opie” award.
- Most Improved Player
  At the end of the season, the player that exhibits the greatest improvement receives this award.
- Lifetime Achievement [as necessary]
  This award comes along as players earn the distinction of lifetime achievement.
- Copper Gloves
  Copper Gloves are the Red-Legged Superbas version of the Gold Glove awards and are given to two outfielders, two infielders, and an additional player from any position that exhibited “defensive brilliance” during the course of the season.
- Rutherford B. Hayes Award For Excellence In The Field Of Unadulterated Support [as necessary]
  This award comes along as fans earn the distinction of excellence.
- Biggest Disappointment
  Nicknamed the “Maximoo Award,” the most difficult award to handout is to the players that performed least, usually given to the player that has the fewest games played and plate appearances.
- Surprise Player
  This award goes to the player whose welcomed production has surprised the most people.
- Clutch Player
  This award goes to the player whose offensive production in the clutch was unmatched.
- Ironman
  This award goes to the player whose toughness is unmatched. The number of games played and plate appearances are taken into account.
- Comeback Player
  This award goes to the player whose made a remarkable comeback from either (a) an early season slump, (b) an injury, or (c) a previous subpar season.
- West Side Player of the Year
  This award goes to the player whose personified the characteristics of the West Side throughout the course of the season.
- East Side Player of the Year
  This award goes to the player whose personified the characteristics of the East Side throughout the course of the season.

Discussion of Batting Statistics
I created the RLS and the TRP. My reasoning is presented below, as well as the basis for the minimum number of plate appearances I implement and breaking ties on the leader board.

Contribution Percentage, the Red-Legged Superbas Index (RLS)
I like to refer to the “Contribution Percentage,” better known as the “Red-Legged Superbas Index” or “RLS,” as the “slugging percentage on steroids.” The Slugging Percentage (SLG) is a useful statistic as it determines your average hit value — be it a single, double, triple, etc. (If your SLG is 2.000, you average a double.) Major League Baseball (MLB) employs another statistic, which should be considered useless, the On-Base Plus Slugging Percentage (OPS). What the actual meaning of this statistic is I will never know. Is there spatial meaning, MLB? (It is a made-up statistic so commentators can comment on stats with values greater than 1.)

It was my desire to create a “highly-inflated” statistic for the softball team to try to capture the “true contribution” of all players. For this statistic, the Red-Legged Superbas Index (RLS), I give credit to all forms of offensive contribution — be it a home run or a walk, a double or a sacrifice fly; everything counts. The only item that hurts a player is a strikeout. So, I took the numerator of the SLG, the total bases reached on hits, and added to it the number of walks, the number of times reached on error, and the number of sacrifice hits, and subtracted the number of strikeouts. I then divided this crazy sum by the number of plate appearances. In the absence of walks and sacrifice hits, the SLG is equal to the RLS. If a player strikes out, the SLG can actually be greater than the RLS; in general, however, the RLS tends be greater than the SLG, as designed.

The rationale for the RLS, in my opinion, can easily be defended. If you reach base on an error, how are you not “contributing?” If you walk, how is that not, effectively, a single or a “total base value of 1?” Same goes with sacrifice hits. The only debate may be with the subtraction of strikeouts as it may be unfair to punish those who strikeout. (Is a strikeout any less effective than, say, a popup to the pitcher?) But hell, this is softball.

On a further note, I was originally planning on adding the number of times a runner advanced (a statistic I called “A”) to the numerator. For example, a flyout to right and the runner at second tags to third, or a groundout to second and the runner advances to third on the play. But the logistics of keeping the books to that degree of accuracy was overwhelming.
Total Run Production Index (TRP)
There is a little-known and underused statistic in baseball called “Run Production (RP)” which is the numerator in this statistic I created. Run production accounts for all of the runs a player has scored and the number of runs a player has batted-in (minus the number of home runs, which is duplicitous, as it adds a run and an RBI for the batter). This stat, in my opinion, is most insightful on a player’s “net worth.” I took this run generation and divided by the number of plate appearances (not the number of at-bats), and called it the “Total Run Production Index” or “TRP,” pronounced “trip.”

In reality, the TRP is the likelihood a run will score every time a player comes to the plate. For example, if a player has a TRP of 1.000, that player averages an RBI or a run-scored (or a solo home run) every plate appearance; if a player has a TRP of .500, there is a 50% chance that he will knock in a run or come around to score each time he comes to the plate.
Minimum Plate Appearances
The calculation for the minimum number of plate appearances is a hybrid formula I derived from the Major League Baseball (MLB) requirement. MLB states that “in order [for a player] to qualify for batting titles in averaged categories, a player must average at least 3.1 plate appearances for every game his team has played.” (Source: ESPN.com)

Figuring that we are playing softball, and are certainly not playing in a league similar in reputation or authority as MLB, I took the average number of games played by the team’s players, and multiplied that by 3.1 plate appearances per game, and then multiplied that value by 7/9, since we play 7 innings (compared to the 9 innings played in MLB). As a result, the minimum plate appearances requirement is a moving target, but allows for players to miss a game here and there, and still qualify with the minimum number of plate appearances. The formula looks like this: PA_min = G_avex(3.1)x(7/9) = G_avex(2.4).

The average number of games played, itself, is a tricky statistic. In general, the value can be calculated by totaling the player-games played for the entire season and then dividing by the number of players on the team, G_ave = ΣG/N. However, this is only true when the team has been together for the entire season, i.e., players were not added or subtracted during the course of the season. In the case that a player is added or subtracted, the average number of games played should be weighted accordingly. For example, if a player was added halfway through the season, his games played should be multiplied by 2 for the calculation of G_ave.

Additionally, G_ave should be kept unrounded through the calculation. The final value of PA_min should be rounded to the nearest whole number (which may require some judgment). I am currently working on the theory that the cut-off point should be one-third and not the typical one-half.

I had considered using the median of games played in place of the average. An average is what I call a “dirty statistic,” and in general, the median will provide more “useful” and “accurate” information, but that is in the case of relatively large sets. The sets (in this case, the number of players) I am dealing with are in the range of 15 to 20, and the median loses its value with such small sets.
Breaking Ties On Leader Board
Where ties exist in the leader board categories, there is only one tie-breaker: plate appearances. For general batting statistics (e.g., H, RBI, HR), the player with the lesser number of plate appearances is the leader. For averaged statistics (e.g., BA, SLG, RLS), the player with the greater number of plate appearances is the leader. The top four leaders in each category are shown. Where there are ties that exceed the fourth spot in the category, the number of players with that statistical value are shown (not just the leader as defined above). This is in order to show scale and reference.

Explanation of Batting Statistics

Symbol	Meaning	Explanation
G	Games Played	The number of games a player appears in (defensively and/or offensively).
PA	Plate Appearances	The total number of plate appearances.
AB	At Bats	The number of plate appearances minus walks and sacrifice hits, AB = PA-(BB+SH).
H	Hits	The number of hits a player registers.
R	Runs Scored	The number of runs a player scores.
RBI	Runs Batted-In	The number of runs a player bats in.
2B	Doubles	The number of doubles a player hits.
3B	Triples	The number of triples a player hits.
HR	Home Runs	The number of home runs a player hits.
BB	Bases on Balls (Walks)	The number of walks a player draws.
E	Reached on Error	The number of times a player reached base on an error.
SO	Strikeouts	The number of strikeouts a player registers.
SH	Sacrifice Hits	The number of sacrifice hits a player registers (a run scores on the play).
BA	Batting Average	The number of hits divided by the number of at bats, BA = H/AB, as a decimal. (Maximum: 1.)
OBP	On Base Percentage	The number of times on base, excluding reached on error, divided by the number of plate appearances, OBP = (H+BB)/PA, as a decimal. (Maximum: 1.)
SLG	Slugging Percentage	The number of total bases reached on hits divided by the number of at bats, SLG = [(H-2B-3B-HR)+(2Bx2)+(3Bx3)+(HRx4)]/AB, as a decimal. (Maximum: 4.)
RLS	Contribution Percentage (the Red-Legged Superbas Index)	The number of total bases reached on hits, plus the number of walks, plus the number of times reached on error, plus the number of sacrifice hits, minus the number of strikeouts, divided by the number of plate appearances, RLS = [(H-2B-3B-HR)+(2Bx2)+(3Bx3)+(HRx4)+BB+E+SH-SO]/PA, as a decimal. (Maximum: 4.)
TRP	Total Run Production Index	The number of runs scored, plus the number of runs batted-in, minus the number of home runs, divided by the number of plate appearances, TRP = (R+RBI-HR)/PA, as a decimal. (Maximum: 4.)

Restoring history.