Value of Things: QB Similarity Scores
Who is C.J. Stroud most similar to at quarterback?
By far, the most influential person in the history of sports statistics is Bill James. He focused mainly on baseball, but there are some concepts that are portable to other sports. One of those concepts is the concept of similarity scores.
The idea was to look at players across the different category and find the most similar players to them. It included the basic counting numbers like home runs, runs, RBI, hits, and stolen bases. The use of this was actually pretty ingenious.
When you are a fan of a player you have an emotional connection to them. You will naturally inflate or deflate his abilities. Similarity scores allow you to compare your favorite player to other players they are similar to.
They probably will be players you do not have an emotional attachment to, so it will be much easier for you to peg your player’s place in the history of the game. Before I introduce my formula I should throw out a few caveats. One player having a higher score than another player does not mean they are better.
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