KRAMB Score, Updated (surprises)

It's been a few games since I've posted updated KRAMB for Crew players (Pts Earned per Start above replacement level* + Goal Difference per Start) and boy are there some changes.

Justin Meram has crossed the magical five game barrier and has found himself on top of the team. Six total starts. Three wins, two draws and only one loss. I'd be lying if I said I saw this one coming.

Last year Meram was a 'super-sub' of sorts (+7 goal diff) with a bad starting record (won't go there). I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention that two of the three wins he has this year have been against Toronto. But then... A win and draw against NY plus another draw against the Dynamo? I'll say; well earned overall.

Here we go.

KRAMB : NAME (NUMBER OF STARTS)

+0.79 : Justin Meram (6)
+0.71 : Agustín Viana (12)
+0.69 : Eddie Gaven (10)
+0.29 : Wil Trapp (6)
+0.25 : Dominic Oduro (24)
+0.19 : Bernardo Anor (10)
+0.15 : Joshua Williams (22)
+0.04 : Chad Marshall (20)
+0.02 : Gláuber Berti (13)

-0.01 : Chad Barson (10)
-0.13 : Federico Higuaín (24)
-0.15 : Danny O´Rourke (17)
-0.21 : Jairo Obando Arrieta (13)
-0.32 : Ben Speas (9)
-0.34 : Tyson Wahl (16)
-0.35 : Tony Tchani (7)
-0.41 : Andy Gruenebaum (20)
-0.91 : Matías Sánchez (10)

NOT ENOUGH GAMES (<5)

+1.79 : Matt Lampson (4)
+0.79 : Aaron Schoenfeld (2)
-0.21 : Konrad Warzycha (2)
-0.46 : Eric Gehrig (4)
-1.54 : Kevan George (3)

Other changes that are driving KRAMB change are Matt Lampson starting. The results he has gotten as starter have pulled Gruenebaum way down the list.

However.

Lampson is a little untested. He is a local kid about to be thrown into the fire out west against Real Salt Lake. Three of his four starts have been close to home. The one away match he has had was a disaster against Houston. Well see how things go in SLC.

Another player driving results in regards to this measurement is Wil Trapp. Some of the folks I know closest to the club say he is the real deal. Like Lampson, he is getting the results near home. Notable is the loss he started away in Toronto and in Houston. All three of his wins (Portland, New York and Toronto) have been in Columbus.

Agustin Viana's return the lineup, while understated, is probably the most reliable indicator of a individual player contributing to recent team performance. Having him healthy and starting at a critical Left Back spot has certainly helped the team.

All I got for now. Remember: numbers don't lie. Trust the numbers. Also... understand what it is you are looking at.

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*Replacement level is what a average player on the team will theoretically give you, team average (0.00).

Exploring The Wrong

Worked through Opta activity for Columbus Crew holding midfielders for Massive Report and found a mess of interesting things. I tried to keep it pretty focused over there and not get lost in trying to explain information. Pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Among the things that I wanted to get across was how often a player did something wrong. The reason I took the negative approach was because it seems like the only time we really hear about a player doing well is if they are A) New or B) They score.

NEGATIVE ACTION+

Poking around the data I found that saying '79% of a players touches are positive' was misleading because I found myself thinking, 'well, that's fine. He's doing alright'. It really minimized the impact of a bad pass, turnover or bad shot.

All things that give possession away are why players train all those hours. "The Wrong" gives the opposition an extra chance.

Mistakes, no matter how small, should absolutely be tracked, measured and monitored. Especially for a team with a lot of young players

DIFFERENT STANDARDS

I looked at all the players for the Crew but only published the holding mids in the Massive Report post to keep it simple. Also, what applies as bad or wrong for one position doesn't necessary apply to another position.

THE DEFENDERS

(HIGH=BAD)TURNOVER+DISPOSSESSED+BADPASS+SHTOFFTARGET
25% Eric Gehrig
21% Josh Williams
19% Gláuber
19% Tyson Wahl
15% Chad Barson
15% Chad Marshall

It bothers me that Josh Williams is high up on this list, but his Turnover and Dispossession rates are high. Also, his passing is fairly average. Not sure if it is a case of trying to hard or being frustrated.

Josh is like my bellwether for everything. I've tossed out so many misguided metrics because his performances always have me going back and taking a second look.

That said, none of the Crew defenders seem to be in the 'wrong' that much. The Crew have an above average backline in MLS. These guys (including Gehrig) are good players.

THE MIDFIELDERS

(HIGH=BAD)TURNOVER+DISPOSSESSED+BAD PASS
41% Ethan Finlay
26% Ben Speas
24% Bernardo Anor
21% Eddie Gaven
21% Federico Higuaín

I peeled off bad shots for the midfielders. They should be ripping off shots. You can see the impact that the loss of Gaven probably plays with this year's team. The Crew would absolutely be better off if they had Eddie but I don't think it is the reason the Crew are this far down the table.

THE FORWARDS

(HIGH=BAD)TURNOVER+DISPOSSESSED+BAD PASS
61% Ryan Finley
49% Aaron Schoenfeld
40% Justin Meram
34% Jairo Arrieta
33% Dominic Oduro

Not really surprising, here. What was surprising though was when I included errant shots... it completely flipped.

(HIGH=BAD)TURNOVER+DISPOSSESSED+BADPASS+SHTOFFTARGET
70.0% Jairo Arrieta
66.1% Dominic Oduro
60.8% Justin Meram
53.3% Aaron Schoenfeld
35.9% Ryan Finley (incorrect will have to update)

All of them jumped, of course, but Schoenfeld and Finley come out looking better. Most of that has to do with them only taking a few shots but I also think that both these players are more accurate than Arrieta and Oduro. Both of them can be magical when on target but also disastrous when off (which is probably why they find themselves with the Crew).

IN A BOW

To sort of tie this all up... I like what I found in looking at things this way. I focused on the holding mids with the Crew at Massive Report because I felt that the position is the most important on the team this year.

Should be interesting to see how this plays out the rest of the year.

Updated Player GD, PPG (KRAMB)

Updating team performance when a particular Crew player is starting and goal activity when on the pitch. KRAMB* adds up team Points Earned per Start with Goal Difference (GD) when that player is on the pitch.

Minimum of 5 starts. Players with less will be listed at bottom of post.

KRAMB : NAME (GMs STARTED)
1.90 : Eddie Gaven (10)
1.75 : Agustín Viana (8)
1.65 : Danny O´Rourke (14)
1.47 : Joshua Williams (17)
1.37 : Dominic Oduro (19)
1.33 : Chad Marshall (15)
1.23 : Gláuber Berti (13)

1.21 : TEAM (19)

1.20 : Bernardo Anor (5)
1.10 : Federico Higuaín (19)
1.05 : Andy Gruenebaum (18)
0.89 : Ben Speas (9)
0.87 : Tyson Wahl (16)
0.85 : Tony Tchani (7)
0.75 : Matías Sánchez (8)
0.67 : Jairo Obando Arrieta (9)
0.57 : Chad Barson (7)

Takeaways:

• Top two players are hurt (Gaven out for year, Viana back soon).

• You can see how one +3 PPG and +1 GD missing for Gruenebaum's number puts him (Matt Lampson started last match).

• Anor jumps on the list for the first time this year crossing the 5 game mark at about team average. In years past Anor has had superior results with this measurement.

• The Crew have not had great results in last 7 matches, these also happen to be when Barson is starting. I don't consider him a step up in quality from Wahl but do like he is getting time.

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Next up is Goal Difference when player starts. This does not include when a player is subbed on (that is something I'll look at some other time).

GD : NAME
+0.40 : Eddie Gaven
+0.36 : Danny O´Rourke
+0.25 : Agustín Viana
+0.18 : Joshua Williams
+0.16 : Dominic Oduro
+0.13 : Chad Marshall

0.00 : Gláuber Berti
0.00 : TEAM
0.00 : Bernardo Anor

-0.06 : Andy Gruenebaum
-0.11 : Federico Higuaín
-0.11 : Ben Speas
-0.19 : Tyson Wahl
-0.22 : Jairo Obando Arrieta
-0.25 : Matías Sánchez
-0.29 : Tony Tchani
-0.43 : Chad Barson

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Here is Points Earned per Start.

Pts per Start : NAME
1.50 : Eddie Gaven
1.50 : Agustín Viana
1.29 : Danny O´Rourke
1.29 : Joshua Williams
1.23 : Gláuber Berti

1.21 : Dominic Oduro
1.21 : TEAM
1.21 : Federico Higuaín

1.20 : Chad Marshall
1.20 : Bernardo Anor
1.14 : Tony Tchani
1.11 : Andy Gruenebaum
1.06 : Tyson Wahl
1.00 : Ben Speas
1.00 : Matías Sánchez
1.00 : Chad Barson
0.89 : Jairo Obando Arrieta

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Players with not enough starts.
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KRAMB : NAME(GMs STARTED)
4.00 : Wil Trapp (1)
4.00 : Matt Lampson (1)
4.00 : Konrad Warzycha (1)
4.00 : Aaron Schoenfeld (1)
0.75 : Justin Meram (4)
0.75 : Eric Gehrig (4)
-0.34 : Kevan George (3)

Takeaways from players with few starts:

• George is only player with out a win on the team (2 Loss, 1 Draw) and he has an average goal difference of -0.67 when starting.

• Gehrig and Meram have identical numbers. 1 Win, 2 Draws, 1 Loss and a goal difference of -0.50

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*I call this score KRAMB for Ryan Kramb (PhD, MS, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign BS University of Dayton) who was curious about 'on pitch' data. I now regularly track it and use it in player evaluation.

Please note, this is only one way to measure a player's contributions.

Updated Kramb's Law Figures

I've updated "on pitch" numbers to date for the Columbus Crew. These are player results based strictly on what happens when a player starts (Win/Draw/Loss) and on the field (Goals For/Against).

CALLOUTS, GOOD
• Agustin Viana is the only player that has more wins than losses (3 wins, 2 loss, 3 draws).
• Viana has earned half of possible points when starter, best on Crew.
• Danny O'Rourke has best Goal Diff (GD) when on pitch (+0.56)
• Eddie Gaven, Dominic Oduro, Agustin Viana also good.

CALLOUTS, BAD
• Tyson Wahl. -0.11 GD when on pitch
• Wahl only player with negative GD on club
• Federico Higuian, Jairo Arrieta, and Ben Speas are even on GD but below team average.
• Crew average opponent combined table rank: 12th
• Eddie Gaven and Chad Marshall are only players to make start in at least 1 game in first 10 since 2011.

KRAMB'S LAW OF PERFORMANCE
For a couple years I've been messing around with how players do as starters and not long ago Chemical Engineer, Ryan Kramb asked about results when players were on the pitch.

KRAMB = (AVG ON PITCH GD + TEAM PTS EARNED WHEN STARTER)

So... higher the number the better, easier way to put it.

KRAMB : NAME
1.89 : Danny O´Rourke
1.75 : Eddie Gaven
1.75 : Agustín Viana
1.50 : Dominic Oduro

1.40 : Andy Gruenebaum
1.40 : Chad Marshall
1.40 : Joshua Williams
1.40 : Gláuber Berti

1.20 : Federico Higuaín
1.17 : Jairo Obando Arrieta
1.00 : Tony Tchani*
1.00 : Ben Speas
0.89 : Tyson Wahl
-2.00 : Matías Sánchez*

*Tchani and Sanchez - less than 5 Starts. Always need 5 starts.

A Bunch of Updated Metrics, 2012 Crew

Here are some updated key performance metrics for the 2012 Columbus Crew.

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PTS EARNED PER START (TEAM AVG 1.50 PPG)
5 game min

TOP 5
2.20 : Cole Grossman
2.14 : Federico Higuaín
2.10 : Carlos Mendes
1.86 : Dilly Duka
1.80 : Bernardo Anor

BOTTOM 5
1.32 : Milovan Mirosevic
1.20 : Julius James
1.17 : Olman Vargas
1.14 : Eric Gehrig
1.00 : Tony Tchani

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AVERAGE GOAL DIFF PER START (TEAM AVG -0.03)
5 game min

TOP 5
+0.80 : Cole Grossman
+0.60 : Carlos Mendes
+0.29 : Federico Higuaín
+0.19 : Danny O´Rourke
+0.14 : Dilly Duka

BOTTOM 5
-0.23 : Milovan Mirosevic
-0.27 : Chad Marshall
-0.33 : Olman Vargas
-0.38 : Tony Tchani
-0.57 : Eric Gehrig

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DISTRIBUTION: PASS ACCURACY, SEPT MONTH

TOP 5
89.5% : Julius James
89.0% : Chad Marshall
85.9% : Josh Williams
85.1% : Danny O'Rourke
81.9% : Eddie Gaven

MIDDLE 6
80.3% : Milovan Mirosevic
75.8% : Chris Birchall
74.4% : Sebastian Miranda
74.4% : Justin Meram
73.7% : Dilly Duka
72.0% : Federico Higuain

BOTTOM 5
70.9% : Jairo Arrieta
70.3% : Tony Tchani*
69.4% : Emilio Rentería
65.0% : Nemanja Vukovic*
50.0% : Andy Gruenebaum**

*Tchani and Vukovic much lower then counterparts
**GKs have lower percentage in MLS

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POSITIVE DISTRIBUTION AS % OF OVERALL TOUCHES, SEPT MONTH
Through Ball, Sucessful Flick on, Lay Off, Successful Cross, Key Pass, Assist

IMPACTFUL
59% Jairo Arrieta
50% Federico Higuain
44% Milovan Mirosevic
41% Justin Meram

GOOD
29% Chad Marshall
27% Eddie Gaven
26% Dilly Duka
25% Josh Williams
23% Emilio Rentería
21% Julius James
21% Tony Tchani
21% Danny O'Rourke

POOR
18% Chris Birchall
12% Sebastian Miranda
3% Nemanja Vukovic
3% Andy Gruenebaum

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GOALS + ASSISTS PER 90 MINUTES
(Min 450 mins)

FORWARDS (League Rank on right)
1.26 : Federico Higuain (2)
0.75 : Jairo Arrieta (15)
0.55 : Justin Meram (37)
0.31 : Emilio Rentería (113)
0.13 : Olman Vargas (215)

MIDFIELDERS (Position Rank, Right)
0.31 : Eddie Gaven (54)
0.29 : Tony Tchani (58)
0.23 : Chris Birchall (71)
0.19 : Milovan Mirosevic (80)
0.18 : Bernardo Anor (82)
0.18 : Cole Grossman (84)
0.17 : Dilly Duka (87)

DEFENDERS (Position Rank, Right)
0.25 : Nemanja Vukovic (8)
0.13 : Josh Williams (44)
0.13 : Eric Gehrig (45)
0.09 : Chad Marshall (57)
0.04 : Sebastian Miranda (94)
0.00 : Danny O'Rourke (-)
0.00 : Carlos Mendes (-)
0.00 : Julius James (-)

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SHOTS ON GOAL PER 90 MIN
(Min 450 mins, League Rank on right)

1.09 : Justin Meram (38)
0.98 : Jairo Arrieta (47)
0.94 : Olman Vargas (49)
0.94 : Federico Higuain (65)
0.82 : Eddie Gaven (71)

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Information is your friend! If you would like info on something along these lines but I didn't list it, please let me know; ljbaby654@gmail.com

Opponent Difficulty, Crew Players

"Imagine Druids cavorting at Stonehenge, and you'll get the idea. They danced in the spaces where the big blocks were not. They didn't run right at them (or, if they did, it's no surprise that their religion died out)." - Steven Goldman, Baseball Between the Numbers.

One of the things that's got me scratching my head is the absolutely ridiculous start Federico Higuain has had in Major League Soccer. It's literally video game-y. More specifically, the kind of numbers you see when an experienced FIFA 12 player drops the CPU difficulty. Do that - and every cross Sebastian Miranda makes drops perfectly for a Ben Speas who is suddenly averaging 2 goals and 1 assist (to Olman Vargas) per game.

I generally consider the quality of Major League Soccer sides to be negligible but after watching enough games like last night's San Jose destruction of Chivas USA, I've started to change my thinking. Perhaps opponent difficulty in the real MLS world is something that should be weighted more heavily when measuring player performance. Perhaps MLS opponent difficulty is more like difficulty level on a video game then I previously thought.

Below is the average opponent's rank on the most current MLS True Table (pts pGM, combined table) when a particular player is starting.

OPP. RANK : NAME : GMs STARTED
5.5 : Julius James 2
6.6 : Cole Grossman 5
6.7 : Justin Meram 9
8.0 : Bernardo Anor 5
9.0 : Chris Birchall 12
9.5 : Tony Tchani 12
9.6 : Nemanja Vukovic 11
9.6 : Joshua Williams 20
9.8 : Kevan George 4
9.9 : Eric Gehrig 7
9.9 : Dilly Duka 11
10.1 : Andy Gruenebaum 25
10.3 : Carlos Mendes 10
10.3 : Eddie Gaven 26
10.4 : Jairo Obando Arrieta 10
10.5 : Emilio Renteria 15
10.6 : Sebastián Miranda 25
11.0 : Danny O´Rourke 12
11.0 : Aaron Schoenfeld 3
11.1 : Chad Marshall 18
11.3 : Olman Vargas 6
12.6 : Milovan Mirosevic 18
14.7 : Ethan Finlay 3
15.0 : Matt Lampson 1
15.8 : Federico Higuaín 4

Interesting takeaways here come in comparing players of the same position. Like, Meram's 9 starts with a 6.7 opponent team rank compared to Dilly Duka's 11 starts and 9.9. or Chris Birchall and Tony Tchani's opponent difficulty compared to Milovan Mirosevic and Danny O'Rourke.

Take a look now at Higuain, my reason for performing this exercise. The teams he has faced in his 4 starts average nearly 16th on the table (out of 19). It sheds light a little bit on why he has had the early success.

But even when considering the level of opposition, 3 goals and 6 assists in 378 minutes is way out of control on the awesome scale of awesome. No doubt this pace will slow against some better teams, the question is how much.

He should reach his 5th start this week and therefore crosses the first Helltown hurdle. In doing so, even if he stands there for 90 minutes staring at the football lines at Gillette Stadium he will still be tops in the league in Goals + Assists per 90 minutes for players over 450 minutes.

Next hurdle will be the 900 minute mark (league leaders on right) which he could hit on October 7th against Kansas City. And by then, I have to say again, if he just stands on the field with no other goals and assists, will still be at 0.90 per game. Good enough for 13th best right now. My goodness.

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For those looking, here is updated Goals + Assist per 90 totals for the Columbus Crew 2012 season to date.

G+A p90 : Name : Minutes

2.17 : Federico Higuain : 373
0.75 : Jairo Arrieta : 839
0.47 : Justin Meram : 767
0.35 : Eddie Gaven : 2305
0.34 : Emilio Rentería : 1336
0.33 : Tony Tchani : 1084
0.30 : Aaron Schoenfeld : 298
0.27 : Nemanja Vukovic : 1002
0.25 : Chris Birchall : 1092
0.21 : Dilly Duka : 844
0.18 : Bernardo Anor : 493
0.18 : Cole Grossman : 500
0.17 : Milovan Mirosevic : 1556
0.15 : Josh Williams : 1794
0.14 : Olman Vargas : 658
0.13 : Eric Gehrig : 712
0.11 : Chad Marshall : 1606
0.04 : Sebastian Miranda : 2194

0.00 : Andy Gruenebaum : 2205
0.00 : Danny O'Rourke : 1063
0.00 : Carlos Mendes : 769
0.00 : Ethan Finlay : 426
0.00 : Kevan George : 426
0.00 : Julius James : 275
0.00 : Matt Lampson : 135
0.00 : Tommy Heinemann : 5

When putting this post together I came across a Steven Goldman quote atop this post from Baseball Between the Numbers in which he tries to describe how they look "around the numbers, beyond the numbers, and quietly tiptoeing past the numbers".

UPDATED: Points Earned per Start (Crew)

(minimum of 5 games started)

Pts P GM : Name : # of Starts

2.20 : Cole Grossman 5
2.10 : Carlos Mendes 10
1.89 : Dilly Duka 9
1.80 : Danny O´Rourke 10
1.80 : Bernardo Anor 5*
1.75 : Jairo Obando Arrieta 8
1.60 : Emilio Renteria 15
1.58 : Joshua Williams 19
1.57 : Sebastián Miranda 23
1.50 : Andy Gruenebaum 24
1.50 : Eddie Gaven 24
1.50 : Shaun Francis 6**

Performing Below Team Average (1.50)

1.40 : Chris Birchall 10
1.33 : Justin Meram 9
1.31 : Chad Marshall 16
1.30 : Nemanja Vukovic 10
1.25 : Milovan Mirosevic 16
1.17 : Olman Vargas 6
1.14 : Eric Gehrig 7
1.08 : Tony Tchani 12

Not enough starts

3.00 : Federico Higuaín 2
1.50 : Julius James 2
1.33 : Ethan Finlay 3
1.00 : Kevan George 4
1.00 : Aaron Schoenfeld 3


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OBSERVATIONS
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1. TEN to FIFTEEN Starts and Positive Results
This particular metric becomes meaningful / reliable after 10 starts. O'Rourke and Mendes, when in the lineup, will help the team win. Mendes, in particular, has been impressive here. Only 1 loss in 10 starts.

2. FIVE to TEN is a Trend
Cole, Duka and Arrieta are trending the right way. When I see players pass that 5 start mark, I take notice.

3. SIXTEEN+ Starts, Driver's Seat
Any player with this many starts is controlling the overall team's results. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out the rest of the year as there are a couple players way down the list that shouldn't be.

4. While an important metric, points earned per game is just one measurement among many.

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* Anor is out for the rest of the year
** Francis was dropped mid-season

Improvement Needed

There are a handful of Columbus Crew players that are racking up substandard club numbers. The list includes big names like Milovan Mirosevic, Chad Marshall, and Tony Tchani. All are under performing when it comes to team results.

POINTS EARNED PER GAME
1.38 : TEAM
1.08 : Tony Tchani
1.08 : Chad Marshall
1.00 : Milovan Mirosevic

Tchani, Marshall and Mirosevic have all started in greater than 50% of the matches this year. Mirosevic, in particular, is only earning 3 points in 21% of his games (3 wins in 14 games started). Team average is 38%.

Mirosevic hasn't started a winning game since May 12th. 3 Draw, 2 Loss since then. The club has had 4 wins in that time.

GOAL DIFFERENCE PER GAME
-0.05 : TEAM
-0.25 : Tchani
-0.36 : Mirosevic
-0.46 : Marshall

Out of the three of them, Tony Tchani has shown some individual attacking ability and Chad Marshall has exhibited signs of returning to his impressive defensive form. However, Mirosevic hasn't shown much of anything.

The last metric I'll take a look at is how often players "get a result". Which is to say Win or Draw. Again, these three same players show up at the bottom.

WIN or DRAW %
62% : TEAM
58% : Tchani
57% : Mirosevic
46% : Marshall

The Win or Draw % is possibly the most damning on a Robert Warzycha coached club as he will often pull back early to earn at least a point.

While not exciting or flashy, players like Carlos Mendes, Dilly Duka, Danny O'Rourke, Bernardo Anor and Cole Grossman have done enough to get this club in the playoffs. All of them are averaging over 1.80 points per game (which is good enough for 2nd in MLS).

Combined Mendes, Duka, O'Rourke and Anor have a ridiculous 18W, 7D, 7L record. Tchani, Marshall and Mirosevic? 10W, 11D, 16L.

To me, the Federico Higuaín signing push is more of attempt to make individuals (that have $100k+ salaries) better and not the overall club. Federico will no doubt be a solid player in this league, but he will merely just pull under performing Crew players up to average levels. Thus, leaving the team average.

While Tony Tchani has been moved out of the starting rotation in recent weeks, Chad Marshall serves as the team Captain and Mirosevic serves as a sort of Vice Captain (sometimes Captain when Marshall is out). It does not bode well for the club for these two to be at the bottom of these metrics. Improvement is needed immediately if this team is to move into the playoffs.

Goals + Assists per 90, Columbus Crew

A good attacking rate in any league or at any level is a player getting a goal or an assist in a third of the games they play in. The more minutes they player logs, the more meaningful the number.

Below is Crew player G+A per 90 minutes played efficiency with the number of 90 minute games each player has participated in on the right.

League matches only. See bottom of post for notes.

G+A per 90 : Name : GMs Played

0.82 : Jairo Arrieta : 3.7
0.53 : Shaun Francis : 5.6
0.41 : Chris Birchall : 7.3
0.41 : Justin Meram : 7.3
0.30 : Aaron Schoenfeld : 3.3
0.30 : Emilio Rentería : 13.5
0.30 : Nemanja Vukovic : 10.1
0.25 : Eddie Gaven : 19.6
0.25 : Tony Tchani : 11.8
0.19 : Dilly Duka : 5.3
0.18 : Bernardo Anor : 5.5
0.14 : Olman Vargas : 7.3
0.13 : Josh Williams : 15.2
0.13 : Eric Gehrig : 7.9
0.08 : Chad Marshall : 11.8
0.08 : Milovan Mirosevic : 12.5
0.05 : Sebastian Miranda : 18.5
0.00 : Andy Gruenebaum : 20.0
0.00 : Danny O'Rourke : 8.5
0.00 : Carlos Mendes : 5.1
0.00 : Kevan George : 4.7
0.00 : Ethan Finlay : 4.6
0.00 : Cole Grossman : 3.6
0.00 : Julius James : 2.2
0.00 : Tommy Heinemann : 0.1


NOTEs:

• A good goal and assist rate for an individual with less then 5 games is a player trending in the right direction. It should only be seen as a trend, however.

• The best attacking players in the league play in over 70% of total minutes and have G+A per 90 rate of +0.40. Only 22 players in the league have achieved this and that list is impressive.

G+A per 90 : Name : GMs Played

0.91 : Chris Wondolowski : 21.90
0.85 : David Beckham : 17.59
0.78 : Robbie Keane : 17.99
0.75 : Dwayne De Rosario : 20.13
0.74 : Eddie Johnson : 16.24
0.73 : Landon Donovan : 19.27
0.67 : Will Bruin : 19.53
0.66 : Brad Davis : 19.79
0.60 : Fredy Montero : 18.46
0.57 : Graham Zusi : 21.04
0.57 : Kenny Cooper : 21.20
0.56 : Alvaro Saborio : 21.24
0.55 : Saer Sene : 18.04
0.55 : Marco Pappa : 16.27
0.53 : Fabian Espindola : 18.83
0.51 : Felipe Martins : 23.47
0.50 : Kei Kamara : 21.94
0.41 : Martin Rivero : 19.40
0.41 : Ryan Johnson : 22.00
0.41 : Kris Boyd : 19.56
0.40 : Brian Mullan : 19.80
0.40 : Joel Lindpere : 20.08

• Eddie Gaven ranks 36th in this category.

• Columbus is tied for last in number of players that have played in over 70% of minutes possible by club. Gruenebaum, Gaven, Miranda, Williams.

• Josh Williams and his 2 assists in 15.2 games puts him 16th among defenders. He only needs a goal or assist in the next few games to put him at elite defender levels. Interesting note... fellow Ohioan, Marc Burch is right there with him. 3 assists in 16.9 games, good enough for 12th among defenders in this efficiency (0.18).

FORMULA:

Score=((Goals-PK+Assists)/(Minutes Played / Standard Game Length))

Example: Eddie Gaven
0.25 = ((4-0+1)/(1765/90)
4 goals, 0 PKs, 1 Assist in 19.6 games

Points Per Start, Columbus Crew

2012 Season to Date. The Columbus Crew have played 20 League games.

(3 Pts for a win, 1 for a Draw, 0 for loss)

PTS pGM : NAME : GAMES STARTED

3.00 : Cole Grossman 3
2.17 : Carlos Mendes 6
2.00 : Dilly Duka 6
1.80 : Bernardo Anor 5
1.67 : Danny O´Rourke 9
1.50 : Julius James 2
1.50 : Emilio Renteria 14
1.50 : Jairo Obando Arrieta 4
1.50 : Shaun Francis 6
1.47 : Sebastián Miranda 19
1.47 : Joshua Williams 15

1.40 : Andy Gruenebaum 20
1.40 : TEAM AVERAGE
1.40 : Eddie Gaven 20

1.38 : Justin Meram 8
1.33 : Ethan Finlay 3
1.30 : Nemanja Vukovic 10
1.29 : Chris Birchall 7
1.17 : Olman Vargas 6
1.14 : Eric Gehrig 7
1.08 : Tony Tchani 12
1.08 : Chad Marshall 12
1.00 : Aaron Schoenfeld 3
1.00 : Kevan George 4
1.00 : Milovan Mirosevic 13

NOTE:
Right now the club in the last playoff spot (CHI) is averaging 1.59 pts p/GM. Columbus needs 3 wins and 0 losses from where they are (a record of 11 W, 4D, 8L) to get +1.60.