Comments on: ESPN vs. Yahoo! Roster Formats And Their Impact on Fantasy Baseball Rankings

By: Rudy Gamble

Rudy Gamble — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 05:12:42 +0000

@Former Skeptic, sorry, no can do. but you can just download the data and do it yourself. pretty easy formula.

By: Former Skeptic

Former Skeptic — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 02:05:08 +0000

Rudy, is there I can see your ‘tango spreadsheet’ formulas? I want to play around with different stat categories. I’ll be happy to share my results with all of Razzball nation.

By: Rudy Gamble

Rudy Gamble — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:38:09 +0000

I haven’t done research on RF/CF/LF but i would think CF would have less depth and make a player more valuable. But don’t know the exact amt.

By: Rudy Gamble

Rudy Gamble — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 13:36:28 +0000

Here’s the easy way – go to the point shares spreadsheet and pretend the ranks represent draft picks. So the 6th pick in the draft = the 6th highest $ estimate. For rounds, you can average a nimber of picks.

By: GTW

GTW — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 07:55:30 +0000

@Rudy Gamble, Interesting note on $/round values when trading draft picks. I’ve been wondering how linear the trend should be throughout an entire redraft of 25 rounds since I’ve never had to put together player values for an auction draft. Have you written about this before?

By: nightpandas

nightpandas — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:23:38 +0000

Nice article!

What are your thoughts on my five keepers?
15 team league, OPS a stat (yahoo league)

Kemp
Pujols
Aramis Ramirez
Rollins
Choo

Should I replace Choo with Cuddyer (2B elig) or take a chance on Trout or Gordon. I don’t think I’m going to keep pitchers (only two I would consider would be JZimm or Ubaldo)

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 01:48:36 +0000

@Rudy Gamble, Thanks Rudy. Hopefully you’re still checking this. What sort of a boost does Car-Go get in my LF/CF/RF Yahoo league where he is eligible at all 3 positions?

By: Sal

Sal — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:49:47 +0000

So lets say we are playing in a yahoo head to head each league where standard scoring is used….would it be smart to tackle just offense players early and solidify the offense and after draft pure closers and middle relievers once the hitting has been solidified. This would allow one to win at least 4 out 5 categories batting categories more often then not since our offense would be stacked as we would draft top tier starters as everyone else does. Like stated, we have no starters but pure closers of the likes of kimbrel storen and mariano allowing us to win the saves, Era, and whip categories at the expense of wins and strikeouts. Thus every week more often then not we would walk away with a 7-3 win.

I have done 12 team mock drafts and employing such as technique allows me to walk away with a lineup with the an offense that usually has Kemp, Reyes, Texeira, Bourne, Napoli, Weeks Konerko, Reynolds, dee gordon, paul Goldschmidt and a healthy bench including gaby sanchez and cozart (Looking to win SB Runs Hr and Rbis every week)

and a pitching staff including mariano, storen walden, heath bell, venters, romo, mike adams and two sub par starters that would not be started (only done because we need to at least get two starters). If anything those two starters could be rotated with free agent pickup for quality spot starts where we wouldnt hurt our ERA and WHIP and vulture some wins and maybe take that category too.

I have no idea if it would work and wanted to hear your input.

By: Rudy Gamble

Rudy Gamble — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:22:40 +0000

@Mark, if it’s daily changes, i agree with you. if weekly, i’d want some quality and quantity.

By: Rudy Gamble

Rudy Gamble — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:20:44 +0000

@tenaciousdeucer, good point. i’m a bigger fan of IP caps vs starts for that reason. but if there’s a loophole, gotta exploit it.

By: Rudy Gamble

Rudy Gamble — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:17:22 +0000

@Rafael Belliard, You can win with a hitter-heavy draft. You just need good skill/luck at finding pitchers later in draft. My general point on that is every team is looking for SP on waiver wire while less are looking at hitter positions. It’s a myth that it’s easier finding good pitching on waivers vs good hitting. Both is hard but requires good luck and persistence.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 17:42:34 +0000

Great work. As far as your drafting strategy on Yahoo, would you change your strategy in a H2H with no innings restrictions? My general strategy has always been to avoid pitching early and put together a stacked offense, then load up on pitching later. I feel on H2H with that strategy I win most hitting categories and usually win Wins, Saves, and Ks. ERA and WHIP I would usually lose since I don’t have top SPs most weeks, but I’m still usually winning 3 out of 5 pitching categories despite not drafting pitching till the mid-late rounds. Basically hit it with quantity over quality. Any thoughts?

By: Double A Ron

Double A Ron — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:28:43 +0000

Not sure if it really matters but,
HR+SB+R/3+RBI/3 = HR+SB+R+RBI/3

By: tenaciousdeucer

tenaciousdeucer — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:50:40 +0000

@Rafael Belliard, I think you have to be a very active manager to get away with waiting on pitching. If you are able and willing to change your lineup daily, it is much easier to piece together competitive pitching than hitting over the season.

By: tenaciousdeucer

tenaciousdeucer — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:25:20 +0000

Hi Rudy,

Love the analysis, but you have neglected the difference in pitching limits between ESPN (200 starts) and Yahoo (1400 innings). I’m not sure how much it affects draft values, but in ESPN standard roto an active manager can go light on high-end SP while utilizing streaming and RP to rack up counting stats; the beauty of it being that the RP innings are “free” beyond the roster space. I think the Yahoo innings limit makes it more critical to control the quality of each inning from both RP and SP.

By: T-BZA

T-BZA — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:58:11 +0000

No Cutch? Or am I blind?

By: Griff

Griff — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:07:21 +0000

@Rudy Gamble, Yeah, as I was writing out the example I came to understand your point. I forgot (okay, okay, I was too lazy) to edit the start of my post.

By: Skeptic

Skeptic — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:29:59 +0000

@Rudy Gamble, lol It’s a 12 team league. The effective of the 8×8 (+ CG shutouts so it’s really a 8×9 league) with 5 daily pitching slots is that there’s such an elevated incentive to have aces so you can dominate the pitching stats and then try to hold your own on the offensive end. For example, the league champion last year went pitching heavy early — Verlander, Sabathia, Weaver, Cain — and then got a bit lucky with Kennedy and Shields. And he truly would average like 6 pitching cat wins each week. (and I have a feeling he’s going to keep Verlander, Weaver and Kennedy and draft Doc #3 overall)

There’s zero incentive to have closers (1 cat out of 8) since there’s a 40 inning minimum and when you roll out Liriano/Hudson/BAnderson/Chacin/JVazquez as your staff, the 3 innings/week Kimbrel and Axford would get me wouldn’t be enough to make up for the rest of the filth my starters put in my stats.

Or maybe I just got unlucky following Grey’s recommendations last season (hence my “Skeptic” moniker) and I should still be able to compete with the Grey pitching strat. Either way, there’s still very little reason to have closer or middle relievers in this format yet, in real baseball, they play a significant role.

By: Rafael Belliard

Rafael Belliard — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:06:23 +0000

As someone who likes to take pitchers late and stock up on hitters early, I’m finding this info and advice hard to swallow. From your perspective and in light of this data, what would happen if I draft my Yahoo teams according to Grey’s PEDS? Aren’t pitchers still more risky in the earlier rounds due to their higher injury rate and the fact that SPs contribute to fewer counting stats than hitters?

By: ChillmanCometh

ChillmanCometh — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:58:05 +0000

@Rudy, Basically how I’m reading this is that my keepers of Miguel Cabrera, Troy Tulowitzski, Ryan Zimmerman, Ian Kinsler, and Clayton Kershaw isn’t too bad?

The only thing is I traded my 1st round (BA Hamels, Hamilton, Uggla) and 3rd (BA R. Weeks, C. Utley, ) in exchange for Kinsler and an 11th (I’m thinking closer or upside OF)… I may have given up too much, but I love love love that infield.

By: Jay29

Jay29 — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:30:43 +0000

@Rudy, Every time I read one of your posts I see your picture out of the corner of my eye and think it’s somebody wearing a wide-brimmed cowboy hat.

By: Cheese

Cheese — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:21:57 +0000

@MattTruss223, I would actually thoroughly enjoy that if you don’t mind! e-mail – jessemarchese@gmail.com

Thanks!

By: Jake

Jake — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:06:57 +0000

@joe from point pleasant,

Well I’m not Rudy, but I would say that’s a slam dunk Beachy pick for me. Would consider Darvish, but he comes with more risk than Beachy and about the same upside. Scherzer is the clear #3 to me.

By: joe from point pleasant

joe from point pleasant — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:03:00 +0000

@Rudy Gamble,

THANKS!!!

By: TheBravesWear Prado

TheBravesWear Prado — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:36:48 +0000

@Rudy Gamble, Thanks for the response. I look forward to seeing the point shares.

By: Janice

Janice — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:36:46 +0000

I like Beachy than Scherzer I would never draft Darvish because of his unknown’s of never pitched in the league.

By: Rudy Gamble

Rudy Gamble — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:32:26 +0000

@joe from point pleasant, Based on the prelim Point Shares, Beachy is by far the highest value. Seems that both ZiPs and Steamer projections both love Beachy’s ERA/WHIP/K potential. Darvish is 2nd. Scherzer is 3rd. I can’t say I’m completely sold on the Beachy projections but he’s definitely one I can see risking a few extra $ on this year.

By: Rudy Gamble

Rudy Gamble — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:28:42 +0000

@TheBravesWear Prado, It’s true that the average value for players in Yahoo would be higher b/c you have the same amount of money and less players. A lot of my guidance on relative value refers to the rankings since most Razzballer drafts are snake vs. auction. I’ve had some more time to dig into auction values since I wrote this and it should be reflected in the $ values and rankings in the first version of Point Shares up next week.

By: joe from point pleasant

joe from point pleasant — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:21:06 +0000

@Rudy:

12 team H2H *POINTS* Keeper League (5 keepers)

I have assembled a ridiculous core of keepers, Votto, Tulo, Verlander, Felix, Strasburg. Being a points league, it is crucial to have a strong pitching staff, and teams usually carry 10 starters in order to hit our 15 start max every week.

Thus, with my first round pick this year, I have decided to select a pitcher. I am having the hardest time deciding between these three. Pleaseeeee Helppppp!!!!!

Here are my options:
Brandon Beachy
Max Scherzer
Yu Darvish

By: Rudy Gamble

Rudy Gamble — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:55:22 +0000

@Griff, Your projections make my point. You have a higher OF/IF ratio in your Yahoo! examples vs. ESPN. Thus, the value of OFs increases as more are needed vs. IF. My OF/IF ratios for 12 team leagues is: Yahoo: 4.5/4.3 and ESPN as 5.6/6.3.