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During the offseason, I wrote several posts criticizing the ESPN Player Rater and went as far as create my own to critique it.

Below are the links to these posts. Interesting reading if you’re a fantasy baseball or stat junkie. Much less interesting than smack if you are just a junkie.

Part 1: How Valid Is The ESPN Player Rater?

Part 2: Are Fantasy Baseball Pitchers Correctly Valued By Player Raters?

Part 3: How Do You Value Fantasy Baseball Hitters?

The whole journey to prove/disprove the ESPN Player Rater eventually led me to the Point Shares concept that is the foundation of my 2008 drafting and player valuation.

Anyway, I checked in on the ESPN Player Rater in 2008 and it looks like they listened to good ol’ Rudy. Some of the improvement I’m seeing:

  • Negative values (particularly in AVG, ERA, WHIP) – Where 2007’s version would have a floor at 0, the current rater penalizes very bad performance. CC Sabathia currently sports -3.31 points in ERA and -2.64 in WHIP.
  • No arbitrary cap at 5 points per category – I’m seeing some category leaders at 3 and Michael Bourn at a 7.64 for SB.

It’s too early to do a full assessment of the methodology. I figure I’ll do a Point Shares update at the All-Star Break and compare it then. But given the shit I gave ESPN during the offseason, it’s only fair that I give them credit for coming to their senses (and listening to me).

Has anyone in Razzball Nation been using ESPN for their fantasy league? If so, post your feedback! Grey and I went cold turkey on ESPN FLB after last year’s debacle (first two weeks of stats were fried – I had to calculate the data offline and make year-end adjustments). But I thought their new platform was pretty good. Interesting to hear what the rest of y’all think.

Oh, and just in case the worldwide leader is listening, add smart people to Baseball Tonight. Replace Eric ‘The Emmitt Smith of ESPN Baseball” Young and John Kruk with guys from ESPN.com like Keith Law and Rob Neyer. If you must pander to the masses, go with some tail like Erin Andrews.