Fantasy Baseball Advice

We already went over what it took to win your fantasy baseball league for 12 teams.  Don’t believe me?  Click this.  Sucker!  You got Rick Schroder rolled!  Or not because you read this part before you clicked it.  I know, 2002 called, they want their internet meme back.  Okay, here’s what it takes to win your 12 team fantasy baseball league.  Now here we have what it takes to win a 10, 14, 15 and 16 team mixed leagues with 12 thrown in for a reference point.  This year we separated what it took to win your ESPN leagues and your Y! leagues, due to our differences between ESPN and Y! post.  We use ESPN for our RCL, but if you use Y!, I think I get a thousand dollars for every time someone signs up.  Or maybe that’s one thousandth of a dollar.  Either way, use this link.

The numbers you see in the chart (which was made by Rudy — thanks, Rudy!) are the 75th percentile for each league.  So that means in a 10 team ESPN league 1,083 runs gets you a 7.5, 270 homers gets you a 7.5 and so on.  Then in a 14 team Y! league, 817 Runs gets you a 10.5 in the standings.  For those slow on the uptake, just take 75% of the team count and you have the points.  These are all for one catcher leagues.  If you have two catcher leagues, the counting stats go up a little bit and down a little on average.  Anyway, here’s what it takes to win a 10, 14, 15 and 16 2012 fantasy baseball league:

	10 Team		12 Team		14 Team		15 Team		16 Team
	ESPN	Y!	ESPN	Y!	ESPN	Y!	ESPN	Y!	ESPN	Y!
R	1,083	856	1,045	838	1,014	817	999	805	982	794
HR	270	220	261	211	253	202	247	200	240	198
RBI	1,034	827	1,008	804	979	783	961	774	941	765
SB	212	175	189	163	176	154	171	148	169	143
AVG	0.269	0.272	0.267	0.270	0.265	0.269	0.264	0.268	0.264	0.267
W	103	103	100	100	98	95	97	97	96	96
SV	105	105	92	92	81	81	72	76	73	73
ERA	3.37	3.37	3.44	3.44	3.49	3.49	3.51	3.57	3.54	3.54
WHIP	1.23	1.23	1.24	1.24	1.25	1.25	1.25	1.25	1.26	1.26
K	1,261	1,261	1,330	1,330	1,188	1,188	1,170	1,170	1,158	1,158

With the Razzball Commenter Leagues sign ups in full swing, we look at what last year’s RCLs showed us.  I.e., this is what it took to win these fantasy baseball leagues last year.  Across thirty-six 12 team leagues, you would think you’d have some wide variations, but it’s amazingly close what you need in each category to do average vs. win.  Some quick points upfront.  There were 5 outfielders and one utility, so if you play in a Yahoo league with three outfielders and two utility, I’d expect more offense across the board.  Not much, but some.  There was a 180 games started max for pitchers.  6.5 is average in a 12 team league, not 6 because the last place team has 1 point, not zero.  Finally, the RCLs are made up of guys that are probably more competitive than your casual fantasy baseball leaguemates, so if you can hit these benchmarks, you should be in good shape.  Anyway, here’s what it takes to win a 12 team fantasy baseball league:

Runs – 997

The average team last year scored 973 runs, that would get them 6.5 points in the standings in runs.  To win your league, it took 1,108 runs with the average hitter contributing 85 runs.  To move up a point from average, you needed an extra 24 runs.  So 24 runs on top of 973 runs took you from 6.5 points to 7.5 in the standings.  I like to aim for a 7.5 in runs.  So I would aim for 997 runs or 77 runs/player.

Home Runs — 257

The average team hit 237 homers.  To win, you needed 294 homers or 23 homers/player.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points in the standings), you needed an extra 10 homers.  I like to aim for an 8.5 in homers.  So I would aim for 20 extra homers from 237 or 257 homers or 20 homers/player.

RBIs — 970

The average team needed 936 RBIs.  To win, you had to get 1,071 or 82 RBIs/player.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points), you needed an extra 24 RBIs.  I aim for a 7.5 points in RBIs.  So I would aim for 970 RBIs or 75 RBIs/player.

Steals — 176

The average team needed 162 steals.  To win, you had to get 214 or 17 steals/player.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points), you needed an extra 9 steals.  I aim for 8 points in steals.  So I would aim for 176 steals or 14 steals/player.

Average — .267

The average team’s, uh, average is .2674.  To win, you had to get a .2806.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points), you needed an increase of .002.  I aim for average in, well, ya know.  So I would want a .267 average.  Let the rest figure itself out.

Strikeouts — 1,305

The average team’s Ks are 1,168.  To win, you needed to rack up 1,384 Ks.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points), you needed an extra 39 Ks.  I aim for a 10 in Ks.  Actually, I don’t aim for it, but that’s where I end up.  So I would want 1,305 Ks from my pitching staff.

Wins — 82

The average team’s pitchers won 82 games.  To win, you needed to win 99.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points), you needed to win an extra 3 games.  (Any Astro starter is good for at least three wins.)  I go for average here, which is 82 games.  Otherwise known as letting the cards fall where they may.

Saves — 126

The average team’s relievers closed out 91 games.  To win, you needed 146  saves.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points), you needed an extra 10 saves.  I aim for a 10 in saves.  My thought is if you have extra, you can always trade those suckers.  To get 10 points in saves, you needed 126 saves.

ERA — 3.51

The average team’s pitchers had a 3.59 ERA.  To win, you needed a 3.17 ERA.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points), you needed an increase of .08.  I aim for a 7.5 in ERA.  So I would want a 3.51 ERA.  In reality, ERA’s so fickle that aiming for ERA is like throwing darts at a unicorn.

WHIP — 1.19

The average team’s pitchers had a 1.23 WHIP.  To win, you needed a 1.15 WHIP.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points), you needed an increase of .01.  I aim for a 9 in WHIP.  So I would want a 1.19 WHIP.

The final results are in and I tested negative!  Oh, wait, this is for the fantasy baseball leagues.  Um, yeah, ignore that first sentence.  This year in a not-so-unprecedented move of not-so-unprecedented size and enormity.  We’re giving away prizes to our fantasy league winners!  Last year we gave away a hot tub, but this year we did that one better.  We one-upped a hot tub!  We’re giving away an autographed Neifi Perez baseball.  Wow!  Whoever won that Neifi Perez baseball, try not to act too smug, okay?  If you didn’t win this year, don’t worry, there’s always 2012! (Assuming the Mayans were as cracked out of their mind as they sound.) Also, before I let Rick Allen drum roll us into the winners, I wanted to give a warm thanks-slash-”Hey, good job, guy” to VinWins for updating the leagues every two weeks and updating us about his updating of them.  Okay, here comes the update.  Update, update, update… Stupid broken record!  Anyway, here’s the fantasy baseball league updates:

Overall Razzball Commenters League Winner

Drum roll, please… Random Italicized Voice! I won something? But I drafted Justin Morneau.  Not you, but someone who took your name and made you seem smart.  Oh.  Sweet!  Should I contact my trademark attorney?  No.  Can I continue?  Who’s stopping you?  Nice showing, RIV.  Member in the preseason when I said you want to draft a 1st baseman in the 1st round?  RIV drafted Votto.  Think your season is done when you have some bad breaks at the draft?  RIV drafted Mauer in the 4th round, Aaron Hill in the 8th and A-Rod in the 2nd round.  Also drafted Nate McLousy, Erik Bedard, John Lackey and Jon Niese.  In a very competitive league, they still scored 12′s in every category but saves and ERA, where they were at 10 and 11, respectively.  Regale us, RIV, regale us!  (Frankly, it’s pretty amazing how well they did.)

The prizes headed RIV’s way is a trophy from Clay Trophies from our very own commenter, Tony.  The trophy is pretty effin’ — wait, I need caps for emphasis — COOL.  Seriously, RIV, if you don’t want it, I’m taking it.  Who said I didn’t want it?  Not you, man.  Again, my bad.  In addition to the trophy, you’re going to get a Louisville Slugger with my signature.  Now you can walk around like Joe Clark!  If the kids still said that something rad was rad, they’d say this bat was rad.  RIV, please put your email in the comments so I can lavish you with prizes.  All 455 other people who didn’t win, better luck next year!  And congratulate RIV.

Overall Fantasy Razzball Winner

Drum roll, please… Voidoid!  Somehow that name makes total sense to win a league where the idea is to have the worst fantasy team.  Now when you walk around in your velour robe singing, “I may be bad, but I’m perfectly good at it,” you can say you’re singing about Fantasy Razzball.  Voidoid scored 6,085 points, but thanks to how badly their leaguemates wanted to do badly they beat out ichirosan who scored 6,556 points but was only able to get 3rd place because of how terrible their league was at being terrible.  That is not pretty awful, friends.  That’s just awful.  (If you’re not confused yet, don’t worry it gets worse.  Or is it better?)  Speaking of awful, I was actually one of the 120 participants in the Fantasy Razzball tourney of turpitude and I finished 26th.  I just couldn’t get my ball rolling for the worse.  I had Porcello in the beginning of the year when he was doing well, then when he started making dresses out of garbage bags I had already dropped him.  Guthrie lost games for me, but wasn’t razztastic like he needed to be.  Infante was manning the Not Corner, and he was pretty terrible in the good way for most of the year, but August and September weren’t great which is to say they were decent.  Jason Bay was terribly wonderful on my hitting, but he just wasn’t enough.  Show them what we have for Grey!  Nothing!  Again, that somehow seems like a good prize for this league so maybe I should get something.  We’ll leave that to the rocket scientists to figure out, or just anyone with some free time.  But for Voidoid we one-upped nothing! (If you read the lead — or lede if you’re a newsie — you probably know what Voidoid won, but act surprised anyway.)  No, instead of nothing, Voidoid won a Neifi Perez baseball.  We wanted Neifi to sign a turd, but we didn’t want to get kicked out of the Parsippany Holiday Inn autograph signing.  Voidoid put your info in the comments and I’ll make all your wishes come true, if your only wish is a Neifi Perez signed baseball.  And lavish him with some praise for stinking up the joint so good.

RCL sign-ups are in full bloom, but this isn’t for that.  This is for those in deeper or shallower leagues.  We already went over what it took to win your fantasy baseball league for 12 teams.  Don’t believe me?  Click this.  Sucker!  You got Rick Schroder rolled!  Or not because you read this part before you clicked it.  I know, 2002 called, they want their internet meme back.  Okay, here’s what it takes to win your 12 team fantasy baseball league.  Now here we have what it takes to win a 10, 14 and 16 team mixed league and an AL-Only or NL-Only league.  I’m not going to breakdown how much it takes to move up each point because with a little math you should be able to figure it out on your own.  Look at me having high hopes for you Razzballers.  (Hint:  Average is always the middle plus a half.  So the average in a 10 team league is 5.5.  To move up a point is the difference between the high and low number divided by the number of teams minus one.  So to move up one point in Runs in a ten team league, it’s 1240-1000 divided by 8, which is 30 Runs.  Voila, snitches!)  This is for the roster of C/1B/2B/SS/3B/5 OF/MI/CI/UTIL/9 P in the mixed leagues.  Then the AL and NL-Only leagues are factoring in 2 catchers.  In ten team mixed leagues, 10 pitchers are factored in because of the heavy waiver wiring that goes on.  Finally, the mixed leagues IP range is 1400-1500 and 1300-1400 in single leagues.  Wins and Ks should be lowered if your cap is below that.  Anyway, here’s what it takes to win a 10, 14, 16, NL-Only and AL-Only fantasy baseball league:

10 TEAM, MIXED

RUNS

Average – 1120
High – 1240
Low – 1000

HOME RUNS

Average – 267
High – 315
Low – 219

RBIS

Average – 1093
High – 1216
Low – 969

STEALS

Average – 184
High – 254
Low – 114

AVERAGE

Average – .279
High – .291
Low – .267

WINS

Average – 100
High – 120
Low – 79

SAVES

Average – 84
High – 156
Low – 44

ERA

Average – 3.66
High – 3.10
Low – 4.23

WHIP

Average – 1.25
High – 1.18
Low – 1.31

STRIKEOUTS

Average – 1348
High – 1576
Low – 1120

14 TEAM, MIXED

RUNS

Average — 1067
High — 1181
Low — 953

HOME RUNS

Average — 247
High — 287
Low — 206

RUNS BATTED IN

Average — 1038
High — 1155
Low — 921

STEALS

Average — 169
High — 229
Low — 108

AVERAGE

Average — .275
High — .287
Low — .263

WINS

Average — 90
High — 109
Low — 71

SAVES

Average — 62
High — 117
Low — 33

ERA

Average — 3.75
High — 3.17
Low — 4.33

WHIP

Average — 1.26
High — 1.20
Low — 1.32

STRIKEOUTS

Average — 1192
High — 1394
Low — 991

16 TEAMS, MIXED

RUNS

Average — 1040
High — 1151
Low — 929

HOME RUNS

Average — 241
High — 280
Low —201

RBIS

Average — 1013
High — 1127
Low — 898

STEALS

Average — 157
High — 213
Low — 100

AVERAGE

Average — .274
High — .286
Low — .262

WINS

Average — 88
High — 106
Low — 69

SAVES

Average — 56
High — 107
Low — 30

ERA

Average — 3.78
High — 3.19
Low — 4.37

WHIP

Average — 1.27
High — 1.20
Low — 1.33

STRIKEOUTS

Average — 1167
High — 1364
Low — 969

10 TEAM, AL-ONLY

RUNS

Average — 974
High — 1078
Low — 870

HOME RUNS

Average — 220
High — 259
Low — 180

RBIS

Average — 944
High — 1051
Low — 838

STEALS

Average — 147
High — 202
Low — 91

AVERAGE

Average — .272
High — .283
Low — .260

WINS

Average — 84
High — 101
Low — 66

SAVES

Average — 45
High — 88
Low — 13

ERA

Average — 4.05
High — 3.42
Low — 4.67

WHIP

Average — 1.31
High — 1.24
Low — 1.37

STRIKEOUTS

Average — 1084
High — 1267
Low — 901

10 TEAM, NL-ONLY

RUNS

Average — 940
High — 1040
Low — 839

HOME RUNS

Average — 219
High — 258
Low — 179

RBIS

Average — 921
High — 1025
Low — 817

STEALS

Average — 132
High — 182
Low — 82

AVERAGE

Average — .271
High — .283
Low — .259

WINS

Average — 92
High — 111
Low — 73

SAVES

Average — 44
High — 101
Low — 14

ERA

Average — 3.82
High — 3.23
Low —4.41

WHIP

Average — 1.28
High — 1.21
Low — 1.34

STRIKEOUTS

Average — 1242
High — 1452
Low — 1032

12 TEAM, AL-ONLY

RUNS

Average — 826
High — 914
Low — 738

HOME RUNS

Average — 188
High — 219
Low — 157

RBIS

Average — 802
High — 893
Low — 712

STEALS

Average — 123
High — 167
Low — 79

AVERAGE

Average — .271
High — .283
Low — .259

WINS

Average — 80
High — 97
Low — 63

SAVES

Average — 38
High — 74
Low — 11

ERA

Average — 4.12
High — 3.48
Low — 4.76

WHIP

Average — 1.32
High — 1.25
Low — 1.38

STRIKEOUTS

Average — 1038
High — 1213
Low — 862

12 TEAM, NL-ONLY

RUNS

Average — 791
High — 875
Low — 706

HOME RUNS

Average — 184
High — 214
Low — 153

RBIS

Average — 775
High — 863
Low — 688

STEALS

Average — 111
High — 151
Low — 71

AVERAGE

Average — .271
High — .283
Low — .259

WINS

Average — 87
High — 105
Low — 69

SAVES

Average — 38
High — 84
Low — 12

ERA

Average — 3.89
High — 3.28
Low — 4.49

WHIP

Average — 1.29
High — 1.22
Low — 1.35

STRIKEOUTS

Average — 1169
High — 1367
Low — 971

With the Razzball Commenter Leagues sign ups starting on Monday, we decided to take a look at what last year’s RCLs showed us.  I.e., this is what it took to win these fantasy baseball leagues last year.  Across twenty-one 12 team leagues, you would think you’d have some wide variations, but it’s amazingly close what you need in each category to do average vs. win.  Some quick points upfront.  There were 5 outfielders and one utility, so if you play in a Yahoo league with three outfielders and two utility, I’d expect more offense across the board.  Not much, but some.  There was a 180 games started max for pitchers.  6.5 is average in a 12 team league, not 6 because the last place team has 1 point, not zero.  Finally, the RCLs are made up of guys that are probably more competitive than your casual fantasy baseball leaguemates, so if you can hit these benchmarks, you should be in good shape.  Anyway, here’s what it takes to win a 12 team fantasy baseball league:

Runs – 1,021

The average team last year scored 998 runs, that would get them 6.5 points in the standings in runs.  To win your league, it took 1,124 runs with the average hitter contributing 86.5 runs.  To move up a point from average, you needed an extra 22.80 runs.  So 23 runs on top of 998 runs took you from 6.5 points to 7.5 in the standings.  I like to aim for a 7.5 in runs.  So I would aim for 1,021 runs or 79 runs/player.

Home Runs — 255

The average team hit 235 homers.  To win, you needed 291 homers or 22.4 homers/player.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points in the standings), you needed an extra 10.19 homers.  I like to aim for an 8.5 in homers.  So I would aim for 20 extra homers from 235 or 255 homers or 20 homers/player.

RBIs — 973

The average team needed 948 RBIs.  To win, you had to get 1,083 or 83.6 RBIs/player.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points), you needed an extra 24.4 RBIs.  I aim for a 7.5 points in RBIs.  So I would aim for 973 RBIs or 75 RBIs/player.

Steals — 177

The average team needed 150 steals.  To win, you had to get 208 or 16 steals/player.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points), you needed an extra 10.5 steals.  I aim for 8 points in steals.  So I would aim for 177 steals or 14 steals/player.

Average — .271

The average team’s, uh, average is .271.  To win, you had to get a .284.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points), you needed an increase of .002.  I aim for average in, well, ya know.  So I would want a .271 average.  Let the rest figure itself out.

Strikeouts — 1,272

The average team’s Ks are 1,149.  To win, you needed to rack up 1,342 Ks.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points), you needed an extra 34.99 Ks.  I aim for a 10 in Ks.  Actually, I don’t aim for it, but that’s where I end up.  So I would want 1,272 Ks from my pitching staff.

Wins — 86

The average team’s pitchers won 86 games.  To win, you needed to win 104 .  To move up a point from average (6.5 points), you needed to win an extra 3.23 games.  (Any Astro pitcher is good for at least four .23 wins.)  I go for average here, which is 86 games.  Otherwise known as letting the cards fall where they may.

Saves — 122

The average team’s relievers closed out 87 games.  To win, you needed 142  saves.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points), you needed an extra 10.02 saves.  I aim for a 10 in saves.  My thought is if you have extra, you can always trade those suckers.  To get 10 points in saves, you needed 122 saves.

ERA — 3.56

The average team’s pitchers had a 3.64 ERA.  To win, you needed a 3.18 ERA.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points), you needed an increase of .08.  I aim for a 7.5 in ERA.  So I would want a 3.56 ERA.  In reality, ERA’s so fickle that aiming for ERA is like throwing darts at a unicorn.

WHIP — 1.23

The average team’s pitchers had a 1.26 WHIP.  To win, you needed a 1.18 WHIP.  To move up a point from average (6.5 points), you needed an increase of .01.  I aim for a 9 in WHIP.  So I would want a 1.23 WHIP.