Fantasy Baseball Snake Draft Strategy – The Cumulative Round-by-Round Impact On Team Success

February 11, 2014 | Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy | 83 Comments

In my 2013 review of Fantasy Baseball Rankings, I noted how the majority of a team’s success (in 12-team mixed roto leagues) can be tied to the end-of-season value of their team. Those stats are:

Drafted Hitter+Pitcher End of Season Value – 66.9% correlation with Team Total Standings Points (2013)
Drafted Hitter End of Season Value = 70.5% correlation with Team Hitter Standings Points (2013)
Drafted Pitcher End of Season Value = 60.0% correlation with Team Pitcher Standings Points (2013)

The below graph shows the cumulative round-by-round impact of how a team’s draft drives a fantasy team’s success (or lack thereof) in the 2013 Razzball Commenter Leagues (so the end of season value of a team’s 1st-4th round hitters explains about 53% of a team’s hitting standing points (red line), 1st-4th round pitchers explains about 9% of a team’s pitching standing points, and the sum of the two explain 40% of a team’s total standings points)

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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Best Fantasy Baseball Team for 2014

February 11, 2014 | 2014 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 386 Comments

by: Grey

So the title has a bit of superlative in it. What was I gonna say, the most kinda good fantasy baseball team? You’ll get over your scoffing, I have faith in you. This is the best 2014 fantasy baseball team that I can put together when drafting from my top 100 for 2014 fantasy baseball and top 400 for 2014 fantasy baseball. Honestly, I could draft another 25 teams from those lists, and they’d all be different, but equally terrific… Well, one of the twenty-five would only be almost terrific, but it would be really hard to tell which one that is. If I took Adam Jones in the 1st round, everything after would change. For this exercise, I’m taking Mike Trout first, because, well, I have him first overall. Until pick 100, I’m taking one guy somewhere in every twelve picks. It would be nice if I was in a league where someone drafted Darvish and Kershaw in the first round and I was able to take Prince Fielder in the 2nd round (which is likely), but since Trout and him are in my first 10 picks, according to the rules I’ve set up for myself, I can’t take them both. Then, as we all know, once you get into the 100’s, there’s wide gaps between ADP and where players are actually taken. People tend to look at team need over value. So for this exercise, once I get to pick #101, I’m going to pick two players every twenty picks. Finally, because there is so much latitude in the last 200, I gave myself free reign to fill up my team. Throughout the draft, I also gave myself the ability to reach to a lower draft pick, but not reach forward. It should still be my ideal team… Or not. Let’s see, shall we? Bee tee dubya, this team is 5×5, one catcher, 5 OFs, MI, CI, 1 UT, 9 P, 3 bench, just like the Razzball Commenter Leagues that are signing up still. (Yes, we need commissioners. I’m shooting for 70 leagues, but we need your help! Wow, I just sounded like FDR.) Anyway, here’s the best 2014 fantasy baseball team:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Deep League Thoughts – Tyson Ross

February 10, 2014 | Uncategorized | 78 Comments

by: Sky

[Ed. Note- Our RCL’s are under way! Go be a Commissioner, because there are really no other opportunities in life to have the title of Commissioner. Well, unless you are really into wildlife. In that case though, you can have two Commissioner titles, which is totally what you should be going for.]

Not gonna lie, I never thought I’d be writing a Fantasy Baseball article at 3 am. But when your boss calls you in for some OT late on a Sunday night and you’re thinking ‘nice, a little wink, wink, nudge, nudge and I move up the corporate ladder’ and they wonder why you’ve come to work in stilettos, lipstick and a ‘Spank me I’ve been bad’ pink t-shirt, you find yourself lying awake in the wee hours wondering if you’ll have a job in the morning. Of course, when talking about deep leagues, it’s almost like being an after-midnight infomercial. I mean, when you’re in the late hours of your draft, sometimes you get the Snuggie and sometimes you get the Tiddy Bear. It’s the nature of the beast. But with all that said, BILLY MAYS HERE AND I’D LIKE TO SHOUT AT YOU FOR A WHILE ABOUT AN UNDERRATED PITCHER! In all truthiness, I don’t know of a deep league that has pitching problems. Pitchers are just too abundant to ever say deep league rules apply but that doesn’t mean you can’t bargain hunt late and spend more time on your hitting earlier because of it. So let me introduce to you a pitcher who’s very much under the radar for 2014. Mr. Tyson Ross, c’mon down and see why you’re a contestant for sleeper for the 2014 Fantasy Baseball season…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

2014 Razzball Commenter Leagues

by: Grey

You know what would be really cool? If you could join a free fantasy baseball league that was against, like, 600 other fantasy baseball teams. But not a 600-person league, where people are trying to figure out who the back-up third baseman is on the Single-A Astros affiliate, Corpus Christi Amscrayers. No, this is a 12-person league designed so you compete against eleven other people in your league, then 60 other leagues of twelve. That would be cool. Oh, wait, we’ve done that. It’s called the Razzball Commenter Leagues, and they’re back, and you don’t even have to be a commenter to join it! For a limited time only, get your loved one a fantasy baseball league! That’s right, your hearts go pitter-patter or you’re dead on the inside (my condolences). Since back in June when you abandoned your fantasy baseball team because it was totally sucking and you returned to your cubbyhole of leftover Chinese food and Teddy Grahams, you’ve longed for this day. As Bob Marley sang, this is your redemption song, mon. Or womon, for our four girl readers. It’s time again to join some fantasy baseball leagues. Before you close all of your extraneous porn windows and rush to sign up, let’s explain how these fantasy baseball leagues are going to work. We’re going to have a bunch of leagues and crown a winner from each, then we’re going to crown ONE winner from all of the winners. We will be crowning the winner by taking each team’s points and multiplying it against a ‘league competitiveness factor.’ If you want to see how it worked last year, go here. So we’re going to fill up as many fantasy leagues as we can for the next seven weeks. Each fantasy baseball league will be a mixed league, 12 team, snake draft, roto, 5×5, 5 OFs, one Middle Infielder, one Corner Infielder, one Utility, 9 pitchers, 20 game eligibility, 180 Games Started max, 1000 IP minimum. Unlike previous years, we will be going with TWO DL SLOTS. The only things you need to change from the default is the 180 Games Started and the TWO DL SLOTS. Please be vigilant about having the exact same league rules and setup as everyone else. The lineup is also known as: C/1B/2B/SS/3B/CI/MI/5 OF/UTIL/9 P/3 BENCH/2 DL with 180 Games Started and 1000 IP minimum. The fantasy leagues will be played in ESPN and they will be free to join.

We’re going to start with twenty-one leagues of 12 and see how we do from there. To join a league… Sorry, again for the people in the back of the room:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

2014 Minor League Preview: Chicago Cubs

February 9, 2014 | Fantasy Baseball Prospects | 92 Comments

by: Scott Evans

Organizational Talent Rankings via Baseball America
2013 (12) | 2012 (14) | 2011 (16) | 2010 (14) | 2009 (27)

2013 Affiliate Records
MLB: [66-96] NL Central
AAA: [66-78] Pacific Coast League – Iowa
AA: [76-62] Southern League – Tennessee
A+: [75-51] Florida State League – Daytona
A: [55-80] Midwest League – Kane County
A(ss): [41-35] Northwest League — Boise

Graduated Prospects
Junior Lake (OF); Chris Rusin (LHP); Hector Rondon (RHP); Blake Parker (RHP)

The Run Down
Twins and Astros fans might take umbrage with this statement, but from a fantasy perspective, the Cubs have the most exciting farm in the minors. It starts with Javier Baez, of course, but the impact potential runs throughout this top ten, with every prospect bringing at least one high-end fantasy tool to the table. And I could’ve gone deeper too, with upper-levels arms like Arodys Vizaino and Neil Ramirez set to surface this season, and top latin talent, Eloy Jimenez, lurking at the instructional level. Plain and simple: this system is stacked. Some of you know that I was raised a Cardinals fan, and that the Redbirds are still my team. As such, I should be taken seriously when I tell you that the future of the Cubs is really friggin’ bright, and it is near, and it scares the piss out of me.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

2014 Astros Fantasy Baseball Preview

February 8, 2014 | Fantasy Baseball Team Previews | 43 Comments

by: Mike

We at Razzball realize that exporting our views across the country has damaging consequences on the blogosphere. To help make amends, we are reaching out to leading team blogs and featuring their locally blogged answers to pressing 2014 fantasy baseball questions regarding their team. We feel this approach will be fresher, more sustainable, and require less energy consumption (for us anyway). The 2014 Astros Fantasy Baseball Preview comes courtesy of James from Astros County.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Jam it or Cram it: 2014 Catchers

February 7, 2014 | Uncategorized | 98 Comments

by: The Guru

Get it?

Time to finally hang up the fantasy football helmet, slip into my official Steve Balboni athletic supporter and get ready for some of the base and the balls talk. This nipple hardening February morning finds your humble-but-nonetheless-handsome Guru loading the van up with scouting reports, clean turbans, eye black and my Jenny Dell inflatable doll for that long, lonely road trip to Fort Myers to prepare for spring training. As we cross the days off the calendar until we dive into some actual fake baseball drafting, it’s time to dig out the ol’ jammer crammer machine (available on Adam&Eve.com) and dig through this year’s jams and crams by position for the 2014 fantasy baseball season.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

2014 Padres Fantasy Baseball Preview

February 7, 2014 | Fantasy Baseball Team Previews | 26 Comments

by: Mike

We at Razzball realize that exporting our views across the country has damaging consequences on the blogosphere. To help make amends, we are reaching out to leading team blogs and featuring their locally blogged answers to pressing 2014 fantasy baseball questions regarding their team. We feel this approach will be fresher, more sustainable, and require less energy consumption (for us anyway). The 2014 Padres Fantasy Baseball Preview comes courtesy of Darklighter from Gaslamp Ball.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

2014 Fantasy Baseball Draft Prep, Pitchers Pairings

February 7, 2014 | 2014 Fantasy Baseball Draft, fantasy baseball strategy | 472 Comments

by: Grey

For these pitcher pairings, I’m going to be using our 2014 fantasy baseball rankings. Notably, the top 20 starters for 2014 fantasy baseball, top 40 starters for 2014, top 60 starters for 2014 and the top 80 starters for 2014. You can also just go to our Fantasy Baseball War Room once it’s ready, which should be by Tuesday. Or the fantasy baseball tiers. Okay, now that we have our links and shizz done. What is a pitcher pairing? It’s how you plan on putting together a fantasy staff. It’s a plan of action. If you have A pitcher, which B, C, D, E and F pitcher goes with him? Which is different than ‘F this pitcher,’ that’s what you say in May. You should have six starters. The sixth starter is Wily Peralta or take whoever you want. I suggest an upside pick. Jeff Samardzija comes to mind. Or Brandon Beachy. Zack Wheeler also comes to mind. I’m going to assume you’re in a 12 team, 5×5 and some variation of 9 pitcher leagues like the Razzball Commenter Leagues. Speaking of which, the RCL league sign-ups begin on Monday. (NOTE: What you are about to read is massively confusing. If it were found scribbled in a notebook, the FBI would be watching me. If Charles Manson stood up and read this at the next prison Meet N’ Greet, no one would blink an eye.) Anyway, here’s some pairings for pitching staffs for 2014 fantasy baseball drafts:

Please, blog, may I have some more?

2014 Fantasy Baseball Multi-Position Eligibility (Yahoo! Rules – 5+ Games)

February 6, 2014 | 2014 Fantasy Baseball Draft | 37 Comments

by: Rudy Gamble

Below are all players who should start the year with multiple position eligibility in leagues where a player must have 5+ games in the previous year to qualify for a position. I believe these rules are used only by Yahoo. I used 5 games as the cutoff where Yahoo uses 5 games started or 10 total games so it is possible there are a couple guys on this list where I may have erred. Please point out my mistakes in the comments.

Click here for multi-position eligibility players in 2014 fantasy baseball leagues with 20+ game eligibility.

You can use the text boxes on top of the grid to filter to a certain position (e.g., ‘SS’ shows all multi-position players with SS-eligibility).

Thanks and apologies for those of you who searched for ‘fantasy + multiple positions’ and expected more stimulating content.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Bullpen Report

February 6, 2014 | Middle Relievers | 56 Comments

by: Smokey

The first bullpen report of the year is always league-dependent, so read this with a grain of salt. Some of the top-chaps will be and should be rostered in most normal scoring leagues, while some are strictly reserved for Holds only leagues. For those of you with the ever trending upward Saves+Holds leagues (NSVH), (a trend I have tried for a few years that seems to work) the process isn’t really a groundbreaking formula where you need a calculator watch and/or an abacus to figure out.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Top 400 for 2014 Fantasy Baseball

February 6, 2014 | 2014 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Fantasy Baseball Rankings | 528 Comments

by: Grey

Finally, we come to the end of the 2014 fantasy baseball rankings. (Can we start games already?) A little birdie told me we’re opening up our commenter fantasy leagues on Monday. Then the little birdie pooped on my shoulder and I thought it was blue cheese and I put it on a cracker and– Wait, where was I? Okay, you know that I like Avisail Garcia more than Leonys Martin in the top 60 outfielders for 2014 fantasy baseball. You know I like Alcides Escobar more than Asdrubal Cabrera as seen at the top 20 shortstops for 2014 fantasy baseball, but you don’t know how I feel about where these guys fall in the bigger picture. Is Alcides above Avisail? So to show you where I think players fall in relation to each other in 2014 fantasy baseball drafts, I’m putting together a top 400 for 2014 fantasy baseball. This still needs to be taken with a grain of salt. If you have a shortstop already and Alcides is still on the board at pick 200, you don’t draft him if you see Leonys Martin and you need an outfielder, even though Leonys is below Alcides on this list. So I might take someone at 200 over someone at 180? Yes, every draft is different. With the top 10, there’s almost no latitude. With the top 100, there’s a decent amount of latitude. With a top 400, there’s lots of latitude. You taking someone at 185 is more or less the same as someone else taking someone at 235. So if you see someone who’s ranked at 250th, but want them at 200, then do what you do. Because of the length of the top 400, there’s no pithy comments with each name, but you kinda do need to know what I’m thinking for each name, so I advise you go over each position in the 2014 fantasy baseball rankings. The top 100 and top 400 is what I would have at my drafts, along with the top 20 rankings posts. If I were drafting online, I’d also use the Fantasy Baseball War Room (which is hopefully ready on Tuesday; this is out of my control, someone else needs to fill out the Excel spreadsheet). Finally, see our list of all players with multiple position eligibility. Anyway, here’s the top 400 for 2014 fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?