So excited to be back! Wild horses couldn’t keep me, Mr. Moving Averages away from what I have in store for you here, in Part 9 of The Eighteenth Out. I’m burning the midnight oil to get all of this information out before drafts take place, and if I lock up a Newcomer of the Year award in the meantime, then so be it. There’s so much custom content to provide today I’ll cut the jokes short and get right to work. Ok, maybe one because if you can’t tell by now I am a sucker for the pop culture of my childhood. Hold on to your giant dark helmets ladies and gentlemen; This series is now officially moving at LUDICROUS SPEED, and we’re at serious risk of going plaid.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Quality Starts
Spring Training is here, and Mr. Moving Averages is cranking out content like some kind of content making machine. Countless hours of research, critical thinking, data mining, analysis & writing all come to a head as we approach Opening Day. Draft season is upon us, even if there may be snow on the ground in Brooklyn as I write this. Our immersive work, without an initial definitive direction began by opening a door. That lead to another door. And another, and another until we wound up down the rabbit hole, nowhere near where we started. My advice at this point? Follow the white rabbit. Reminds me of an old adage, a call to unification; ”Where we go one, we go all”.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Let’s break a bottle on this Brooklyn built ship and set sail! Before anything else, I’d like to send a huge thanks to Grey, Jay, the entire Razzball staff and all the readers for the opportunity to put my fantasy inspired madness onto digital paper. [Jay’s Note: You’re welcome!] It’s truly an honor and a pleasure, I’ve been a reader for long time. Hopefully I can provide some new information, a new perspective and some laughs to one of my favorite portions of the fantasy community. My friends, buckle up as we are about to embark together bravely on a series about an incredibly vital aspect, yet often ignored part of the fantasy game; the elusive Quality Start.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Perhaps your league is just forming, or has been around a few years and has an established core of owners, and you may be mulling some changes in rules. I’d like to suggest adding Quality Starts (QS) + Wins (W) over the simple Wins category in pitching. There are a few reasons for this, but first I would say the “Quality Start” is far from perfect, as it may devalue young pitching that would dominate a game, and the organization is looking to protect the young asset, then pulls the young phenom after 5 and 2/3 innings (a Quality Start requires 6 IP or more with 3 ER or less). There are also times when a pitcher is shelled and bailed out by errors. The “Wins” category can be less reflective of the pitcher’s effort in a positive or negative way depending on if his team scores two or more earned runs a night than league average, or has a bullpen like the 2014 Chicago White Sox. With the flaws in both categories (although I suggest QS as the better of the two on its own), combining the two makes for a more realistic category in my opinion, and let me show you why.
Please, blog, may I have some more?