Fantasy Baseball Begins - Play Ball!

[Berzerker]

Gentlemen, league sign ups begin this Thursday/Friday!

Only Imran's league will be in play as my league garnered only 6 people. So, shall we discuss changes? If we are going to have saves and holds as we did last year, I strongly suggest 3-2-2 (3 sp, 2 rp, 2 ut) for the pitching spots so we have enough leeway to compete for both saves and holds. Last year we hade 4 sp and 2 rp positions making it very difficult to compete for both categories. There isn't much point in having saves and holds with only 2 pitcher spots to devote to both categories. To go for the holds category with 1 pitcher you basically have to give up the saves category.

Imran
Berzerker
Emporer Fabulous
Apocalypse
Lawrence of Arabia
Tuberski
Vlad Antler
jdd
Stuie
Ramsey
Asleep
Guynemer

I suggest you post your preferences and dont assume the categories you like will be included.

My prefs:

errors instead of fielding percent ( not crucial to me)

saves and holds with 3-2-2 pitching spots (this is important to me). It was unfortunate these categories basically became a wash last year with 1 person going for saves and the other going for holds or both going for just 1 category.

Either a minimum IP per week (which scares the hell out of me because all-star week abbreviates that weeks games, but 12-14 IP (hell, I played a daily league last year with a min of 30 IP) doesn't seem to be much of a problem. Just be careful during the all-star week and make sure your starters stand a good chance of pitching. OR give a clear advantage to increased starts with an additional category.

Let the fun begin, start looking up player stats folks, I suspect we will be making picks this weekend or when Imran gives us the go ahead.

Oh yeah, we'll need to make a pick order too. If we knew the order from last year I'd suggest we just reverse it.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Woot! I guess the changes for Fantasy Baseball, with the same to MLB Media Associates, begin next year (if at all)?

Btw... we have weekly in my league... just thought you should know.

I'm usually not a fan of 'swing' positions. This means 'Utility' and 'Pitcher'. I like set classifications. In fact, if I think you wouldn't lynch me, I'd rather have a LF, CF, and RF than 3 OF or 2 OF and a CF .

I wasn't a fan of putting holds in and I don't want it against this year.

I REALLY think it is a bad idea to put errors instead of fielding percentage in. Again, those who don't play in the field get a HUGE boost with errors, because they will never make an error. However, with FD%, they will be at 0.000. I'd rather have that. I don't like perverse incentives.

[Agathon]

Right:

STEROID SCANDAL!!

[Lawrence of Arabia]

should be SP SP SP SP SP/P RP RP RP 1B 2B 3B SS LF RF CF C, 4 bench spots
stats: hits doubles triples hr tb sb cs BB K FPCT
stats: IP earned runs (not era) SO BB FPCT S BS H hits allowed

[Imran Siddiqui]

Triples?! Why? That's even more nebulous than holds!

And what's the point of including hits, doubles, triples, HRs, and THEN Total Bases... you are just counting them exactly twice then (at least have some variation between stats)! If you took out triples and had TB, then I can see it better.

And I'll take ERA over earned runs. Even with IP, starters are penalized compared to relievers (relievers have Saves and/or Holds as well).

Anyway, my preferences:

Lineup:

C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, RF, CF, 5 bench

Rotation:

SP, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, P (my concession )

Stats (hitting):

BA, OBP, SLG, Hits, HR, BB, SB, FDPT

Stats (pitching):

ERA, K, BB, Saves, Hits Allowed, Wins, Losses

[Berzerker]

I wasn't a fan of putting holds in and I don't want it against this year.

I suppose we can just compete for saves, its just I think we need a stat to cover what has become a very important part of the game - 6-8th innings. Frankly saves are over rated given how many games are won or lost before getting to the 9th.

I REALLY think it is a bad idea to put errors instead of fielding percentage in. Again, those who don't play in the field get a HUGE boost with errors, because they will never make an error.

True, I had a brainfart.

Catcher
1st base
2nd base
3rd base
Shortstop
3 Outfield (I wouldn't mind LF, CF. RF if we were allowed deeper rosters).
DH or Utility

total of 9 batting spots

3 or 4 SP
2 RP
1 or 2 Ut

total of 7 pitching spots

Let me see if I can remember categories:

categories with a ? are...well...of questionable value or duplicated elsewhere

AB (?)
hits
runs
doubles (?)
Triples (?) (Can you say, Carl Crawford?)
Extra base hits may not be an option but Yahoo should offer it
homers
RBIs
Fielding % (?)
Stolen bases
Total Bases
Strikeouts
Walks
On base % (?)
Slugging % (?)
OPS (on base and slugging) (?)

Below are pitching categories with the reliever strategy breakdown compared to the normal 4 starters

Innings pitched (?) - advantage SP
Wins - adv SP
Losses - adv RP
Saves - adv RP
Holds - adv RP
Strikeouts - adv SP
Walks - adv RP
Total Bases - adv RP
Earned run average - adv RP (this does favor relievers)

If we drop holds and IPs the reliever strategy is still evident. And there are usually 1-2 closers who have SP status so if we went with a 4 SP-2RP like last year, the guy who can get the closer with SP status has a nice advantage (Danny Graves is a good example, but he should have lost his SP status so we might not see any closers in that situation until the season is well under way). But its still an advantage I'd like to see prevented or eliminated.

My prefs for scoring:

hits
runs
homers
RBIs
Stolen bases
Total bases
walks
strikeouts
OPS

optional:

doubles
triples
fielding %
OBS & slugging instead of OPS

Wins
Losses
saves
holds
strikeouts
walks
Total bases
ERA

Optional: To avoid the reliever strategy

IP
Starts

drop holds and/or total bases

I'm just glad to see yahoo up and running, I was afraid we were getting screwed. Yahoo says free and pay leagues would be going soon.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I suppose we can just compete for saves, its just I think we need a stat to cover what has become a very important part of the game - 6-8th innings. Frankly saves are over rated given how many games are won or lost before getting to the 9th.

Holds are even more over rated. I don't know of anyone that really considers them a useful stat. I believe there is a K/Inning stat which may be great for those middle relievers.

[Berzerker]

Oops, I knew I was forgetting something - batting average is a must. Btw, I like more categories and dont mind all duplication since that only enhances the disparity in performance, i.e., you can dominate in offense and only win by a small margin. Consider having your landslide in homers negated by 1 SB or .003 in fielding. Okay, my prefs for now

hits
runs
average
homers
RBIs
BBs
Ks
OPS
total bases

I wouldn't mind adding categories

innings > SP
wins > SP
losses > RP
saves > RP
holds > RP
era => RP
Total bases > RP
Ks > SP
BBs > RP

Damn, I'm not really a fan of having IP but I dont know how to counter the RP strategy. I might have to drop holds and total bases and keep innings or something because the reliever stategy is favored by the categories I have.

[Berzerker]

How can you say holds are over rated? Its among the least known of the pitching categories... Even you think its a bogus stat. Oh well, I suspect we'll just have to wait for people to express an opinion on it. It may have to be dropped anyway so relievers aren't more valuable than starters, but thats because some of you guys dont want a bunch of categories. I'd use just about every category Yahoo has

[Imran Siddiqui]

How can you say holds are over rated?

It's the new 'buzz' stat that more and more fantasy leagues are using. I hate it.

thats because some of you guys dont want a bunch of categories. I'd use just about every category Yahoo has

Frankly, I wouldn't mind just going Runs, TB, OBP, SLG, SB, Fielding %, ERA, BB, K, Wins, Saves

[Berzerker]

Ugh to fewer categories

It's the new 'buzz' stat that more and more fantasy leagues are using. I hate it.

Yes folks, its February - time for me and Imran to argue about holds. The reason for that "buzz" is many people recognise the importance of holds. If it was just another meaningless stat it would be ignored. Over due is not over rated...

[Imran Siddiqui]

The reason for that "buzz" is many people recognise the importance of holds.

Holds have NO importance! They are a useless stat! People said we have to have a measure for the middle relievers and came up with this BS in 1999! It's even more useless than the Save, which apparently has to be included because most people think its important.

Frankly, I think it'll be one of those stats that people won't be talking about in 20 years time.

[Stuie]

Holds are silly.

My preferences (remember, I'm an OPS fan... I'll fight for that).

Stats (hitting):

BA, OPS, Hits, HR, Runs, BB, SB, FDPT

Stats (pitching):

ERA, K, BB, Saves, Hits Allowed, Wins, Losses, IP


Positions:

C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, OF, OF, CF, UT
SP, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, P

Edit: Forgot - plus four bench spots, 2 DL spots.

[gjramsey]

Hmm...need to do some thinking on this. My thoughts:

Positions
C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, RF, CF, Ut, 4 bench

Rotation:

SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P

2 spots for the DL.

Stats I will stew on for a while.

[Vlad Antlerkov]

Re: Fantasy Baseball Begins - Play Ball!

For positions, I'm voting for C-1B-2B-3B-SS-CF-OF-OF-UT and SP-SP-SP-SP-RP-P-P, 4 bench, 2 DL.

Stats... My opinion of saves and holds is that they're equally silly, but generally aren't perceived as such because saves are established and holds are not. (Nitpick-- STATS, Inc. came up with Holds sometime in the 80s, and has been keeping them unofficially for some time. To the best of my knowledge, MLB started picking up on them just last year.) If there's some way to combine the two into one category, I'd just go with that, but since Yahoo is a piece of crap, there isn't. None of the other solutions (keeping one and dropping the other, keeping both as distinct categories, or dropping both) really strike me as favorable, but if I had to pick one, I'd just go with keeping Saves and dropping Holds. (If we did include both, I'd swap out one of the SPs or Ps for another RP.)

That said, batting:
Batting Average (only for tradition, can be dropped)
On-Base Percentage
Slugging Percentage
Hits
Home Runs
Total Bases
Stolen Bases
Runs Scored
RBI
Walks
Doubles (not a strong preference, can be dropped)

None of the fielding stats Yahoo offers (putouts, assists, errors, fielding percentage) are all that meaningful. If they had Zone Rating, I'd include it.

Pitching:
Wins
Losses
Saves (can be dropped)
IP
ERA
Strikeouts
WHIP
K/9
K/BB

Does it put a lot of emphasis on the strikeout? Sure. But I don't really mind that.