Fantasy Baseball Specific Discussion - NO MORE HOLDS

[SlowwHand]

Steals not only advances the runner, it jacks with the catcher's and pitcher's minds.

[Imran Siddiqui]

thats right, if we get down to 5-6 off cats steals become the next cat to drop. And frankly I wouldn't miss it much... Its okay but not that relevant. I could go for R, RBI, TB, SLG, OBP, Those are the essentials imo, and they're good.

Hey Imran, what cats have you been liking these days?

As you know, I've always disliked RBIs (as any self respecting sabermetrically inclined person should - goes double for me since I'm actually a member of SABR ). It is highly dependent on the OBP of the players ahead of that batter. I'd rather have steals than RBIs.

[EPW]

I don't see how that's a bad thing. You actually have to know your player's role on their team to predict RBI's.

[SlowwHand]

Triples are a fluke, They definitely shoud go first. I don't really understand why you hate RBI's so much. A batter put at the 4th or 5th slot is pretty much acknowledged as a power potential. I wouldn't get carried away with culling stat categories. My saying Triples was to balance out stats if Holds was dropped next year.

[Berzerker]

As you know, I've always disliked RBIs (as any self respecting sabermetrically inclined person should - goes double for me since I'm actually a member of SABR ). It is highly dependent on the OBP of the players ahead of that batter. I'd rather have steals than RBIs.

what is the sabermetric standard? 5x5? I dont keep up on the newest terminology. The thing with RBIs is they're still relevant even if you are considering the obp of the guys in front of your rbi man. There's no substitute for actually driving runners in. Its weird, I used to like a bunch of stats and now I'm seeing the wisdom in the bare essentials.

[Imran Siddiqui]

RBIs is useless for individual determinations of a player's worth. Basically because the same player on the Yankees would drive in far more runners than if that player was on the Pirates and there is no way to equalize those numbers on RBIs. You can equalize for park and era factors, but RBIs, not so much.

RBIs have been out in the sabermatric world for two decades (if not the mid 80s when Bill James started to rail against them)

[SlowwHand]

Can this not be done at least a little for fun?

[Fistandantilus]

I'd have voted against triples too but not if 1B and 2B are in. I mean, rewarding doubles more than triples sounds unfair to me. Drop them also and either use H or TB. EWP suggestion I like.

Oh, and I loathe IP

[Berzerker]

RBIs is useless for individual determinations of a player's worth. Basically because the same player on the Yankees would drive in far more runners than if that player was on the Pirates and there is no way to equalize those numbers on RBIs. You can equalize for park and era factors, but RBIs, not so much.

RBIs have been out in the sabermatric world for two decades (if not the mid 80s when Bill James started to rail against them)

so what are the sabermetrics settings?

obp and slg for sure, steals aint bad I imagine. Thats the player and not so much the team. I like TB for some reason

Oh, and I loathe IP

yeah, I aint too happy with the emphasis on SPs myself (thats why we got holds, there just aint enough good pitching cats). Usually I'm throwing 4 RPs but this year I'm going with 2-3 depending on my SP starts/matchups. Like Ming said, its all a bunch of trade offs, thats called strategy. Even triples can be drafted, you sacrifice power but you probably gain in steals and runs. You wont see many, but you'll see more than most of your opponents.

[Ming]

The secret to Fantasy baseball is understanding the rules you are playing by and selecting players with an overall "plan" of attack. Leagues play by different rules, and it's important to understand the true value of any player based on the stat categories and type of league you are in. It's not really important what the categories are... but it is important that you understand how you can manage them in your best interest. There are some players that I really love for certain leagues and not for others. It is all about strategy and and trade offs.

Heck, if you are playing head to head vs the traditional method, there are days when you may not want to start your best pitchers simply because you have already won the key pitching categories, and starting them might only make you lose them... something you wouldn't even consider in a standard fantasy league. There have been many saturday and sundays in head to head leagues where I've adjusted lineups to attack certain key stats that are still up in the air, while sitting super stars.

Again... no league is perfect in what rules they use... there is no magic formula... and frankly, it doesn't really matter to me what categories are used. All the matters is that I understand the rules, and play accordingly.
It seems silly to me to complain after the fact about rules that were agreed to. Just go out and take advantage of them.

[Imran Siddiqui]

so what are the sabermetrics settings?

Well there are no cut and dry "sabermetric settings". I mean, obviously OBP would be key as would TB. Things like BA and RBI would be dropped at the first sign.

Maybe: OBP, SLG, TB, R, and perhaps SB. Since, I'd imagine, Yahoo's league doesn't have things like VORP, EQA or Runs Created .

[Berzerker]

thats close to what epw was suggesting, but BA isn't sabermetric? Obp is better, so its moot.

is the pitching similar? QS, ERA, WHIP, K, K/BB