Yeah, this is sort of out of season, but I just thought of it.
I was recently eliminated in my fantasy baseball league. That got me to thinking about draft strategies for next year.
Pitcher scoring is given for wins, strikeouts, saves, ERA and WHIP, vs. a different opponent weekly.
What I want to know is, would it be a successful strategy to draft a team with NO relief pitchers? I’d never win the weekly saves category, but the strikeout and win categories would be far easier to win with the additional innings I would have from my starters. Closers just aren’t going to get the strikeouts with as few innings as they pitch, plus with MAYBE 3 innings a week, if that, they are having less effect in ERA and WHIP (although they have lower ones) than starters (unless the starter is pulled early).
Your first mistake is playing Head-to-Head. It’s a great fantasy football structure, but an absolutely terrible baseball setup. Your question is the perfect example why - there are a few strategies that, if well executed, make winning pretty trivial. One is to load up on just starters, the other is to load up on just relievers (and stacking up on elite middle relievers that go for absolutely nothing in drafts).
Just starters: Gonna win Ks hands down. Likely to win Wins, but that’s a terrible category to chase, and hard to predict. ERA and WHIP could honestly go either way, as they aren’t helped by more or less innings. Additionally, you need to invest pretty heavily in quality pitchers to make this work.
Just relievers: Gonna win Saves easily. ERA and WHIP you have a solid chance, if you do it wisely (elite middle relievers are basically free (post Round 15 picks), and dominate ERA/WHIP). I’ve occassionally seen a Win or K pickup as well if you manage to stash a few SP-eligible relievers to hit all your roster slots. The investment is much less than an all-starter strategy, but you need to make sure you’re targeting the right closers (not just guys that get saves, but guys that get saves and dominate batters).
I was asked to join a league that uses this setup, so I guess I’m stuck with it unless they want to listen to me (and they’ve been playing for 4 years while I just joined,so I doubt it). It’s an auction league and quality closers went for a lot of money this year, so loading up on closers would leave me with low funds for hitters. The cheapie middle relief/couple of dominant closers only is an interesting hybrid tactic that would definitely be better for the auction format.
How do you feel about the ethical part of this strategy? It’s better than the “pick up starters then drop them all season long” one , which goes by some other name and was outlawed by our league - but is it cricket?
ETA: Munch, don’t forget to pick one of my dog name suggestions in your thread!
I’m a strong believer in vocally objecting to and pointing out errors and weaknesses in the system, and then when the rest of the league doesn’t listen, beating the ever living shit out them by exploiting those weaknesses.
For instance, several years ago I joined my friends’ points league, where saves were 10 points. WAY too much.
Me: “Gotta reduce the points, and reduce the closer slots on the starting roster.”
Them: “It’s fine - we’ve been doing this for years!”
Me: “Seriously - this really overvalues closers.”
Them: “Oh, just shut up and draft.”
Me: Picks up two top closers for my RP slots, two more closers for my P slots, then picks up Danny Graves and Shawn Chacon, the two SP-eligible closers, and proceeds to win by about 25% of the #2 team.
Anyone else use GameDayRitual for fantasy baseball? I’ve been in a league there for seven years and it is the best fantasy BB system I’ve seen. I’m currently barely holding on to the fourth and final playoff spot for the league; just need to win this week…
Yup. Dropped it down to 5 points (wins are 10 for comparison), and limited closers to two - with a gentleman’s agreement to not use SP-eligible closers in that slot.
I don’t think punting any category is a winning strategy, but if you must punt a category, saves are the one to pick. Saves are also one of the two categories that come into the league mid-season (SBs being the other), so being a hawk on the waiver wire can net you very cheap saves if you are diligent. JP Howell got me 15+ saves with great ERA/WHIP/Ks before his recent collapse, but since I picked him up in June, he was easy to drop when he started blowing games. Normally I try to draft one solid closer (Broxton was mine this year), and then fill in with guys off the wire. I’d much much much rather be drafting huge upside SPs like Josh Johnson in the later rounds than shitty closers like Kevin Gregg.
My league added Losses as the 12th category to add additional risk to the pitcher streaming strategy. The strategy still works, especially in the playoffs, but you need to pick your matchups well. The other way to combat SP streaming is inning limits, but I don’t think Yahoo offers this option in H2H leagues.
I prefer H2H over Roto, but I don’t think one game is “better” than the other. They both take different strategies to be successful and win. Over the years playing H2H, I’ve come on a drafting strategy that I like, which focuses on drafting good hitters in scarce positions (2B, SS, 3B) and loading up on late round, crappy closers.
When it comes to Starters, I’ll usually go for cheap late round guys who have high K/9. Wins are very hard to predict, but Ks and Saves aren’t. You’ll usually lose ERA and WHIP, win Saves and compete in Wins and K’s. With this strategy your bread and butter are the hitting categories, and good hitters are easier to predict than pitchers anyway.
What is key about H2H, and what I find frustrates Roto players when they try H2H out, is that a bad week in September ruins your season or chance to finish in the money. The best way to counter this, is to locate and target hitters that traditionally perform better after the All-Star Break. And to further the strategy, acquire players who perform best in September. Sounds overly simplistic, but some of the best September performers are guys that go undrafted (because they stink the first five months of the season).
tl;dr don’t worry about pitching in H2H. Draft good hitting.
I find its better to clean house once the playoffs start, dropping “name” guys who have been slumping for “nobodies” who are hot. If you saw my championship roster you’d laugh. Ian Kinsler is sitting in favor of Kaz Matsui, just because he’s been hot for 2 weeks, and the list goes on.
Drafting guys who are traditional second-halfers (Mark Teixeira) is a great strategy, but don’t make it your only criteria, there will be hot guys on the wire come September.