If I and 29 friends each picked the players of only one real-life team, would our league standings match the real ones? If all my fantasy players were real-life Padres, Joe took all real-life Reds, and Fred took all real-life Pirates, would Joe be in first, me in second, and Fred in the basement? Is there any (even theoretically) possible scenario in which Fred could win our league, even though the real-life Pirates can’t beat anybody?*
*Except my Cardinals, goddammit.
Depends on the scoring system used in the league, and whether everybody always stays on top of their roster, exactly matching any changes the actual team makes. Including trades. Even controversial trades.
It depends how pitchers and players are weighted in your league. I haven’t done fantasy baseball, but in fantasy hockey, one of the big complaints in my leagues have been how much/how little the goalie is valued. So, depending on the system you use, you could have a solid overall team losing to a team with a mediocre pitching core, that leads the league in home runs, to give an example off the top of my head (go Blue Jays!).
I never played fantasy baseball, but there are situations where a losing team can rack up lots of fantasy points. The prime example would be the 70’s-90’s Rangers, who regularly loaded up on hitters but ignored pitching. The 90’s Braves would be the opposite, with loaded pitching but mediocre hitting. The 1985 Royals were amazingly bad too, but they won the World Series almost solely because of Bret Saberhagen and Dan Quisenberry. Compare them to the 1980-1984 Royals, where George Bret continuously flirted with .400 but didn’t have as much success as that team.
In the case of 2010 Pirates, I don’t think they fulfill the criteria of having either great pitching or great hitting.
There is a really short answer to this: No.
Because I am at work here is the long one!
There are many styles of fantasy leagues that would greatly influence your question. Most fantasy leagues do not include defensive value of teams (aside from somewhat affecting ERA for pitchers.
Rotissirie Scoring - Scoring that accumulates through the year for the selected categories
**Head to Head ** - A head to head match-up for the selected categories in which you can either with 6 of the 10 categories for a 1-0 record for that week or you can be 6-4. Both very different.
The categories are going to determine your question for the most part. Common hitting categories are: Batting Average, Runs, RBIs, Home Runs, and Stolen Bases. Common Pitching categories are: ERA, Wins, Strikeouts, Saves, and WHIP ([Walks+Hits]/Innings Pitched).
To win a baseball game you need only to beat the other team in 1 category; runs scored. Being that there are 9 other categories you will see a lot of fluctuation.
Let’s look at some live examples using the 5x5 Rottiserie scoring format. I am picking the AL Central for an example…and of course because the have the best team in the MLB, the White Sox!
Standings as of today:
Minnesota
Chicago 3.5 back
Detroit 9 back
Kansas City 18 back
Cleveland 21.5 back
Batting
Batting Average: Runs: RBIs: HRs Stolen Bases
Minnesota .279 Minnesota 612 Minnesota 588 Chicago 145 Chicago 116
Kansas City .273 Chicago 587 Chicago 565 Minnesota 114 Kansas City 88
Detroit .270 Detroit 563 Detroit 539 Detroit 110 Cleveland 60
Chicago .268 Kansas City 515 Kansas City 492 Cleveland 97 Detroit 52
Cleveland .246 Cleveland 497 Cleveland 466 Kansas City 87 Minnesota 48
Assuming 5 pts for 1st place 4 for 2nd place and so on…
Minnesota - 20
Chicago - 20
Detroit - 14
Kansas City - 13
Cleveland - 8
Pitching
ERA Wins K’s Saves WHIP
Minnesota 3.94 Minnesota 72 Chicago 885 Kansas City 37 Minnesota 1.28
Chicago 3.99 Chicago 68 Detroit 821 Chicago 33 Chicago 1.33
Detroit 4.39 Detroit 63 Minnesota 813 Minnesota 28 Detroit 1.40
Cleveland 4.53 Kansas City 54 Kansas City 799 Detroit 27 Cleveland 1.47
Kansas City 5.00 Cleveland 50 Cleveland 704 Cleveland 25 Kansas City 1.48
Minnesota - 21
Chicago - 21
Detroit - 15
Kansas City - 11
Cleveland - 6
Total:
Chicago / Minnesota - 41
Detroit - 29
Kansas City - 24
Cleveland - 14
With the Sox being 3.5 games back from Minnesota you can see that while good records would generally indicate success in fantasy points for a team, it is far from perfect. There would be a bigger discrepancy if we did this for the entire AL or MLB rather than just the division!
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Moved from GQ to the Game Room.
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