Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Some Changes

I've decided to slightly change the 'mission' of this blog. Originally I pictured most of my posts focusing on which pitchers to pick up off the waiver wire in daily transaction leagues. I've come to realize that I can still address that, while broadening the focus to include all sorts of discussion of how to make adjustments to your team during the season. Most fantasy baseball advice focuses too heavily on preparation for the season and the draft, and there's not enough information out there and how to make evaluations and adjustments once the season begins. For daily transaction leagues in particular, the in-season adjustments are critical, but they make a big difference in weekly transaction leagues as well. I was leaning towards this change in focus already, and then realized I had to do something to change the blog's stated mission, when I noticed that Yahoo doesn't list what percentage of leagues a player is owned in...making my original goal of recommending players who are less than 50% owned in Yahoo leagues impossible. So instead, I'll be explaining the transactions I make on my own Yahoo team, showing the statistical results of those transactions, and giving advice on how to manage your teams during the season. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestion regarding this change, feel free to email me or leave a comment.

Since the last update on my Yahoo team, I've made one transaction. After Julio was traded to Florida, I picked him up as a free agent and dropped Owens. This solved the last big problem I felt I had coming out of my draft - needing a 3rd closer. I actually expect to use Owens as part of my rotating middle relievers strategy, but not need to fill up a roster spot with him now...I should be able to pick him (or someone like him) up whenever I need. Julio should be a decent closer and I think he's likely to hold onto the role no matter how well Owens and the other Florida relievers pitch.

9 comments:

SUjunkie said...

Love the blog.
I'm looking to add a pitcher. The available free agents are Tim Hudson, Bread Penny, Greg Maddux and Clay Hensley. It's a head-to-head 10 team league that has 7x7 categories. W, L, H, K, SV, ERA, WHIP.
Who would you add?

Alex said...

sujunkie - In a 5*5, I would say Penny, but before I answer for your league, three questions:
1. How does L as a category work? Whoever gets the fewest gets the most points?
2. Any IP maximum or minimum?
3. Any other good middle relievers available?

Anonymous said...

I think you actually had it right the first time - people don't really want to watch how you manage your fantasy team - it's really not necessarily generalizable enough to be accessible. Fantasy managers want someone to validate their suspicions on who the best guys on the waiver wire are at any particular moment. If you give them the sense you're guessing as much as they are - and the visibility into your roster moves makes that more likely - they'll start tuning you out as soon as they see you make a move that doesn't work out for you specifically. Consider at least a weekly feature that has a suggestion of one batter and one pitcher to pick up in time for the weekend or something. Even better, create profiles of types of players based on the roto categories and run through the best available every week, i.e. guys who get you R/SB/AVG, guys who get you HR/RBI, guys who improve your WHIP/ERA, guys who improve your Ks/Ws. (Usually the guys on the Waiver Wire can't do more than a couple things at a time)

I've enjoyed what you've had to say so far, but there are plenty of opportunities already to get top-level advice from more established bloggers, and most of your readers are managing multiple teams and have their own daily dramas. I for one will unsubscribe if this blog ends up being about how/why you dropped Austin Kearns for a streaking Eric Hinske.

Anonymous said...

CBS Sportsline still has the percentages on every team's roster page.

Alex said...

Only takes one person to convince me when that person is willing to write the equivalent of a short book to persuade me I'm wrong...I'll stick with the original plan of recommending daily guys who are available in most leagues. I'll look into whether to use Sportsline to determine general availability.

David Rasmussen said...

Yahoo player ranker looks to be a similar measurement to percent owned:

Scot Shields
(LAA - RP) 216 55.19%
Jonathan Broxton
(LAD - RP) 237 51.76%
Dan Wheeler
(Hou - RP) 248 50.56%
Francisco Liriano
(Min - SP,RP)DL 253 49.45%
Rafael Soriano
(Atl - RP) 258 49.01%
José Valverde
(Ari - RP) 259 48.95%
Armando Benítez
(SF - RP) 261 48.65%
Ryan Dempster
(ChC - RP) 263 48.21%
Fernando Rodney
(Det - RP) 271 47.40%
Dennys Reyes
(Min - RP) 297 43.77%
Justin Duchscherer
(Oak - RP) 304 43.14%

I have no idea what "voting percentage" refers to.

SUjunkie said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
SUjunkie said...

1. Since its head-to-head, most losses in a week loses the point for that category.
2. IP min. is 40 per week
3. Yes, many good mid-relievers are available like Soriano, Linebrink, Wheeler and Duchscherer.

Alex said...

sujunkie - In that format, as long as you're going to reach the IP minimum, I would definitely favor good middle relievers. The wins and losses will basically cancel each other out, so the middle relievers will help you a lot more in holds, and will generally be better in ERA and WHIP, while the starting pitchers will only have a small edge in Ks. In fact, assuming it's weekly transactions, the starters won't even have the edge in Ks in weeks when they only have one start. The 4 guys you mentioned are all excellent options.