2011 SSI Roto Smackdown

=== Just the Fax, Ma'am ===

1) 12-Team AL Only, with enough player penetration that it matters to know who Detroit's Doug Fister is

2) Draft Saturday, April 2, 10:00 AM PST (Taro, let's push it back a week, if we can)

3) Current owners roster:

  • Taro
  • SABRMatt
  • Rick
  • Jemanji
  • G_Moneyball (Taro thinks he's playing; Gordon thinks he's not)
  • Sandy (not yet signed up)
  • Justynius (not yet signed up)
  • Need 3, 5, or 7 more owners

4) Yahoo League ID #182502, PW = babva (case sensitive)

5) Justin the previous champ

5a) Taro was #2 in that league, and the 20-team mixed league, by a lucky point or two, in both leagues and so was crowned Aggregate Champ

6) But over any serious length of time, Dr. D is easily the strongest AL owner alive, as everybody knows


.

=== Issues ===

1) Matt suggests points for fielding.  Somehow I doubt that Yahoo collects UZR points, but we could find something.  Personally I'm fine with leaving fielding points off, since it's hard to believe that Yahoo could distinguish between good fielders and bad ones.

2) I'd like to know where Taro came up with such an interesting points system.  Did you calculate it yourself?  :- )

3) Taro, I'm fine with you commish'ing ... if I'm going to do so, can you PM me the password either at MC or thru the Yahoo system or thru the SSI system...  thanx...

4) This year, for a change, I'm going to try to go with silent league votes on trade vetoes without the usual flame wars ... :- )   we'll see how well my self-discipline holds...


.

=== Going Once, Going Twice ===

We need five more owners.

.

BABVA,

Dr D

Comments

1

Finishing top half would give him that much more street cred over the writers you couldn't pay to show up :- )
Justin, any supposition as to whether other blog authors will be stepping into the cage? ...... heh ....

2
Taro's picture

Bring Baker in!
I'm thinking a 14-team league. What do you think Doc? We'd have to zap the extra P position to compensate, but it could work of we could get enough interest.
I'm going to let you commish this one.. Still fine tuning some of the settings before I hand it over (based on run values posted by Tango with some adjustments).
Fielding stats are tough until Yahoo gets some more advanced stats in the picture.

3

If we did, that'd be fine.  Like you say, we might delete the swing man.
Agree on fielding stats... next Sat. ok?  Have you changed the date, or sent along the password?
You know you goin' down this time Taro-natah...

4
okdan's picture

I'd love to join in, but I can only do it if the draft gets pushed back. I'm going to be on a plane at that time, headed to.... you guessed it, Spring Training. If it can't move I totally understand, and will try again next year :)

5
okdan's picture

Just joined. Team name: OKDAN
 
Excited!

6

I'm also a bit curious about the scoring system. Ideally, we wouldn't have so many hitting categories with decimals, and the end of season scale would be moved back (highest players with 500-700 points instead of 900-1200). Not a big fan of saves worth the same as holds either, and no points for wins (and/or quality starts).

7
Taro's picture

I'm not really happy with the system. I'd like a way of valuating defense for position players and a better system for pitchers. I'm going to change the whole thing later tonight.
The decimals are there just to balance the offensive factors to approximate what leads to run scoring in real life based on wOBA. I could scale down the points, but that would mean more decimals! Still, I'll try to keep the points down if possible once I get a good system down.
The pitching is similar, but without GBs its harder. I'm not happy with TBs. The true valuation should be lower than -3, but I adjusted it down -1.25 to increase the value of SP. Not a fan of Ws, just because I feel it overrates pitchers on good teams, but QS is a maybe. Will adjust pithcing too later tonight.
Still adjusting RPs too. I added higher value to HLDs because its harder to get than SVs (usually relivers come in with men on base and have to save more innings) and think they are more valuable than saves considering the leverage of the siutation. Its harder to rack up HLDs anyways, so closers are still more valuable. I could decrease HLDS and zap a RP spot to compensate as well.

9
Taro's picture

Pat Grenko is in. Says he kicked your tails in 97/98, and hes back to do it again. :-)
Spots are filling up quickly so we might go for that 14-team league and I've zapped a pitching spot. All starting players will end up being rostered + 3 relievers each team.
Will make a couple adjustments to the scoring system later today. 

13
Taro's picture

I'm not sure if you need one, but if you do its 'babva' or 'Babva'. The Commish tab should be up there right now for you. I think it was the second to last from the right.

14

I was able to set my draft position to 1.  You can have the commish tool back after the draft.
Justin... does Yahoo set the draft order randomly by default?

15

Click the "Commish Tools" tab, then click "Edit Draft Order & Assign Keeper Players" (in the lowest box). On this screen, you will want to make sure "Random Order, Snaking" is checked. If it is not, all owners will be able to see that it is not (looks like it is checked right now).

16
ghost's picture

I don't want to leave the league with a dead team or get stuck with an auto-drafted nightmare squad and I can't make the changed draft time...out of town with gf and her family. If there's a way to pull my team out, I will...if not, I guess I'll just play the horrible hand I get dealt, because I don't want that team to be dead weight.

17

Actually tho if you judiciously queue up some Kila Ka'aihue and Erik Bedard types (after the top 100 or so, of course), you can wind up with a surprisingly good team...
At every position, there are a couple of quality players that the Yahoo system ranks as worthless, and who therefore don't get autodrafted by the other bots...
Just finished a 20-team draft in which 8-10 of the other teams were manned by bots, meaning that the late rounds were fat city...
Plus you have a built-in excuse, having started with a drone team :- )
Hope ta see ya there amigo...

18
ghost's picture

It'll be interesting to see what happens if I prerank ridiculously deeply.

22
ghost's picture

What am I chopped liver? :)
I can't make the draft, we all shrug and move on...Justin can't make the draft, stop the presses? (only teasing...mostly. :) )

23
Taro's picture

lol.. To be fair, I wanted to move the draft out to help you make it and also attract Russ possibly (and start the season on time).
I got some emails from other owners saying they couldn't make Wednesday either, so its not looking doable..
Only game on Thurday is the NYYvsDet one so Verlander/Sabathia owners would lose a start unless we can count the day of the draft in the scoring system as well (I think we can right?).
Does Thursday work for everyone?

25
Taro's picture

Thats good. We'd have to run it through Doc and the rest of the owners.
Justin, do you know if we can auto-set rosters for Thursday after a draft on the same day? I know with a weekly roster, usually Yahoo locks it on Wednesday and they throw all players on the bench after a draft.. Can the commish edit that kind of thing, or edit wins and losses after the end of the week?
It would be a bit of a pain, but we could count up the points for each team on games from Thursday and Sunday if Yahoo lets us fix Ws and Ls.

26

You can set the weekly roster for any day of the week. I'd recommend Sunday's (with the first game of the fantasy week being Monday's).

27

...that's the only way to get Matt in without losing anybody else.
Any chance of 5-6 pm PST?  Wouldn't have to miss my entire hoops night that way...  no biggie, though...
..........
If drafting Thur, would much prefer simply running the first week for the 7 days Monday-Sunday.  Is that a possibility?

28
Taro's picture

Doc, could you set up the draft 6pm Thursday then?  I've emailed the league and no one is against it so far although I've only gotten a few replies.
I think we can run the first week for Monday-Sunday, but I usually don't commish.. We'd need to double-check the playoff format too in that scenario so we don't run into a shortened final..

30

The attempt to devise a system per wOBA is a noble one... am wondering how experimental it is, however...For example, the top players have well over 1,000 points :- ) ... Felix with 1,280 ...  and the difference between them and average players and RL players seems vast...
Perhaps this accurately reflects MLB valuation, but since we have several oldtimers here for an epic league, am wondering if we shouldn't make the scoring system itself a familiar one... 
The system that Justin uses in the 20-team league, the old AOL system, works fine by me...Or not...
 
Would be more inclined to experiment with a brand-new scoring system in a less serious league.

31
Taro's picture

Ya, Doc. Feel free to chop it up and make your own system. I'd be interested in how you guys scored the old AOL leagues, or whatever system you're feeling.
The offense in that system is actually really accurate in assessing raw hitting value. I slightly overestimated GIDP to account for baserunning which may underrate players that hit with a lot guys on base by a hair, but its very close to accounting for raw offensive value.
The problem is defense. With no reliable way of accounting for defense, the MIs, Cs, and CFs, can't catch up to the massive bats in the corners. We probably won't be able to either until new metrics are included..
The SP is a little bit less so, but very lose as well. Ks should be around 2 points and RA should be closer to -8 in reality. That would actually decreases the spread of elite talent vs average talent, I artifically increased it to create more premium for pitchers to match the bats. Increasing Ks to 3 points seperated the talent even further..Closers are massively overvalued of course, but thats true in all fantasy leagues..
If we had a method for assessing defense and moved the pitching metrics back to a more realistic level, the elite hitters and pitchers would trend down and defensive position players back up. Thats the ideal, but it would be tough until we can adjust for defense. I'll admit, its still in the experimental mode.. but more just because the stats aren't available yet.
All in all, ya, chop that sucker up. :-)

32

Am leaning towards just switching over to Justin's scoring as used in his 20-team, then.  Thanks for the reasonableness, Sempai.
A saber scoring system *would* be fun to play, though not when I have pesky rodent pretenders to destroy.

33
Taro's picture

Boring! I want to see the legendary AOL scoring Doc. Maybe a jemanji touch or two if possible. :-)
As a side note, I just had some kind of minor heart problem...Whats the deal. I'm 29.

34

Dr. D,
Three changes I wish I could have made after the fact that I think would bring us closer to Grandstand....
(1) Remove the -0.25 for Hitter ABs.(2) Remove the IBB's for Hitters :)(3) Replace Pitcher -0.5 for Total Bases Allowed with -2 for HR's. (Perhaps bump up the HR's to -4 if you're going to change Saves and Quality Starts up to +10)
 This should add about 100-150 points for each healthy regular. It's a shame no one (apparently) thought to write down the actual Grandstand points values. I think I've come extremely close, but this is still going off of memory of something from the late 90's.
Taro, generally the most 'universal' scoring systems for fantasy points are based on the premise of 1 offensive base achieved = +1 point; and then a pitching system that is based around +1 for each out and -1 for each base allowed. Usually you aim for the top SPs to be worth about 105-110% of the top hitters.
Sorry to hear about your heart problems. Didn't realize you are 29, I had pegged you as someone in their late 30's or 40's!

36

My wife's family has that throughout her side... they have lived with it, many of them to ripe old ages and passing due to other causes...
Take care amigo -

37
Taro's picture

Justin, I have a 43 year old soul. :-)
Ya, its a wakeup call. My Dad's side has heart issues and lot of them passed away in their 40s and 50s. I was hoping I had my Mom's side genes, but at least now I know. My Dad is 56 and hes in good health with exercise and medication. I can't be eating beef and sitting on my butt anymore. :-)

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