Fantasy Baseball "experts" Unite...

[mtaystl03]

Hey, I am sure a lot of you are already chomping at the bit to get the pitchers and catchers reporting. I am so anxious I am already going to make this call to people. I really, really, really want to be prepared this year for my fantasy draft. I am in a new league and these guys are the biggest talkers I have ever been a part of.

Every year, I spend more time than I should building my depth charts and strategy. I always seem to have the best middle infield and my batting average, runs scored and stolen bases are second-to-none. My problem is the rest of my position players and pitchers suck.

I was wondering if anybody here is like me and wants to really kick some major butt, but doesn't want to spend ass loads of time putting together rankings and projections for all 250+ players.

Do you like to do a little research and come up with a nice little write-up on players to guide you on draft day? I know I do. IF you are like me and you feel you want to join me in working something out where we can work on our strengths and come up with a nice little draft worksheet or something, I think that would be great. We won't be in the same league so we won't have to worry about sharing any "inside secrets" or anything like that. I would just love to have some other people, with their strengths being exploited, along with mine, joining together to make one hell of a draft guide.

Anybody interested in something like this? I would say my best, as I mentioned would be SS and 2B. I could do 3B, but depending on how many people we get we could narrow it down more.

[mtaystl03]

I failed to mention that we obviously wouldn't start tonight or tomorrow or anything like that. Free agency needs to end and we need to get a better grasp on things before we move forward but just for organizations sake I wanted to get this out early.

[mtaystl03]

Nobody?

[lynchjm24]

I'd be happy to share my thoughts.

I play in an American League only league, with a complicated salary cap/contract structure. It's 10 teams, 29 active players, 6 man reserve rosters (but you can't just remove players from your roster for no reason) and a 5 man minor league roster for a total of 40 players total under your control. Players on the major league disabled list don't count towards the 40.

I guess my point with all that is that I really follow the AL more closely and might be more useful for others on those players. Also, I follow the wild world of prospects closely because with my league most teams have the top players tied up year over year.

[mtaystl03]

Awesome. Your knowledge could be put to very good use. Anybody else? I figure we can get a nice little staff together and come up with something nice. Prospects would be nice for keeper leagues and your A.L. knowledge will be put to good use.

Lets get some more...

[Suicane75]

I may be interested, but really it depends on what player pool, league size, stat categories you use, cause a guy in a 12 team NL only 4x4 league has much different value than in a 20 team 5x5 MLB league.

[mtaystl03]

Well, thats a good and fair point. I was thinking more along the lines of coming up with stat projections for players and some plus/minus points about them and then I could set up a program to make it consistent with different scoring systems.

I mean, if I say David Eckstein will hit .276 with 7 HR, 72 RBI, 102 runs scored, 19 stolen bases, .304 OBP, and do most of the other stat categories, it would be fairly simple to convert those into specific scoring systems, be it 4x4 or 5x5 and so on.

[lynchjm24]

I used to be a contributor for a email list where we went in depth into each team. There was at least one writer for every team and about once a week you'd throw together a couple of pages on the team you 'covered'.

I think that is where some value is, I follow the Blue Jays very closely and would for instance be able to speak realistically about say the prospect for Brandon League for example.

Others wrote about the prospects they saw in their respective minor league towns. I've seen most of the big prospects in the Eastern League over the past few years and while I'm not a scout, I feel more confident about how I feel about a guy that I've seen a few times.

[mtaystl03]

Cool. Yeah, I like that. Do you have any connections with that group of people that might be interested in helping out with this endeavor?

[lynchjm24]

Cool. Yeah, I like that. Do you have any connections with that group of people that might be interested in helping out with this endeavor?


That was 1993-1995, the project has disappeared long ago. You might be able to recreate something like that if you started to post on some boards...

[sterlingice]

For what you're looking for, you might want to pick up a copy of the 2005 Baseball Prospectus when it comes out and go by their PECOTA projections. No one's projections are perfect but they're fairly good.

SI

[QuikSand]

shameless plug alert

I know that a lot of people balk at paying for internet-based information... but then are open to the idea of paying for a book. If you fit into that class, you might also consider the more data-intensive Baseball Forecaster (http://www.baseballforecaster.com/), an annual review/preview that also lays out a variety of metrics for use in analyzing and predicting player performance.

If you're game for the web content, the same outfit produces Baseball HQ (http://www.baseballhq.com/), which has received a variety of recognitions as the best fantasy site on the internet.


end plug

[Crapshoot]

Quiksand- you work for them ?

Also, BP has a $20 fantasy product for those interested..

[QuikSand]

Quiksand- you work for them ?

Yes, I am a paid staff writer and analyst at Baseball HQ.

[sterlingice]

It fits. No one hits 2/3rds, tho, so maybe not ;)

SI

[Crapshoot]

Yes, I am a paid staff writer and analyst at Baseball HQ.

Well I learn something new everyday...

[lynchjm24]

For what you're looking for, you might want to pick up a copy of the 2005 Baseball Prospectus when it comes out and go by their PECOTA projections. No one's projections are perfect but they're fairly good.

SI

Here is my funny PECOTA story. I organized an in-person draft league on Baseball Primer. I decided to try and use the PECOTA fantasy stuff to make my picks- I'd use the lists over anything.

I finished last.

(Not to say that I don't have BP2000-BP2004 sitting on my desk in front of me right now.)

[lynchjm24]

Yes, I am a paid staff writer and analyst at Baseball HQ.

Do you get to hang out with Ron?

[mtaystl03]

Yeah, I could go to Baseball HQ or some other site and get their info but half of the fun for me is doing a little research getting ready for the draft. I am looking for people that would like to join with me to come up with our own "project".

[QuikSand]

Do you get to hang out with Ron?

I see him a couple times a year, and talk with him via email a good bit. He's actually a pretty interesting guy -- but I have no idea about him beyond the realm of baseball. I once casually mentioned something political in a message to him, and hihs response was almost as if I had started speaking in Esperanto.

[lynchjm24]

I see him a couple times a year, and talk with him via email a good bit. He's actually a pretty interesting guy -- but I have no idea about him beyond the realm of baseball. I once casually mentioned something political in a message to him, and hihs response was almost as if I had started speaking in Esperanto.

I like the book, but the website is pretty pricy. I already have Baseball America online, Baseball Prospectus online, MLB.tv, the BA book, Ron's book, the BP book, Sickels' book... I don't even want to add up how much that is; makes that HQ site price look pretty steep.