2012 Fantasy Baseball For Stakes And The Troops

[shilala]

K's are, brother. I didn't mean to give the impression there was a k/9 category. My point was that middle relief and closers will yield far more k's than starters on a per inning average.

On the rest, we agree exactly. You can't go after all 20 categories on a regular basis or you end up mediocre in all of them.
The goal is to go .560. .500 will get you in the playoffs.
If I can regularly take 12 of 20, that's .600 ball. It's more than enough to win the season and get a shot at the playoffs. If I make it to the playoffs, it's a whole new season with a whole new cache of players either producing or not. Thats when a guy can make the changes he needs and watch daily matchups to get an edge.

Take a minute and break down what you're likely to get in each scenario. Reliever heavy, Closeer heavy, Starter heavy, Starter/middle relief heavy, etc.
I've found that it's best to go light on starters, normal on middle relief and heavy on closers. That's because I'll likely earn more than 5/10 categories per week, it's far easier to manage, and I can sit/swap out a starter who's blowing up.
I don't believe in a pitcher having a "bad game", for the most part. Seldom do they have one bad game, you can watch their stats and see something is wrong. I feel it's almost always injury. It doesn't take much of an injury to wreck mechanics because a guy will change his delivery to guard the injury, even if it's minor. Once he's gotten used to that different delivery, it takes hell for coaches to correct it, especially if they don't have enough accurate pre-analysis via film, slo-mo, etc. Most pitching coaches don't rely on computer-aided pitching analysis, they're old-school. That sets back and prolongs a guy's "bad game" syndrome for a good while till they retweak everything and get him back to where he started.
They'll push starting pitchers into the rotation forever. Middle relief and closers, they'll just sit them down and bring someone up, or whatever. They'll just keep his ass off the mound.
That's how I play it and a little of why. A guy can have just as much success with starting pitching/a little middle relief and no closers. I just feel it's more work and more risk. I've tried just about every combination and this one yields results for me.
The hitting side is tougher. I go with power-heavy, and those guys get hurt a lot. It makes things tough to fix if the injuries last and I don't have a comfortable margin.

[Stephen]

With five required starters though, you really can't go reliever heavy in this format (at least to where you have any sort of viable edge). That's all I'm saying, brother.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Stephen

With five required starters though, you really can't go reliever heavy in this format (at least to where you have any sort of viable edge). That's all I'm saying, brother.

They aren't required. You don't have to fill any spots any given night.
You'll see later that I'll only carry 1 or 2 bench bats and carry more middle relievers. That way I'll get just as many innings (or at least close to as many) as guys that are starter heavy. Enough so that I can compete for K's and W's and Outs. ERA, WHIP, L's, Saves and Relief Wins should already be bagged.
If I get five and the usually tie in SHO and CG, a 5-3-2 week is awesome. I'd take that every week all year, and it's very well within reason.
You'll see how the numbers mash out in a couple weeks. It's a great math game. But just like Fantasy football, you can have everything in place and lose your ass. Or vice versa.
With all the games and all the points, it's best beat with aggregate averages, or at least that's what I've found.
It sure helps to have Verlander, too.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by shilala

They aren't required. You don't have to fill any spots any given night.
You'll see later that I'll only carry 1 or 2 bench bats and carry more middle relievers. That way I'll get just as many innings (or at least close to as many) as guys that are starter heavy. Enough so that I can compete for K's and W's and Outs. ERA, WHIP, L's, Saves and Relief Wins should already be bagged.
If I get five and the usually tie in SHO and CG, a 5-3-2 week is awesome. I'd take that every week all year, and it's very well within reason.
You'll see how the numbers mash out in a couple weeks. It's a great math game. But just like Fantasy football, you can have everything in place and lose your ass. Or vice versa.
With all the games and all the points, it's best beat with aggregate averages, or at least that's what I've found.
It sure helps to have Verlander, too.

Two things:

1. I asked earlier if this was a daily or weekly lineup. You said weekly. Now you're saying it's daily?

2. Any fantasy game I've ever played in required a full lineup submitted otherwise a forfeiture occurred. So if for instance I don't want to start a catcher I don't have to? I suppose to get around that if there's daily transactions and lineups you could just go and pick up joe blow that isn't starting that night...

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Stephen

Two things:

1. I asked earlier if this was a daily or weekly lineup. You said weekly. Now you're saying it's daily?

2. Any fantasy game I've ever played in required a full lineup submitted otherwise a forfeiture occurred. So if for instance I don't want to start a catcher I don't have to? I suppose to get around that if there's daily transactions and lineups you could just go and pick up joe blow that isn't starting that night...

I just set my lineup all the way out till April 8th.
The system only shows pitcher starts for 3 days out, so if you have more than 5 starting pitchers, you have to check them to see who's up.
See, you don't need to carry 4 bench players in your hitter lineup as you have. You could dump any or all of those bench guys and pick up more pitchers (most guys only carry one or 2 bench batters so they can carry more pitchers). In this instance, you can only go out 3 days because that's all the farther teams announce their pitching.
So far as your hitters go, you can adjust that lineup at least 12 days into the future, because I just did it. You'll want to spot in bench players when one of your position players has a night off. Or maybe you don't. That's your choice.

Be aware of this...
If you set your lineup, you have to advance by calendar date.
So say you set your lineup for 10 days then change day 5, all the days after day five will be identical to day 5. It assumes you want to make the changes forever each time you make a change.

No, you don't have to start anyone if you don't want to.
As your team sits, you can set your lineup a long ways out.

You will find that at some point, strategically, you're not going to want to start one of your starting pitchers. Either to assure you win the L's column, or preserve your era and whip, or whatever.
So I guess the best answer to "weekly" is yes, if you want to. Or you can change your lineup all day every day, like I told you when I said I check mine every day over coffee.

One nother thing, you can make changes to your team right up till the player starts their game, every day. Even if a bunch of your guys played already, you can still make changes, you just can't use guys that have already played. Just like in Fantasy Football. You can change guys in your late game while the early guys are playing.
That help any?

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by shilala

That help any?

I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Stephen

I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.

Polander.