It took forever to overhaul, but I just released my completely up-to-date fantasy rankings by position over at The Hardball Times. The first baseman and third basemen ranking in particular have been entirely overhauled.
On a lighter note, we at Game of Inches plan to run a series of baseball season previous podcasts breaking down each baseball division (one division per podcast). Stay tuned for that awesomeness.
Local Blogs We're Reading
National Blogs We're Reading
Finding Stats
Faceball
That pitch accounted for 15% of Jimmy Rollin's OBP for 2006
Ump Bump
Is my .320 batting average giving you a boner?
Did You Know...
That Darren Erstad was a punter in college??
Little Known Fact
John Kruk struck out in this AB
The Great Runs Expectancy Chart
Statistically speaking, sacrifice bunts are counter-productive
Pete Rose Baseball
Best signature ever
The Most Ironic Book Ever Written
Written by none other than Joe Morgan
5 comments:
DME:
Great stuff over at THT. I decided to purchase the THT projections rather than the site I've used for the last 3 years (new baby + 1/2 the price = no-brainer), and so far in playing around with them I like it.
You mentioned in one of your mock draft comments that you believe in punting saves in an H2H league. I'm intrigued.
Care to expound on that theory here (or if you have elsewhere, point me to it)?
i believe his theory is to get 3(or more) top tier starters and just win K, ERA, and WHIP,(maybe wins) every week. Not to waste resources on saves...if i recall
I'm glad you liked my stuff on tht. I do the playing time projections for the cubs and white sox, while all the player comments for oakland are mine as well. Have you played with the Oliver pricing guide yet? It's really cool.
H2H has perverse streaming incentives, but I like to focus on relievers, not saves. Guys like Takashi Saito, Matt Thornton before he was a closer, perhaps Chris Sale and use them in place of closers, while grabbing a few super-elite starters. To win H2H, you only have to win 6 of the 10 categories every week to make the playoffs and from there it's easy as pie. Focus also on aggregate, not rate stats. I like to maximize my HR/R/RBI/SB/K/W to win, but some also like to focus exclusively on pitching (drafting the top tier elite starters and closers with your first 10 picks) and then gettting cheap speed and runs on the back end (and usually some AVG along the way, if you get Juan Pierre Types)
Bought the Oliver projections today and just started fooling around. Color me impressed. I know Oliver came out on top (or 2nd to defunct CHONE), but are there any known holes (a la Bill James always projecting rookie hitters extremely optimistically)?
What stats besides a high (9.0+ maybe?) K/9 should I be looking for in targeting relievers if I'm going to punt saves?
Finally, what's your take on Pedro Alvarez? I can keep him in my keeper league at the cost of a 22nd round draft pick, but am a bit scared off of having a starting 3B who showed up to ST overweight, can't hit LHP, and K's a lot. Still, there's the ceiling . . .
Oliver is big on young hitters, but it also tends to be the most accurate (comapratively) on them. The only names that stood out as way off base of the young guys to me were Mike Minor, Mike Stanton and Juan Francisco. I think Stanton hits in the mid-high 30's for HR with a mid-high .270's AVG, not .283 with 43 HR. Oliver is likewise in love with Juan Francisco. As for Mike Minor, I can't explain why it projects an ERA above 5.
For relievers, target good stabilizing ratios. the WHIP gods, the rest will fall in line.
Also, I like Alvarez, but I'm not taking the risk on him this year given the hype behind him.He'll almost inevitably be overvalued
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