Fantasy Baseball: League Formatting (5x5 v. 6x6)
There's been a trend the last couple of years for custom leagues to go above and beyond the traditional 5x5 format. Why?
I have a theory, and a suggestion.
People wanted to add either Slugging, On-Base Percentage, or OPS (On-Base Plus Slugging) to their offensive categories. (This is an idea I strongly recommend. All three of these are more useful statistics than Batting Average on their own. In fact, I suggest either (a) replacing AVG with OPS, (b) replacing AVG with both Slugging and On-Base Percentage or (c) adding OPS as a 6th category).
So people increase their offensive categories to six (or seven in some cases). As a result, they feel they need to increase the number of pitching categories to "even out" the league. But why? Leagues are already lopsided in favor of hitters in 5x5 formats. (How many pitchers do you know that contribute meaningfully to all 5 categories? None.) So what do commissioners do? They add on Holds. In 7x7 leagues, they'll also add on Losses. But you know what? Neither of those categories "evens out" the league. Holds don't make starting pitchers any more valuable. Losses actually devalues SPs. The only thing adding Holds and Losses does is actually REDUCE the value of the entire pitching pool. SPs go from contributing to 80% of the categories to contrinbuting to 66% (in 6x6 leagues) or 57% (7x7 leagues - not discounting how much losses hurt).
In Head-to-Head leagues that utilize these categories, it actually makes SPs worthless. Consider a 7x7 league with both holds and losses as the added categories. What happens if I start nothing but relievers and closers - absolutely no starters? Well, I lock up Losses, Holds and Saves (hopefully), and have an excellent chance at taking ERA and WHIP (if I avoid the Jose Mesas of the world, as top relievers traditionally have much better ratio numbers). That's 4 or 5 of the pitching categories, which is the majority - allowing me to focus on drafting a top-notch offense to sweep the league.
So when you commissioner suggests a "new, exciting, more meaningful" set of statistics to use in your league, tell him - don't mess with the pitching statistics. You're league would be better off with a 6x5 or 7x5 league than going 6x6 or 7x7.
I have a theory, and a suggestion.
People wanted to add either Slugging, On-Base Percentage, or OPS (On-Base Plus Slugging) to their offensive categories. (This is an idea I strongly recommend. All three of these are more useful statistics than Batting Average on their own. In fact, I suggest either (a) replacing AVG with OPS, (b) replacing AVG with both Slugging and On-Base Percentage or (c) adding OPS as a 6th category).
So people increase their offensive categories to six (or seven in some cases). As a result, they feel they need to increase the number of pitching categories to "even out" the league. But why? Leagues are already lopsided in favor of hitters in 5x5 formats. (How many pitchers do you know that contribute meaningfully to all 5 categories? None.) So what do commissioners do? They add on Holds. In 7x7 leagues, they'll also add on Losses. But you know what? Neither of those categories "evens out" the league. Holds don't make starting pitchers any more valuable. Losses actually devalues SPs. The only thing adding Holds and Losses does is actually REDUCE the value of the entire pitching pool. SPs go from contributing to 80% of the categories to contrinbuting to 66% (in 6x6 leagues) or 57% (7x7 leagues - not discounting how much losses hurt).
In Head-to-Head leagues that utilize these categories, it actually makes SPs worthless. Consider a 7x7 league with both holds and losses as the added categories. What happens if I start nothing but relievers and closers - absolutely no starters? Well, I lock up Losses, Holds and Saves (hopefully), and have an excellent chance at taking ERA and WHIP (if I avoid the Jose Mesas of the world, as top relievers traditionally have much better ratio numbers). That's 4 or 5 of the pitching categories, which is the majority - allowing me to focus on drafting a top-notch offense to sweep the league.
So when you commissioner suggests a "new, exciting, more meaningful" set of statistics to use in your league, tell him - don't mess with the pitching statistics. You're league would be better off with a 6x5 or 7x5 league than going 6x6 or 7x7.
posted by NoPepperGames at
5:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home