Over the course of the next four weeks, I will be examining some different drafts I have done or will be doing in order to highlight different (and sometimes better) draft strategies and approaches for better success. Often, we go into a draft or auction with an idea of what we want to do, however, sometimes in focusing solely on our own goals, we miss ways we can gain a competitive advantage over our league-mates. This is the first of those pieces.

One may wonder, why would you use a fifth-place finish to highlight how to win a league? The answer is simple: it is process rather than results.

Team

WIN

LOSS

TIES

PCT

PF

PA

Jake Ciely

128

48

0

0.7273

10703.5

9374

Clay Link

122

54

0

0.6932

10547

9401

Dr. Roto

120

56

0

0.6818

10651.5

9573

Peter Kreutzer

106

70

0

0.6023

10018.5

9364

Justin Mason

92

84

0

0.5227

9847.5

9886.5

Michael Rathburn

88

88

0

0.5

9547

9786.5

Howard Bender

82

94

0

0.4659

9066

9504

Kyle Elfrink

80

96

0

0.4545

9268.5

9605

Jeff Mans

62

114

0

0.3523

8324

9487.5

Andrea LaMont

60

116

0

0.3409

9355

9828

Paul Sporer

58

118

0

0.3295

8935

9551.5

Stephania Bell

58

118

0

0.3295

8308

9210.5

In this format, two wins were awarded to the team with the most hitting points, two wins were awarded to the team with the most pitching points, and then four wins were awarded to the team with the most overall points. My strategy was I would spend $200 of my $260 budget on starters, ignoring relief pitching and building an offense of cheap guys with upside. The main targets offensively were going to be catchers. My goal was to exploit the point system that disproportionately favored starting pitching to take the pitching and overall categories each week and hopefully put together a strong enough offense. Here was the team I ended up with:

 

Player

$

C

J.T. Realmuto

$11

C

Evan Gattis

$6

1B

Brandon Belt

$1

2B

Daniel Murphy

$9

SS

Marcus Semien

$2

3B

Mike Moustakas

$3

MI

César Hernández

$2

CI

Eugenio Suárez

$5

OF

Kevin Kiermaier

$6

OF

Eduardo Núñez

$4

OF

Bradley Zimmer

$6

OF

Michael Conforto

$2

OF

Mitch Haniger

$1

UT

Matt Chapman

$1

P

Max Scherzer

$54

P

Clayton Kershaw

$52

P

Robbie Ray

$24

P

Carlos Martínez

$27

P

Johnny Cueto

$10

P

Jeff Samardzija

$15

P

Sonny Gray

$9

P

Marco Estrada

$5

P

Dan Straily

$5

Reserve

Chris Stratton

 

Reserve

Kyle Gibson

 

Reserve

Kendrys Morales

 

Reserve

Clayton Richard

 

Reserve

Josh Harrison

 

Reserve

Félix Hernández

 

Hitting

 

$59

Pitching

 

$201

You may look at that team and be a bit grossed out. I had some really nice offensive buys, but I was plagued by injuries and under performances. At one point, I had 17 players on the disabled list. So, why am I saying that the process was right? In spite of overwhelming setbacks, I still somehow finished in 5th place. So, what would have happened if some of those setbacks wouldn’t have happened? Let’s take a look:

 

Player

Spent

Points

Player

Points

C

J.T. Realmuto

$11

379

J.T. Realmuto

379

C

Evan Gattis

$6

289.5

Evan Gattis

289.5

1B

Brandon Belt

$1

270.5

Brandon Belt

270.5

2B

Daniel Murphy

$9

237

Daniel Murphy

237

SS

Marcus Semien

$2

422.5

Marcus Semien

422.5

3B

Mike Moustakas

$3

469

Mike Moustakas

469

MI

César Hernández

$2

423.5

César Hernández

423.5

CI

Eugenio Suárez

$5

440

Eugenio Suárez

440

OF

Kevin Kiermaier

$6

196.5

Kevin Kiermaier

196.5

OF

Eduardo Núñez

$4

281.5

Eduardo Núñez

281.5

OF

Bradley Zimmer

$6

51

Bradley Zimmer

51

OF

Michael Conforto

$2

416.5

Michael Conforto

416.5

OF

Mitch Haniger

$1

497

Mitch Haniger

497

UT

Matt Chapman

$1

440

Matt Chapman

440

P

Max Scherzer

$54

752

Max Scherzer

752

P

Clayton Kershaw

$52

450

Corey Kluber

661

P

Robbie Ray

$24

331

Zack Greinke

557

P

Carlos Martínez

$27

304

José Berrios

490

P

Johnny Cueto

$10

123

Alex Wood

356

P

Jeff Samardzija

$15

47

Kyle Hendricks

478

P

Sonny Gray

$9

268

Sonny Gray

268

P

Marco Estrada

$5

144

Tanner Roark

356

P

Dan Straily

$5

246

Dan Straily

246

Reserve

Chris Stratton

0

275

Chris Stratton

275

Reserve

Kyle Gibson

0

439

Kyle Gibson

439

Reserve

Félix Hernández

0

264

Félix Hernández

264

Reserve

Clayton Richard

0

262

Clayton Richard

262

Reserve

Josh Harrison

0

323

Josh Harrison

323

Reserve

Kendrys Morales

0

291.5

Kendrys Morales

291.5

Spent on Hitting

 

$59

 

 

 

Spent on Pitching

 

$201

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total

 

$260

9333

 

10832

In this table, you can see what would have happened if I had taken different pitchers instead of the ones I had ended up with. I only replaced pitchers that went for less than the ones I bought at auction and ones that didn’t overly exceed their value. Now obviously I am cherry picking the players. However, this shows the strategy would have worked if I employed it with even just average or chalk players.

Conclusion:

Points leagues are all about what projections you use and how you run them through the points system. If I hadn’t then I would have tried the same standard approach that all the other people at Tout Wars did last year. Obviously, people took notice. In spite of only finishing fifth, the Tout Wars Board have changed the point system.

 

2018

Point Structure

 

 

2019

Point Structure

 

Hitter Stats

Point Value

Pitcher Stats

Point Value

Hitter Stats

Point Value

Pitcher Stats

Point Value

Single

1

Win

5

Single

1

Win

4

Double

2

Loss

-3

Double

2

Loss

-5

Triple

3

Save

5

Triple

3

Save

5

Home Run

4

Blown Save

-3

Home Run

4

Blown Save

-2

Walk

1

Strikeout

1

Walk/HBP

1

Strikeout

1

Strikeout

-0.5

Walk

-1

Strikeout

-0.5

Walk/HBP

-1

Run

1

Out

1

Run

1

Inning

1

RBI

1

Hit Allowed

-1

RBI

1

Hit Allowed

-1

Stolen Base

2

Earned Run

-1

Stolen Base

2

Earned Run

-1

Caught Stealing

-1

 

 

Caught Stealing

-1

QS

3

The other big change was how wins were awarded. While you still get two wins for winning hitting and two wins for winning pitching, the participants will only get two points for winning the overall. The change in point scoring has swung the raw point totals from it being a pitcher friendly league to a hitter friendly league. When I ran the numbers for the new system, I was surprised to see that Max Scherzer earned about as much as Josh Bell under the new format. Now, if you plan on competing in both pitching and hitting every week, you will have to build a balanced roster, not matter which side earns more points. However, if I was in this league again (I will be joining the NL Only league,) I would Labadini the heck out of this format. For those that don’t know what the Labadini Plan is, here is an excerpt from this year’s draft guide that I wrote about it:

Labadini Plan:

This is a personal favorite of all the strategies. Named after Larry Labadini, who tried it in LABR in 1996, it calls for you to spend $251 on your offense and $1 each on all your pitchers or in a draft you draft only offense until you have filled up every offensive slot. I love this strategy because it is so unique. You will crush everyone in offense and hopefully get lucky with a $1 reliever that turns into a closer, then you can trade some offense for a starter or two to help catch up in some of the pitching stats because you should have a pretty great lead in offense by the halfway point. With the glut of starting pitchers these days, this is a fun out of the box idea.

This is, pretty much, the inverse of what I did last year. Try and win hitting and the overall every week and steal enough of the pitching weeks through streaming pitchers. With the addition of a playoff system that includes the top six teams in the standings, this strategy should at worst make the team a playoff team and one that would be highly feared if it regularly swept both hitting and the overall each week.

Whether that is coincidence or them trying to prevent people from doing what I did, they have drastically changed how pitchers score points. Points leagues (and all non-traditional Roto leagues) are about the format. Using the rules and scoring system to your advantage is how you set yourself up for an easier path to victory.