Guys, I’d like to finalize the Neifiball (I’m calling it that now) leagues this weekend. It looks like we ended up with 16 guys in the Neifi League (NL) and 14 in the Alfonseca League (AL). Would anyone be interested in getting together for a live draft for the NL? Not everyone has to go, obviously, but the people who wanted to could get together somewhere with wireless internet, drink beer, and make their picks. We also need to pick a draft time, so let’s try to do that.
Vote for as many or as few as would work for you, and we’ll try to have both leagues’ drafts on the same day.
Finally, here is what seems to work the best for stat categories (Jackie, if you could plug this into your league):
BATTERS:
At-Bats (+2)
Runs (-2)
Singles (-4)
Doubles (-5)
Triples (-6)
Home Runs (-8)
Runs Batted In (-3)
Stolen Bases (-2)
Caught Stealing (+2)
Walks (-2)
Intentional Walks (-5)
Hit by Pitch (-2)
Strikeouts (+2)
Ground into Double Play (+5)
Errors (+3)
Since they don’t have a category for “outs,” the way I tried to make this work is that a batter basically has a +2 at-bat if he doesn’t reach base (in other words, he makes an out). If he reaches base in that at-bat, he is going to end up with at least a -2. I used at-bats instead of plate appearances, so if a guy walks, he still ends up with a -2 for that overall at-bat (since he didn’t get the +2 for having an official at-bat). Guys hitting SAC flies are penalized by way of the RBI (a SAC fly at-bat ends in a -2 overall score). I couldn’t think of a way to penalize a guy for successfully bunting, but I don’t think it will make too big a difference.
I also had to over-penalize HR and RBIs. I had them set at -7 and -2, respectively, and guys like Khalil Greene, Andruw Jones, and Dan Uggla were appearing in the “top” 25.
Looking at the scoring system, let’s just take two examples.
Corey Patterson goes 0-4 with a golden sombrero on the day. He also makes a throwing error in the field. Yay. He gets +8 points for the 4 at bats, +8 points for the 4 strikeouts, and +3 points for the error. That’s a good day for Corey, as he earns his owner a +19. That seems pretty fair for such a terrible game.
The next day, Corey has his 2003 Opening Day against the Mets game. He goes 4-6 with 2 HR, 7 RBIs, 1 K, and a CS.
He gets +12 points for the 6 at bats. -16 points for the 2 home runs. -8 points for the 2 hits. -21 points for the 7 RBIs, +2 points for the strikeout, and +2 points for the caught stealing. His overall game score is a -29 (which it should be, for a game that good).
To give an idea of how these stats work, the best fantasy batters last year with these stats were as follows:
1. Nick Punto
2. Felipe López
3. Tony F. Peńa
4. Miguel Olivo
5. Alex Gordon
6. Juan Uribe
7. Delmon Young
8. Brandon Inge
9. José López
10. Iván Rodríguez
11. Gerald Laird
12. Josh Barfield
13. Craig Monroe
14. Bobby Crosby
15. Jason Kendall
16. Jhonny Peralta
17. Josh Wilson
18. Ryan Zimmerman
19. Brad Ausmus
20. Stephen Drew
21. Dioner Navarro
22. Bill Hall
23. Julio Lugo
24. Jason LaRue
25. Pedro Feliz
It’s not perfect, but it’s the best I’ve been able to devise. If anyone has any suggestions for changes, please feel free to make them.
For the pitchers, I tried to take out any “team-based” stat like wins, losses, saves, etc.
PITCHERS:
Shutouts (-10)
Hits (+2)
Earned Runs (+2)
Home Runs (+5)
Walks (+2)
Hit Batters (+2)
Strikeouts (-2)
Wild Pitches (+3)
Balks (+5)
Doubles Allowed (+3)
Triples Allowed (+4)
Quality Starts (-10)
My thinking is that we don’t need to account for innings pitched or batters faced with the pitchers. Unlike the batters, the categories I selected for the pitchers are mainly “+” categories, and the more a guy pitches, naturally the more “+” statistics he has a chance to generate. I think the stats SHOULD work themselves out (it seems that they reward guys for getting hit hard).
I could not, however, figure out a good way to get shitty relievers to compare favorably with shitty starters. I hate to say it, but I think it would be best if we just had 2-5 starters on each team with no relievers. If someone can come up with a way to reward bad relief pitching, let me know.
To give some idea of how these stats work, the best 25 fantasy pitchers last year with these stats were as follows:
1. Liván Hernández
2. Dontrelle Willis
3. Adam Eaton
4. Scott Olsen
5. Matt Morris
6. Jeff Suppan
7. Woody Williams
8. José Contreras
9. Daniel Cabrera
10. Jamie Moyer
11. Paul Byrd
12. Matt Chico
13. Kip Wells
14. Matt Belisle
15. Dave Bush
16. Miguel Batista
17. Kyle Davies
18. Tim Wakefield
19. Chad Gaudin
20. Boof Bonser
21. Jason Marquis
22. Kevin Millwood
23. Tom Glavine
24. Paul Maholm
25. Edwin Jackson
I don’t know. That looks pretty damn good to me. It rewards you for picking a guy who made all his starts even though he got hammered all year.
