Showing posts with label Fantasy Baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fantasy Baseball. Show all posts
Friday, September 30, 2011
Game Suspension , Fantasy Baseball Leagues Canceled
With the suspension of the DET/NYY game we do not have the required two games per our rules, and have canceled all fantasy baseball leagues today. If you were in a fantasy baseball league today at Fantasy Sports Live, your entry fee has been refunded. Had there been a third game on the schedule, we would have had the required two completed games, and then the partial scores from the DET/NYY game would have counted, since they were official scores. We may need to look into a rules clarification, since MLB has decided to play through rain delays in the playoffs. Normally, a game is not resumed, but rescheduled when a rain delay occurs this early.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Daily Fantasy Baseball Turns 4 Today
Help us celebrate the 4th anniversary of Salary Cap based Daily Fantasy Baseball today at Fantasy Sports Live. Anyone who scores exactly 44 points today will get a free $40 cash bonus. All leagues today are eligible including leagues that cost as low as $1 to enter. Celebrate your passion for daily fantasy sports with FSL and earn some bonus cash today!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Fantasy Baseball 2011
Looking for the best fantasy baseball site in 2011? Look no further than Fantasy Sports Live. Next week will mark the beginning of our 5th season of daily fantasy baseball. We were the first site to offer salary cap based daily fantasy sports for money in June 2007, and have evolved our offering over the years based on customer feedback to what we feel is the best daily fantasy game on the web. For those new to the site or new to daily fantasy baseball, I am going to cover in detail the daily fantasy baseball leagues offered by FantasySportsLive.
Salary Cap Types
Performance based Ranking Cap Leagues (pts)
For our most popular ranking cap leagues, player costs are equal to their average fantasy points scored per game times 10. For example a left fielder who averages 4.2 fantasy points per game played in our scoring system will cost 42 points of cap to add to your fantasy baseball team. At the beginning of the season we use last year's average fantasy points. During the first month of the season we start to move player costs to their 2011 fantasy point averages. By the end of the first month, player costs will be entirely based on 2011 statistics. Player costs are updated weekly during the first few months of the season, and every two weeks after that. There is no maximum price for a player, but we use a minimum cost of 10 points for any hitter who averages less than 10 fantasy points per game, and 100 points for any pitcher who averages less than 10 fantasy points per game.
Pay Based True Salary Cap Leagues ($k)
Our Salary Cap leagues are true salary cap leagues in that they are based on actual player salaries. Pay is only loosely correlated with performance, so player pricing can be radically different in our salary cap leagues vs. our ranking cap leagues. For all players except starting pitchers, we take the MLB players 2011 actual salary and divide by 162 games to get their per game cost to the team. For starting pitchers we take the players salary and divide it by 32 expected starts to get their per game cost to the team (starting pitchers only play in games that they start typically). Position players get a minimum cap of $10,000 if they earn less than 1.62 Million per year. Their is no maximum cap value for position players. For starting pitchers we use a maximum cap value of $350,000 and a minimum cap value of $100,000. The maximum cap is in place, because many top paid pitchers would cost more than the entire cap amount for your fantasy team if not capped. We use the minimum cap level because drafting a pitcher who cost less than 100k would leave you with too many options for top hitters. We find that this balance works pretty well for our salary cap leagues. Since player costs are based on actual salaries and not in season performance, these costs are fixed for the entire season and are not updated. The total cap value of your team represent what it would cost you in actual dollars to field your fantasy baseball roster for one game.
No Cap Leagues (No)
If your not very good at math, or are a top investment banker our No Cap leagues may be right for you. For our no Cap leagues all players cost the same ($0), so you just draft whoever you want for each of the nine fantasy baseball starting positions. The skill for these leagues comes from the ability to project the top fantasy scoring player at each position without any concern for cost. You generally end up with star studded fantasy dream teams that put up epic fantasy scores, which can make for some pretty exciting fantasy leagues.
Auto Draft Leagues (Auto)
If you don't like the possibility of sharing a fantasy player with your opponent, an Auto Draft league may be right for you. In our Autodraft leagues you rank your top two choices at each of the nine fantasy baseball positions. Your heads-up opponent does the same. At the start time of the league we use an automated procedure to select nine unique players for you and your opponent, among the 18 players that you each ranked. We use a modified snake draft to go through each position, minimizing any draft order advantage. First pick is determined by the lowest ranking cap total of the 18 players selected between the two heads-up opponents. Our auto leagues were designed from the ground-up for daily fantasy baseball, and are not simply an automated live draft. This makes them fast and easy to use daily.
Daily Fantasy Baseball Scoring
Our fantasy baseball scoring system from 2010 remains in place for 2011. Our scoring system is designed to allow for the widest variety of competitive fantasy baseball teams to be created among our draft pool. Keep in mind that for ranking cap leagues a player's cost is exactly 10x their average fantasy points scored per game. Players that score high in our scoring system cost a lot, and players that don't score much, don't cost much. You can build a competitive fantasy team using any mix of high scoring and low scoring players that you like.
Hitter Scoring
Single = 1 pt
Double = 2 pts
Triple = 3 pts
Home Run = 4 pts
Walk = 1 pt
Run Scored = 2 pts
RBI = 2 pts
Stolen Base = 2 pts
Strike Out = -1 pt
Starting Pitcher Scoring (hitting stats not counted)
1/3 Inning pitched = 1 pt
Strike Out - 1 pt
Win = 8 pts
Hit allowed = -1 pt
Walk allowed = -1pt
Earned Run allowed = -2 pts
What's New for Fantasy Baseball 2011
Lower Rake
We have new lower rake for our Heads-up leagues in 2011. We now keep just 6-7.4% of entry fees in all heads-up leagues. We lowered our rake to allow for a much larger percentage of our players to make money long-term from fantasy baseball, and it works. FSL has more profitable players than any competing site that we are aware of, because of our rake structure that is 26-40% lower than a typical 10% rake site. For multiplayer leagues our rake is now 9% maximum, and we continue to offer guaranteed prizes in multis. For example any league that has 2 or more entries will run and pay out the listed prizes, even if the league does not completely fill up. As a result of this the long-term rake we get for multiplayer leagues is in the 7-8% range, and much lower than other sites that cancel all leagues that do not fill up.
Larger Fields
We are now running 25 and 50 player fantasy leagues with the top 5 paid. Last year we had a maximum league size of 10 players.
Beginner Leagues
Beginner leagues do not allow players with more than 100 cash wins on Fantasy Sports Live to enter them. If you are new to FSL, they are a great place to try out our leagues and build-up a nice bankroll before taking on some of the stiffer competition on the site.
Daily Fantasy Baseball Strategy
This is a pretty big topic, so I am just going to touch on it briefly here, and specifically for our most popular ranking cap leagues. The best daily fantasy players try to project what each MLB player will score in each of a daily league's games, and then try to build the highest projected scoring team that will fit under the salary cap. Its both as simple and as complicated as that. Some players use advanced mathematics and statistics to project fantasy baseball scoring and some just have it all in their head from years of following Major League Baseball. Let me cover a couple of strategy topics.
Top Pitcher, Top Hitters, or Some Kind of Mix?
Lets take a typical 450 point ranking cap league. Since player costs are 10 times their average fantasy points scored per game, if you use all 450 points blindly you will have a team that scores 45 fantasy points on average. When you apply some skill to your selections, your average score should be even higher. The texture of your fantasy team is an important consideration. Top pitchers can cost 225 points or more, and low end pitchers can cost 100 points. If you go with a 225 point pitcher in a 450 point cap, you are planning on getting 50% of your fantasy score from the starting pitcher position. If you go with a 100 point pitcher, you are planning on getting less than 25% of you fantasy score from your pitcher. These are huge differences. If you are better at handicapping hitters, than starting pitchers, you may want to spend your cap money on top hitters vs. a top pitcher. If you really know starting pitchers, you may want to do the opposite. The point is that the most important decision you make may be how much to spend on your pitcher, because that has a lot to do with the texture of your fantasy baseball team.
How to Project a Starting Pitcher's Fantasy Score
I like to start with their average fantasy points scored per game, and then adjust for any game specific factors that would tend to make a pitcher score higher or lower than average. Game specific factors to consider include:
1) Offensive strength of the opposing team
2) Strength of the opposing pitcher
3) Home or Away
4) Quality of relief pitching on both teams
5) Pitchers recent performance
How to Project a Hitters Fantasy Score
For hitters it is the same routine. Start with their average fantasy points scored per game, and then adjust for any game specific factors that would tend to make a hitter score higher or lower than average. Game specific factors for hitters include:
1) Strength of the opponents starting pitcher
2) Strength of the opponents relief pitching
3) Starting pitchers throwing hand
4) Home or Away
5) Hitters recent performance
Building Your Daily Fantasy Baseball Team
Once you have projected your players, and know what each players cost is, you draft the team that is projected to score the most points while staying under the cap. This sounds easy, but is often one of the tougher things to do. What I like to look at is a players projection relative to their cost. Lets say a player is projected to score 30 points and costs 15 points, while another player at the same position is projected to score 40 points and costs 25 points. The player projected to score 30 points is actually a better selection, because he is projected to score a higher percentage above his cap value than the 40 point player. So you don't necessarily want the top fantasy point projected player, but want the one who is expected to be the best value relative to their cost. Saving the 10 cap points by going with the 30 point player allows you to spend it elsewhere on other players who are likely to exceed their cap values greatly.
Stay Away From Top Name Players If You Can
Often some top name, more expensive players will have some value. While you may want or have to draft them you need to be careful. It is often better to build a team from lesser known players as long as they project out to similar or better values. Less skillful players will tend to gravitate towards names that they recognize, so there is a bigger chance your teams will have overlapping players, reducing your skill advantage. Also, top name players tend to be expensive, and have more difficulty blowing through their cap cost vs. lesser known players. The sweet spot is typically in second tier type players that look to have excellent match-ups vs. that top name player that consistently puts up big numbers.
Final Thoughts
I am going to stop here for now, but will touch more on daily fantasy baseball strategy going forward, so stay tuned, and good luck with Fantasy Baseball 2011 at Fantasy Sports Live
Salary Cap Types
Performance based Ranking Cap Leagues (pts)
For our most popular ranking cap leagues, player costs are equal to their average fantasy points scored per game times 10. For example a left fielder who averages 4.2 fantasy points per game played in our scoring system will cost 42 points of cap to add to your fantasy baseball team. At the beginning of the season we use last year's average fantasy points. During the first month of the season we start to move player costs to their 2011 fantasy point averages. By the end of the first month, player costs will be entirely based on 2011 statistics. Player costs are updated weekly during the first few months of the season, and every two weeks after that. There is no maximum price for a player, but we use a minimum cost of 10 points for any hitter who averages less than 10 fantasy points per game, and 100 points for any pitcher who averages less than 10 fantasy points per game.
Pay Based True Salary Cap Leagues ($k)
Our Salary Cap leagues are true salary cap leagues in that they are based on actual player salaries. Pay is only loosely correlated with performance, so player pricing can be radically different in our salary cap leagues vs. our ranking cap leagues. For all players except starting pitchers, we take the MLB players 2011 actual salary and divide by 162 games to get their per game cost to the team. For starting pitchers we take the players salary and divide it by 32 expected starts to get their per game cost to the team (starting pitchers only play in games that they start typically). Position players get a minimum cap of $10,000 if they earn less than 1.62 Million per year. Their is no maximum cap value for position players. For starting pitchers we use a maximum cap value of $350,000 and a minimum cap value of $100,000. The maximum cap is in place, because many top paid pitchers would cost more than the entire cap amount for your fantasy team if not capped. We use the minimum cap level because drafting a pitcher who cost less than 100k would leave you with too many options for top hitters. We find that this balance works pretty well for our salary cap leagues. Since player costs are based on actual salaries and not in season performance, these costs are fixed for the entire season and are not updated. The total cap value of your team represent what it would cost you in actual dollars to field your fantasy baseball roster for one game.
No Cap Leagues (No)
If your not very good at math, or are a top investment banker our No Cap leagues may be right for you. For our no Cap leagues all players cost the same ($0), so you just draft whoever you want for each of the nine fantasy baseball starting positions. The skill for these leagues comes from the ability to project the top fantasy scoring player at each position without any concern for cost. You generally end up with star studded fantasy dream teams that put up epic fantasy scores, which can make for some pretty exciting fantasy leagues.
Auto Draft Leagues (Auto)
If you don't like the possibility of sharing a fantasy player with your opponent, an Auto Draft league may be right for you. In our Autodraft leagues you rank your top two choices at each of the nine fantasy baseball positions. Your heads-up opponent does the same. At the start time of the league we use an automated procedure to select nine unique players for you and your opponent, among the 18 players that you each ranked. We use a modified snake draft to go through each position, minimizing any draft order advantage. First pick is determined by the lowest ranking cap total of the 18 players selected between the two heads-up opponents. Our auto leagues were designed from the ground-up for daily fantasy baseball, and are not simply an automated live draft. This makes them fast and easy to use daily.
Daily Fantasy Baseball Scoring
Our fantasy baseball scoring system from 2010 remains in place for 2011. Our scoring system is designed to allow for the widest variety of competitive fantasy baseball teams to be created among our draft pool. Keep in mind that for ranking cap leagues a player's cost is exactly 10x their average fantasy points scored per game. Players that score high in our scoring system cost a lot, and players that don't score much, don't cost much. You can build a competitive fantasy team using any mix of high scoring and low scoring players that you like.
Hitter Scoring
Single = 1 pt
Double = 2 pts
Triple = 3 pts
Home Run = 4 pts
Walk = 1 pt
Run Scored = 2 pts
RBI = 2 pts
Stolen Base = 2 pts
Strike Out = -1 pt
Starting Pitcher Scoring (hitting stats not counted)
1/3 Inning pitched = 1 pt
Strike Out - 1 pt
Win = 8 pts
Hit allowed = -1 pt
Walk allowed = -1pt
Earned Run allowed = -2 pts
What's New for Fantasy Baseball 2011
Lower Rake
We have new lower rake for our Heads-up leagues in 2011. We now keep just 6-7.4% of entry fees in all heads-up leagues. We lowered our rake to allow for a much larger percentage of our players to make money long-term from fantasy baseball, and it works. FSL has more profitable players than any competing site that we are aware of, because of our rake structure that is 26-40% lower than a typical 10% rake site. For multiplayer leagues our rake is now 9% maximum, and we continue to offer guaranteed prizes in multis. For example any league that has 2 or more entries will run and pay out the listed prizes, even if the league does not completely fill up. As a result of this the long-term rake we get for multiplayer leagues is in the 7-8% range, and much lower than other sites that cancel all leagues that do not fill up.
Larger Fields
We are now running 25 and 50 player fantasy leagues with the top 5 paid. Last year we had a maximum league size of 10 players.
Beginner Leagues
Beginner leagues do not allow players with more than 100 cash wins on Fantasy Sports Live to enter them. If you are new to FSL, they are a great place to try out our leagues and build-up a nice bankroll before taking on some of the stiffer competition on the site.
Daily Fantasy Baseball Strategy
This is a pretty big topic, so I am just going to touch on it briefly here, and specifically for our most popular ranking cap leagues. The best daily fantasy players try to project what each MLB player will score in each of a daily league's games, and then try to build the highest projected scoring team that will fit under the salary cap. Its both as simple and as complicated as that. Some players use advanced mathematics and statistics to project fantasy baseball scoring and some just have it all in their head from years of following Major League Baseball. Let me cover a couple of strategy topics.
Top Pitcher, Top Hitters, or Some Kind of Mix?
Lets take a typical 450 point ranking cap league. Since player costs are 10 times their average fantasy points scored per game, if you use all 450 points blindly you will have a team that scores 45 fantasy points on average. When you apply some skill to your selections, your average score should be even higher. The texture of your fantasy team is an important consideration. Top pitchers can cost 225 points or more, and low end pitchers can cost 100 points. If you go with a 225 point pitcher in a 450 point cap, you are planning on getting 50% of your fantasy score from the starting pitcher position. If you go with a 100 point pitcher, you are planning on getting less than 25% of you fantasy score from your pitcher. These are huge differences. If you are better at handicapping hitters, than starting pitchers, you may want to spend your cap money on top hitters vs. a top pitcher. If you really know starting pitchers, you may want to do the opposite. The point is that the most important decision you make may be how much to spend on your pitcher, because that has a lot to do with the texture of your fantasy baseball team.
How to Project a Starting Pitcher's Fantasy Score
I like to start with their average fantasy points scored per game, and then adjust for any game specific factors that would tend to make a pitcher score higher or lower than average. Game specific factors to consider include:
1) Offensive strength of the opposing team
2) Strength of the opposing pitcher
3) Home or Away
4) Quality of relief pitching on both teams
5) Pitchers recent performance
How to Project a Hitters Fantasy Score
For hitters it is the same routine. Start with their average fantasy points scored per game, and then adjust for any game specific factors that would tend to make a hitter score higher or lower than average. Game specific factors for hitters include:
1) Strength of the opponents starting pitcher
2) Strength of the opponents relief pitching
3) Starting pitchers throwing hand
4) Home or Away
5) Hitters recent performance
Building Your Daily Fantasy Baseball Team
Once you have projected your players, and know what each players cost is, you draft the team that is projected to score the most points while staying under the cap. This sounds easy, but is often one of the tougher things to do. What I like to look at is a players projection relative to their cost. Lets say a player is projected to score 30 points and costs 15 points, while another player at the same position is projected to score 40 points and costs 25 points. The player projected to score 30 points is actually a better selection, because he is projected to score a higher percentage above his cap value than the 40 point player. So you don't necessarily want the top fantasy point projected player, but want the one who is expected to be the best value relative to their cost. Saving the 10 cap points by going with the 30 point player allows you to spend it elsewhere on other players who are likely to exceed their cap values greatly.
Stay Away From Top Name Players If You Can
Often some top name, more expensive players will have some value. While you may want or have to draft them you need to be careful. It is often better to build a team from lesser known players as long as they project out to similar or better values. Less skillful players will tend to gravitate towards names that they recognize, so there is a bigger chance your teams will have overlapping players, reducing your skill advantage. Also, top name players tend to be expensive, and have more difficulty blowing through their cap cost vs. lesser known players. The sweet spot is typically in second tier type players that look to have excellent match-ups vs. that top name player that consistently puts up big numbers.
Final Thoughts
I am going to stop here for now, but will touch more on daily fantasy baseball strategy going forward, so stay tuned, and good luck with Fantasy Baseball 2011 at Fantasy Sports Live
Monday, March 21, 2011
Beat Buffalo66 Promo Winding Down
So far we have paid out 13 winners $260 in bonuses in our Beat Buffalo66 promotion. To earn a $20 bonus, all you have to is Beat Buffalo66 three straight times in the Beat Buffalo66 fantasy hockey leagues that we are running. The promo will continue to run until the end of the month, when the fantasy baseball season begins. Thanks to everyone who has participated in our Beat Buffalo66 promo.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Saturday MLB Playoff Baseball Leagues Cancelled
All MLB playoff fantasy baseball leagues on Saturday were cancelled due to the postponement of one of the two games on the schedule. Our rules require at least two games to be completed (in a reasonable amount of time) for a fantasy league to be official. This is also a legal requirement of fantasy sports. If you were in a Saturday MLB fantasy baseball league today, your account has been refunded the amount of your entry fee. Well at least we have three MLB playoff games tomorrow, so barring two acts of God we should get some fantasy baseball action in tomorrow.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Daily Fantasy Baseball - Basic Strategy
Daily Fantasy Baseball contests are a great test of skill, as the playing field is completely leveled each day, and you only need to handicap a single game and match-up for each of your players. You simply figure out which players will put up the most Fantasy Baseball points today and use your salary cap as effectively as possible to get those players on your team. It sounds pretty simple but there are tons of things to consider when putting together a competitive daily fantasy baseball team. I will try to cover some of the basics here. I also have a previous post on fantasy basketball strategy that covers similar ideas.
In Real Estate there is a saying called Location/Location/Location. In the Fantasy Baseball Contests on FantasySportsLive, as well as in real Baseball in general the saying should go Pitching/Pitching/Pitching. Pitching is as important in daily Fantasy Baseball as location is in Real Estate. A daily fantasy team is basically a baseball team you put together for a single game. If you need to win a single game what do you do? You send your ace pitcher to the mound. In real baseball the starting pitcher has a lot to do with winning a game. If your starter throws a shutout, you will need very little hitting to win. If your starter gets shelled and sent to the bench in the third inning, it is unlikely you will get enough hitting to overcome this. Pitching counts for about 1/2 of your chances of winning, and as such counts for about 1/2 of your team's fantasy score. Your choice of starting pitcher is as important as it gets.
Ranking Cap Games
For a ranking cap game in fantasy baseball you will spend 10x the average fantasy points scored per game for that player. A pitcher who costs 220 points puts up 22 points on average this season. For pitching a minimum cap value of 140 is used, and a maximum cap value of 250 is used. Selecting a stud pitcher with a 250 point value will leave you very little for your offensive players while selecting a 140 point cap pitcher will leave you quite a bankroll for your position players. Position players have a maximum of 45 and a minimum of 10 points for their caps.
Selecting a Pitcher
I can't emphasize enough that your fantasy baseball team needs to be built around a solid starter who will put up numbers in today's game. In general this happens when a good pitcher faces a poor offensive team. Being at home helps as well. There is still more to consider, like the 10 point bonus for a win. A pitcher getting a win will have pitched at least 5 innings and should score in the 20+ range in general. So you really want a pitcher who is likely to get the win. Luckily there are people very concerned with who will get the win. That is the betting public. If you visit an online sports book or even Yahoo, you can find the odds for the day's baseball games. The starting pitchers on the teams that are most heavily favored to win their game are your best bet. You should try to go with one of the top 5 for the day. Once you know which pitchers are most favored to get a win, you then try to find the best value against the cap. Since the cap is based on average score for the season, and the betting lines are based on the single game to be played, you can take advantage of any differences that appear by doing this. Hopefully you will identify a bargain pitcher with a cap value below 200, leaving you some room for your position players.
Position Players
The thought process for position players is different, but similar in some ways. You will not have a betting line to look at here to determine how your player will do. However, you do know who your player will be batting against to start the game. Since pitching is so important, it is a good idea to know who you will be up against, and who will be giving up more fantasy points than others. For this ERA is a great guideline. You review the ERAs for the starting pitchers, and find the worst and the best pitchers based on ERA for today's games. In general you will want to draft position players who are playing against the pitchers with the highest ERAs, and avoid drafting players who will be up against pitchers with lowest ERAs. You also probably want to avoid players going against the pitcher that you have on your fantasy team for the same reason. The starting pitcher is the most important factor in determining your starting position players, but several other factors are in play as well if you want to dig deeper.
1) Streaks
Hot players who have been putting up big numbers over the last couple of weeks are better than cold players.
2) Home Field
Players in general play a bit better at home than on the road. Home players will not bat in the bottom of the 9th on average 1/2 of the time. You are loosing about 1/18th of your plate appearances at home. You are actually better of taking position players on the road, unless they are simply poor road performers.
3) Left/Right Match-ups
Is your position player a switch hitter? If so what side are they more productive on? If not a switch hitter what handed pitchers is your player most productive against? Don't start players who struggle against certain handed pitchers when facing those same pitchers.
4) Cap Values
High cap value players are riskier than low cap value players even though they put up higher numbers in general. If you spend 40 points on a player they need to put up 4 points for you to "break even" on the selection, while a 20 point player only needs 2 points. There is more upside and less downside with low cap value players.
5) New Starters
Utility players who do a lot of filling in early in the season, and get promoted to starters later on are usually a good value. Their rank cap value will be depressed by the many partial games played earlier in the season.
Salary Cap Games
While ranking cap values are based on performance, salary cap games are based on pay. If pay was equal to performance in Baseball we would have identical systems. Fortunately that is not the case. The salaries for starting pitchers is their 2008 salary divided by 32 (average number of starts). For position players it is per game salary for 2008. 150k is the minimum salary for a pitcher, 420k is the maximum. Position players use a minimum of 10k and do not have a maximum. What is nice about the salary cap, is the values do not change during the year. For Salary Cap games you will go through the same though process as above, and will end up selecting a rookie or young underpaid pitcher with the minimum, or close to the minimum salary. The top paid pitchers are not enough better than these types of pitchers to justify blowing most of your cap on them. Once you find the best cheap pitcher available, you draft your position players. You will use the same thought process as above, except you will also want to tend to pick players from the top of the list (sorted by rank cap value). If a player with a 10k cap is at the top of the list, you simply take them. You will blow your cap on a couple of key performers after gobbling up all of the bargains.
No Cap Contests
For these you have no salary constraints. You consider the items above and select whoever you think will put up the most fantasy points for each position. Since the lists are sorted by ranking cap value you are best off selecting from at the top or near the top of the list for each position.
These are my initial thoughts on the subject. I did not try to cover everything, just some basics. Good luck in the Fantasy Baseball contests on FSL.
In Real Estate there is a saying called Location/Location/Location. In the Fantasy Baseball Contests on FantasySportsLive, as well as in real Baseball in general the saying should go Pitching/Pitching/Pitching. Pitching is as important in daily Fantasy Baseball as location is in Real Estate. A daily fantasy team is basically a baseball team you put together for a single game. If you need to win a single game what do you do? You send your ace pitcher to the mound. In real baseball the starting pitcher has a lot to do with winning a game. If your starter throws a shutout, you will need very little hitting to win. If your starter gets shelled and sent to the bench in the third inning, it is unlikely you will get enough hitting to overcome this. Pitching counts for about 1/2 of your chances of winning, and as such counts for about 1/2 of your team's fantasy score. Your choice of starting pitcher is as important as it gets.
Ranking Cap Games
For a ranking cap game in fantasy baseball you will spend 10x the average fantasy points scored per game for that player. A pitcher who costs 220 points puts up 22 points on average this season. For pitching a minimum cap value of 140 is used, and a maximum cap value of 250 is used. Selecting a stud pitcher with a 250 point value will leave you very little for your offensive players while selecting a 140 point cap pitcher will leave you quite a bankroll for your position players. Position players have a maximum of 45 and a minimum of 10 points for their caps.
Selecting a Pitcher
I can't emphasize enough that your fantasy baseball team needs to be built around a solid starter who will put up numbers in today's game. In general this happens when a good pitcher faces a poor offensive team. Being at home helps as well. There is still more to consider, like the 10 point bonus for a win. A pitcher getting a win will have pitched at least 5 innings and should score in the 20+ range in general. So you really want a pitcher who is likely to get the win. Luckily there are people very concerned with who will get the win. That is the betting public. If you visit an online sports book or even Yahoo, you can find the odds for the day's baseball games. The starting pitchers on the teams that are most heavily favored to win their game are your best bet. You should try to go with one of the top 5 for the day. Once you know which pitchers are most favored to get a win, you then try to find the best value against the cap. Since the cap is based on average score for the season, and the betting lines are based on the single game to be played, you can take advantage of any differences that appear by doing this. Hopefully you will identify a bargain pitcher with a cap value below 200, leaving you some room for your position players.
Position Players
The thought process for position players is different, but similar in some ways. You will not have a betting line to look at here to determine how your player will do. However, you do know who your player will be batting against to start the game. Since pitching is so important, it is a good idea to know who you will be up against, and who will be giving up more fantasy points than others. For this ERA is a great guideline. You review the ERAs for the starting pitchers, and find the worst and the best pitchers based on ERA for today's games. In general you will want to draft position players who are playing against the pitchers with the highest ERAs, and avoid drafting players who will be up against pitchers with lowest ERAs. You also probably want to avoid players going against the pitcher that you have on your fantasy team for the same reason. The starting pitcher is the most important factor in determining your starting position players, but several other factors are in play as well if you want to dig deeper.
1) Streaks
Hot players who have been putting up big numbers over the last couple of weeks are better than cold players.
2) Home Field
Players in general play a bit better at home than on the road. Home players will not bat in the bottom of the 9th on average 1/2 of the time. You are loosing about 1/18th of your plate appearances at home. You are actually better of taking position players on the road, unless they are simply poor road performers.
3) Left/Right Match-ups
Is your position player a switch hitter? If so what side are they more productive on? If not a switch hitter what handed pitchers is your player most productive against? Don't start players who struggle against certain handed pitchers when facing those same pitchers.
4) Cap Values
High cap value players are riskier than low cap value players even though they put up higher numbers in general. If you spend 40 points on a player they need to put up 4 points for you to "break even" on the selection, while a 20 point player only needs 2 points. There is more upside and less downside with low cap value players.
5) New Starters
Utility players who do a lot of filling in early in the season, and get promoted to starters later on are usually a good value. Their rank cap value will be depressed by the many partial games played earlier in the season.
Salary Cap Games
While ranking cap values are based on performance, salary cap games are based on pay. If pay was equal to performance in Baseball we would have identical systems. Fortunately that is not the case. The salaries for starting pitchers is their 2008 salary divided by 32 (average number of starts). For position players it is per game salary for 2008. 150k is the minimum salary for a pitcher, 420k is the maximum. Position players use a minimum of 10k and do not have a maximum. What is nice about the salary cap, is the values do not change during the year. For Salary Cap games you will go through the same though process as above, and will end up selecting a rookie or young underpaid pitcher with the minimum, or close to the minimum salary. The top paid pitchers are not enough better than these types of pitchers to justify blowing most of your cap on them. Once you find the best cheap pitcher available, you draft your position players. You will use the same thought process as above, except you will also want to tend to pick players from the top of the list (sorted by rank cap value). If a player with a 10k cap is at the top of the list, you simply take them. You will blow your cap on a couple of key performers after gobbling up all of the bargains.
No Cap Contests
For these you have no salary constraints. You consider the items above and select whoever you think will put up the most fantasy points for each position. Since the lists are sorted by ranking cap value you are best off selecting from at the top or near the top of the list for each position.
These are my initial thoughts on the subject. I did not try to cover everything, just some basics. Good luck in the Fantasy Baseball contests on FSL.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Speed Issues with Fantasy Baseball Drafts
Fantasy Baseball Drafts are running much slower than we would like and there have been a handful of complaints. We are addressing this issue on several fronts. We have updated some settings today, and those changes have roughly doubled the speed of the acknowledgement from the server when drafting. We are also working on a small update to the draft GUI, that will reduce the number of server calls required to complete a draft. This will be a huge time saver for baseball. Lastly, one of the issues specific to baseball is that the number of games per contest and the size of the baseball rosters leads to much larger data transfer than the other fantasy sports. To address this we will begin trimming back the available players in the baseball draft pool by removing players who do not average enough fantasy points/game to meet the minimum 10pt rank cap value. These types of players are in general poor draft choices anyway, so we hope they will hardly be missed. As players move their average fantasy points/game up to the minimum we will add them back into the fantasy baseball draft pool. This will have the added benefit of us properly ranking new players before adding them to the draft pool.
As usual, thanks for all your feedback. We are constantly trying to improve our fantasy sports offering so let us know what you think about us good or bad.
As usual, thanks for all your feedback. We are constantly trying to improve our fantasy sports offering so let us know what you think about us good or bad.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
DH Position and General Baseball Position Clean-Up
We decided to make a change to how we treat DHs based on feedback from several users. We will be moving all DHs into the draft pool. Dual position DHs will be draftable at their normal fielding position when not playing DH. "Pure" DHs will be draftable at the position that they last regularly played at. This way all offensive players will now be available expanding the options available when drafting.
If you are aware of any players who seem to be missing from the fantasy baseball draft pool, or are classified at the wrong position let us know so we can get it fixed. We have positions locked down for the year based on their official listed position this year, or for dual classified players at the position they started at the most in 2007. DHs are now treated as shown above. Let us know if you think there are exceptions to the above general rules that should be addressed.
If you are aware of any players who seem to be missing from the fantasy baseball draft pool, or are classified at the wrong position let us know so we can get it fixed. We have positions locked down for the year based on their official listed position this year, or for dual classified players at the position they started at the most in 2007. DHs are now treated as shown above. Let us know if you think there are exceptions to the above general rules that should be addressed.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Fantasy Baseball 08 Launches on FSL
Today we launch our second season of Fantasy Baseball on FSL. Unfortunately, we have a couple of small glitches that we are working on before we can put up a full slate of Fantasy Baseball contests. We have an issue with Internet Explorer running very slow when drafting a Fantasy Baseball team, and an issue the probable starting pitchers. We decided to only list the probable starting pitchers this year, and not list all possible pitchers for every game. Last year we indicated starting pitcher with an asterisk and sorted them to the top of the list. The plan for this year is to just show the starting pitchers with no need for an asterisk. Unfortunately all pitchers are currently showing up, although the probable starters are sorted to the top of the list. When drafting a team today, please be sure that you are selecting a starting pitcher. We are currently working both issues, and plan to have them resolved today. We are also putting the final touches on the salary cap values and will have salary cap contests up later today. Thanks for your patience as we address these opening day issues.
Let us know what you think of the Fantasy Baseball structures, cap values, and player draft pools. Your feedback will help us to refine our Fantasy Baseball offering, and also fix any glaring issues with player or contest cap values. We are very excited to enter our second year of Fantasy Baseball Contests, and we hope you will enjoy them.
Edit: The issue we are having with slow page loads is not really a bug, but an issue with the server. We will be resolving this over night tonight, and are doing what we can to improve the performance today. For now, please allow yourself plenty of time when entering a fantasy baseball contest, as team selection is running slow.
Let us know what you think of the Fantasy Baseball structures, cap values, and player draft pools. Your feedback will help us to refine our Fantasy Baseball offering, and also fix any glaring issues with player or contest cap values. We are very excited to enter our second year of Fantasy Baseball Contests, and we hope you will enjoy them.
Edit: The issue we are having with slow page loads is not really a bug, but an issue with the server. We will be resolving this over night tonight, and are doing what we can to improve the performance today. For now, please allow yourself plenty of time when entering a fantasy baseball contest, as team selection is running slow.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Fantasy Baseball Here We Come
Starting with the games on March 31st, FSL will be launching our second season of Fantasy Baseball. We could not be more excited, and every indication is that it will be absolutely huge. Our Fantasy Baseball offering will be even better this year as we will be going to Rank cap values accurate to the nearest point, and Salary Cap values to the nearest 1k. For those of you with us here last year, we launched with just Salary Cap and No Cap contests, and when we added the rank cap games the values were rounded to the nearest 5pts. Eliminating the rounding makes things much more interesting. Also, we have better control over player positions than we did last year. So missing players and bad positions will be much less of an issue. Player positions will be locked down, and will be based on the position indicated by MLB. For multiple position players it will be based on what postions they started the most in 2007 at. To give you a quick preview, below are the initial rank cap values for the most expensive position players. Daily Fantasy Baseball contests will begin forming as soon as we get the probable starting pitchers for March 31st.
44 A Rodriguez*
41 J Rollins*
41 H Ramirez*
40 C Jones*
39 J Reyes*
39 M Ordonez*
39 D Ortiz*
39 D Barton*
38 M Holliday*
38 M Teixeira*
37 D Wright*
37 C Utley*
37 R Braun*
36 V Guerrero*
36 A Pujols*
35 P Fielder*
35 C Beltran*
35 G Sheffield*
35 M Bradley*
34 C Lee*
33 E Byrnes*
33 B Roberts*
33 P Polanco*
33 C Crawford*
33 H Matsui*
33 C Pena*
33 C Figgins*
33 B Bonds*
33 J Ellsbury*
32 I Suzuki*
32 B Phillips*
32 B Abreu*
32 M Cabrera*
32 A Soriano*
32 T Helton*
32 A Ramirez*
32 M Alou*
32 L Castillo*
31 J Pierre*
31 A Rios*
31 N Markakis*
31 G Sizemore*
31 C Granderson*
31 M Lowell*
31 V Martinez*
31 R Howard*
30 O Cabrera*
30 G Atkins*
30 T Hunter*
30 C Guillen*
30 L Berkman*
30 R Martin*
30 K Griffey*
30 A Dunn*
30 J Posada*
30 C Hart*
30 J Kent*
30 E Renteria*
30 I Kinsler*
30 H Pence*
30 G Anderson*
30 K Matsui*
30 J Keppinger*
29 D Jeter*
29 A Beltre*
29 J Morneau*
29 D Lee*
29 J Damon*
29 M Ramirez*
29 J Thome*
29 J Mauer*
29 M Teixeira*
29 H Blalock*
29 R Ankiel*
28 A Gonzalez*
28 R Cano*
28 A Rowand*
28 T Tulowitzki*
28 R Ibanez*
28 D Pedroia*
28 B Hawpe*
28 M Tejada*
28 K Lofton*
28 B Giles*
28 B Upton*
28 S Victorino*
28 J Loney*
28 J Votto*
27 R Zimmerman*
27 J Hardy*
27 R Furcal*
27 P Konerko*
27 T Hafner*
27 K Youkilis*
27 W Taveras*
27 C Guzman*
26 M Young*
26 D Uggla*
26 F Sanchez*
26 V Wells*
26 M Ellis*
26 J Lugo*
26 M Cuddyer*
26 F Thomas*
26 K Johnson*
26 O Hudson*
26 P Burrell*
26 C Kotchman*
26 R Weeks*
26 J Hamilton*
26 C Ross*
26 N Morgan*
26 T Perez*
25 J Francoeur*
25 K Greene*
25 D DeJesus*
25 J Guillen*
25 R Winn*
25 S Stewart*
25 C Young*
25 N Swisher*
25 C Delgado*
25 R Theriot*
25 C Crisp*
25 J Willingham*
25 G Matthews*
25 L Gonzalez*
25 M Byrd*
25 L Castillo*
25 J Encarnacion*
25 T Redman*
44 A Rodriguez*
41 J Rollins*
41 H Ramirez*
40 C Jones*
39 J Reyes*
39 M Ordonez*
39 D Ortiz*
39 D Barton*
38 M Holliday*
38 M Teixeira*
37 D Wright*
37 C Utley*
37 R Braun*
36 V Guerrero*
36 A Pujols*
35 P Fielder*
35 C Beltran*
35 G Sheffield*
35 M Bradley*
34 C Lee*
33 E Byrnes*
33 B Roberts*
33 P Polanco*
33 C Crawford*
33 H Matsui*
33 C Pena*
33 C Figgins*
33 B Bonds*
33 J Ellsbury*
32 I Suzuki*
32 B Phillips*
32 B Abreu*
32 M Cabrera*
32 A Soriano*
32 T Helton*
32 A Ramirez*
32 M Alou*
32 L Castillo*
31 J Pierre*
31 A Rios*
31 N Markakis*
31 G Sizemore*
31 C Granderson*
31 M Lowell*
31 V Martinez*
31 R Howard*
30 O Cabrera*
30 G Atkins*
30 T Hunter*
30 C Guillen*
30 L Berkman*
30 R Martin*
30 K Griffey*
30 A Dunn*
30 J Posada*
30 C Hart*
30 J Kent*
30 E Renteria*
30 I Kinsler*
30 H Pence*
30 G Anderson*
30 K Matsui*
30 J Keppinger*
29 D Jeter*
29 A Beltre*
29 J Morneau*
29 D Lee*
29 J Damon*
29 M Ramirez*
29 J Thome*
29 J Mauer*
29 M Teixeira*
29 H Blalock*
29 R Ankiel*
28 A Gonzalez*
28 R Cano*
28 A Rowand*
28 T Tulowitzki*
28 R Ibanez*
28 D Pedroia*
28 B Hawpe*
28 M Tejada*
28 K Lofton*
28 B Giles*
28 B Upton*
28 S Victorino*
28 J Loney*
28 J Votto*
27 R Zimmerman*
27 J Hardy*
27 R Furcal*
27 P Konerko*
27 T Hafner*
27 K Youkilis*
27 W Taveras*
27 C Guzman*
26 M Young*
26 D Uggla*
26 F Sanchez*
26 V Wells*
26 M Ellis*
26 J Lugo*
26 M Cuddyer*
26 F Thomas*
26 K Johnson*
26 O Hudson*
26 P Burrell*
26 C Kotchman*
26 R Weeks*
26 J Hamilton*
26 C Ross*
26 N Morgan*
26 T Perez*
25 J Francoeur*
25 K Greene*
25 D DeJesus*
25 J Guillen*
25 R Winn*
25 S Stewart*
25 C Young*
25 N Swisher*
25 C Delgado*
25 R Theriot*
25 C Crisp*
25 J Willingham*
25 G Matthews*
25 L Gonzalez*
25 M Byrd*
25 L Castillo*
25 J Encarnacion*
25 T Redman*
Monday, July 16, 2007
Issues With The Fantasy Draft Pool
We have got lots of feedback on issues with players missing from the baseball draft pool, or classified in the wrong position. It is probably worth taking the time to explain how things work on our site, to clarify a few things. Also this issue is very unique to Baseball, and should not be an issue at all with Football, Basketball, Hockey, Nascar...
The website is fully automated using a live statistic and data feed from the Sports Network. If we had to manually determine everything daily the website would not really be manageable. The feed identifies the roster for each real team and the position for each player. Many baseball players are classified with multiple positions. They may be classified as 1B/OF, DH/OF, 2B/SS or any other combination. For players who are classified with multiple positions, we can't put them in the draft pool because we do not know what position they will play in a given day. Also the DH position is not included in our structure (because of the difference between AL/NL) Unfortunately, there are a handful of popular players that are classified this way.
The draft pool is actually very accurate even with the multiple position issue, but most of the inaccuracies stem from this. There are also a small handful of players who are classified for the wrong single position. Ichiro is one of them. These players are draftable in a position that they do not normally play this year. This is an error in the feed that we have no ability to correct.
We took a quick look at manually correcting the positions of several players, but it is not that simple. When a new player gets called up, we want their position from the feed. Also, we don't want the feed to overwrite our manual corrections. All this complicates things. We also have a ton of development in progress, and we do not want to pull our software team off of what we feel is currently more important.
So I guess what I am saying here, is we are aware of the issues, but it is not a simple or easy fix. We may get to it this year, but it will be based on software resources becoming available in the near future. By next year's baseball season we will do something to clean the positions up and correct errors in the feed. These types of errors do not really exist for the other sports as all players tend to have defined single positions. The draft pool is the same for all competitors in a contest, so there is no advantage given by an error in the draft pool. Unfortunately, for now at least, some user's favorite players may not be available in the fantasy baseball draft pool.
The website is fully automated using a live statistic and data feed from the Sports Network. If we had to manually determine everything daily the website would not really be manageable. The feed identifies the roster for each real team and the position for each player. Many baseball players are classified with multiple positions. They may be classified as 1B/OF, DH/OF, 2B/SS or any other combination. For players who are classified with multiple positions, we can't put them in the draft pool because we do not know what position they will play in a given day. Also the DH position is not included in our structure (because of the difference between AL/NL) Unfortunately, there are a handful of popular players that are classified this way.
The draft pool is actually very accurate even with the multiple position issue, but most of the inaccuracies stem from this. There are also a small handful of players who are classified for the wrong single position. Ichiro is one of them. These players are draftable in a position that they do not normally play this year. This is an error in the feed that we have no ability to correct.
We took a quick look at manually correcting the positions of several players, but it is not that simple. When a new player gets called up, we want their position from the feed. Also, we don't want the feed to overwrite our manual corrections. All this complicates things. We also have a ton of development in progress, and we do not want to pull our software team off of what we feel is currently more important.
So I guess what I am saying here, is we are aware of the issues, but it is not a simple or easy fix. We may get to it this year, but it will be based on software resources becoming available in the near future. By next year's baseball season we will do something to clean the positions up and correct errors in the feed. These types of errors do not really exist for the other sports as all players tend to have defined single positions. The draft pool is the same for all competitors in a contest, so there is no advantage given by an error in the draft pool. Unfortunately, for now at least, some user's favorite players may not be available in the fantasy baseball draft pool.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Starting Pitcher Scoring
We have had a few complaints that our Fantasy Baseball scoring is too heavily weighted towards starting pitching. We think that this is a valid complaint, and we will be addressing this over the all-star break (while no contests are running). What we had in mind is listed below, but we would love your input on pitcher scoring.
1) Win = 5pts vs. 10pts
2) Loss = 0pts vs. -5pts
3) Earned Run = -2pts vs. -1pt
This is not a huge change, but will slightly deemphasize the pitchers score, allowing the position player scores to count more. It also takes away the importance of getting the win, which is not always in the pitchers control if they get no support. Let us know what you think. If you like the scoring the way it is now, let us know as well.
1) Win = 5pts vs. 10pts
2) Loss = 0pts vs. -5pts
3) Earned Run = -2pts vs. -1pt
This is not a huge change, but will slightly deemphasize the pitchers score, allowing the position player scores to count more. It also takes away the importance of getting the win, which is not always in the pitchers control if they get no support. Let us know what you think. If you like the scoring the way it is now, let us know as well.
Monday, June 25, 2007
The Importance of Pitching
When your home team really needs a win what do you do? You send your ace to the mound. Having the best possible starting pitcher on the mound gives any team their best chance of winning an important game. This is just as true for fantasy baseball as for real baseball. Pitching is the key. If your selected starting pitcher does not get the win, you will not get the 10 points that other winning pitchers will get. You need to select a pitcher that will at a minimum get the win, or it will be next to impossible to win your fantasy contest. With pitchers unique ability to put up huge positive and huge negative fantasy scores, their performance is key for your fantasy team. Pick the best starting pitcher possible every time, and don't worry about salary. Salary cap money towards a winning pitcher is always money well spent.
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