|
Below, you'll find extensive information on leading
fantasy football player ranking articles and products to help you on your way
to success.
Fantasy Baseball - Why Traditional 5x5 Leagues Are Outdated.
By Sam Neff, Thu Dec 8th
The "fantasy" in stands for what a team wouldbe like with a collection of stars gathered together, not for analternate universe where value has no relation to reality.Fantasy baseball is all about capturing players' performance onthe field and translating it into a competition. To capture theoffensive and defensive sides of play, both hitters' andpitchers' statistics are monitored. Runs, RBIs, batttingaverage, home runs and stolen bases comprise the typical hittingcategories, while ERA, strikeouts, wins, WHIP (walks and hitsallowed per inning pitched), and saves are the usual pitchingcategories. At first glance these categories (noted as thetraditional 5x5 categories) seem fair enough. The first two pitchers most commonly drafted are Johann Santanaand Randy Johnson. It is hard to argue that these two are notthe premier pitchers in baseball. The batters most commonlydrafted in the top three are Albert Pujols, Carlos Beltran, andA-Rod. Here again are guys with high name recognition, and greatstats, and all in the upswing of their careers. But here iswhere the traditional 5x5 goes off track. By far the best current hitter in baseball, steroids controversynotwithstanding, is Barry Bonds. Historically, one could pointto Joe DiMaggio, Ty Cobb, or Ted Williams, but presently, thereis no argument. Bonds makes the greatest impact in the game.Last year he reached base over 60 percent of the time, thanks toboth his high walk rate and .362 batting average. The nextclosest in on-base percentage was Todd Helton at a mere 47percent. Before you think, "big deal - that's a difference of 13percent," know that a similar 13 percent reduction from Helton'snumber would give you Mark Grudelzniak, or Miguel Cairo. Quite adifference. And that doesn't even bring in Barry's sluggingpercentage, which is also incredible. The man hit 45 homers in373 at-bats last year!
What Bonds has been doing to the game is historic in every senseof the word. That his accomplishments have not translated intofantasy sports strips any claim of realism. In a normal 5x5league, Bonds is usually drafted late in the first round orearly in the second. Yahoo has him ranked as number 12. Number12 for a man who is arguably one of the best hitters ever, andwho, as a hitter, dominates the game on a day-to-day basis. The steals category should also be rethought. In a traditional5x5 league, the number of steal attempts a player successfullyconverts gives him his value. This leads to fairly obvious casesof a player being valued much higher in fantasy terms then inreal life, even if you do subscribe to the belief that thenumber of steals a player gets is in fact as telling as hisbatting average in determining his overall value. For example,Player A steals 20 bases in 40 attempts, as his coach believesstrongly in the run. Player B steals only 18 bases, but out of20 attempts, for a stellar success percentage. Player Bobviously helps his team more, and had a more positive impact onthe field, but the owner of player A is the more successfulfantasy
owner. Why does it matter? So what if is detached fromthe reality of baseball? That's why it is called fantasy, right?And everyone hates Bonds anyway. Unfortunately, the vastlydivergent criteria used by the fantasy sports world and the realworld to evaluate players drives a wedge between the hobby andmainstream sports fandom. Fantasy players become more geeky asthe hobby (some would rather call it an obsession) drives itselfaway from real baseball. The 5x5 system demands thatparticipants learn a new set of rules, and each new rule drivesthe hobby further away from acceptance and relevance. Bonds isnot the best player in baseball. He's actually the twelfth. AlexSanchez of the Detroit Tigers, a prominent starter on manyfantasy teams last year with his 19 stolen bases, was cut fromthe Tigers this spring. The list goes on, but the point is,fantasy baseball is a reflection of baseball, and derives itslegitimacy (if it has any) from its place as an extension of areal-life activity. Fine, a traditional 5x5 player argues, "thenwhy was 5x5 created with these stats to begin with?" The answer is simple. didn't start with thecomputer age. People actually went through box scores toaccumulate the data necessary to play fantasy sports. Imaginethe effort taken after each and every game, scanning newspapers,adding hits, then dividing by the total at bats, noting thestolen bases for each and every player on your team. That wouldtake a lot of work. It's obvious why the traditional 5x5 statswere chosen. They were in fact the stats given by the box scores! Thanks to computers, we are no longer limited by the constraintsof newspaper box scores and division on scratch paper. Yahoo!alone offers 54 total categories with which to customize yourleague. This gives you the power to organize your league inwhatever way you believe players in real baseball are reallyvalued. The most popular version of this is the SABR ("saber") leagues.The popular categories are: runs, RBIs, OBP (on base percentage)and slugging percentage for hitting, and wins, saves, ERA, andWHIP for pitching. This doesn't even begin to touch the value ofa team's defense, but since there is no objective or standardway to measure defense, that problem has not been effectivelytackled yet. The home team's scorer gives out errors, whiledefensive range is difficult to pin down as a measurablestatistic game to game. It may be some time before ToriiHunter's spectacular home run-saving catch is a part of fantasybaseball, but undoubtedly the statisticians will come up withsome method. However you plan to do it meanwhile, if Bonds isn't the clearfirst pick in your draft, then your league is long on thefantasy, short on the baseball. About the author:aworldofhelp.com is the best place to get your questionsanswered on the internet. Questions are answered by real peoplequickly and for free. Visit the site at: http://aworldofhelp.com/ Read this article at: http://aworldofhelp.com/home/articles/sports/031705_fbaseball_1.php This article and the entire contents of aworldofhelp.com iscopyright A World Of Help, LLC.
|
