I've scheduled our 2014 Gashouse League draft at the regular time, i.e., the Saturday evening before Opening Day. This year, that means we draft at:9:00 p.m., Eastern Time8:00 p.m., Central Time7:00 p.m., Mountain Timeon Saturday, March 29.
There's a complication, this year. The Dodgers and Diamondbacks will play a series in Australia, the weekend before. Hence, there will be three games history BEFORE we draft. Yahoo gives your Omnipotent Commissioner the option of permitting those games into our roto scoring for the season ... or not. I'll set our scoring to include stats from those games, UNLESS there's a sense from league members we don't want to do that. Let me know, if you're opposed to including stats from those games into our scoring.
Scoring?
I'm saying we stick with last year's metrics. If we get a majority of returning teams in favor of a change, I'll make the change. Here's what our scoring metrics will be ... assuming we make no change:
Batters Stat Categories:
Runs (R), Runs Batted In (RBI), Stolen Bases (SB), Errors (E), On-base Percentage (OBP), Slugging Percentage (SLG)
Pitchers Stat Categories:
Quality Starts (QS), Saves (SV), Strikeouts (K), Holds (HLD), Earned Run Average (ERA), (Walks + Hits)/ Innings Pitched (WHIP)
These metrics differ from a standard Yahoo 5x5 rotisserie league as follows:
1. We toss out Home Runs (HR) and Batting Average (AVG) and we add in OBP, SLG and Errors.
2. We substitute Quality Starts (QS) for Wins (W), retain the other standard pitchers stats and add Holds (H).
3. We add one Pitcher (P) position to the standard roster.
Why the batters stat modifications?
HR is a "counting" stat (and so, rewards the obsessive lineup packer … an advantage we want to moderate); so, we replace it with SLG, an "average" stat against which a distracted owner may better compete. We add SLG to back into OPS (On-Base plus Slugging), a more "basebally" metric than batting average. We add Errors to balance six batters categories with our six pitchers categories. Errors is a "counting" stat, but as a greater number is a negative, having this "counting" stat serves to even more moderate the advantage of the obsessive lineup packer by penalizing him with a greater likelihood of incurring Errors.
Why the pitchers stat modification?
Quality Starts reward the good and yeoman starters on offense-challened teams. We add Holds because it's more "basebally" to concern ourselves with middle-relief/set-up pitchers. One reason I think we all do fantasy baseball is to make us more knowledgeable fans. We get a deeper appreciation for starters on second division teams by using Quality Starts. We get a deeper appreciation for the bullpen by adding Holds.
Why do we add a Pitcher position to the roster?
Adding Holds puts pressure on the pitching staff. We tried using Holds once while keeping the standard roster size. But, that forced managers to make a Sophie's Choice and sacrifice competition in a given category because rosters were too tight to accommodate the sixth category. (Did that make sense?)
