BACK IN THE SADDLE

 Wow, it has been a long time since I blogged about Fantasy Sports.  There was a time when I played Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Basketball, Fantasy Football and Fantasy Hockey.  Then in 2009 I moved to South Korea and then in 2011 to Hong Kong - I still played but I quit blogging about it.  

In 2013 I moved to China and my days of playing Fantasy Sports paused.  It was difficult to keep up from the other side of the world especially when the Chinese Government blocked sites.  Did you know Dobber Hockey is blocked by China?  Strange.

Anyway, last year I resumed Fantasy Baseball since Covid19 had me sitting around doing almost nothing (I was still in China at the time) so I went back to playing only to have Covid disrupt the game in the US adding a risk element that made managing .... interesting.  I still managed to eek out one or two first place finishes .

So now it's 2021

It's time to prepare for the new Fantasy Baseball Season.

First - know your facts.

    This includes Stats but isn't limited to Stats.  It means first you need to know the league details in which you are going to play.  How many players?  What positions?  What STATS count?  How are the counted?  Is it Head to Head each week or is it ROTO?  Are lineups set daily or weekly?  Is there a limit on transactions?  Minimums on Innings pitched?  Maximums?  Player Eligibility Rule? 

Get to know the league rules BEFORE you draft.

Second - Know your Players.  I started with the Leagure rules because it affects your players stats you want to know.  If Stikeouts for example is a negative stat for a hitter, you need to know that so you can adjust your ranking of a power hitter who strikes out a lot.  For Pitchers, do HomeRuns allowed count as a negative?  When you know the league rules, then you can look at the Stats that are important for you in that league.

I start with last year's MLB stats.  FantasyPros makes it easy.  https://www.fantasypros.com/mlb/stats/hitters.php?range=2020  They provide you with stats for hitters and pitchers.

I take those stats and copy them into a spreadsheet which allows me to refine what I am looking for in my players.  I am in the process of doing that today.  I add my own columns to both hitting and pitching stats.

For hitting, I create a Runs+RBIs+HR+SB column.  These are the primary 4 stats used in most Fantasy leagues whether it is head to head or Roto.  I also then create a column that takes that combined number and divides it by "at bats".  Now I can see who does the most with opportunity.  

For pitching, I am interested in Strikeouts which the stats show but also Strikeouts per 9 innings and the strikeout / walk ratio.  I also look at WHIP.  Wins and losses depend so much on run support and frankly luck.  So I don't focus as much on a pitcher's win - loss records as I do Quality Starts, ERA, WHIP and K/9 and K/BB.

I'll post more after I finish getting my Stats in order.