Fantasy baseball newbie
March 17, 2006 8:09 AM Subscribe
This is my first year playing fantasy baseball with some friends. I am looking for some tools to automate player analysis. I have heard of a program that will give you the next best available player as players are being drafted. Any ideas?
I second Prospectus. their PECOTA Player Forecast Manager is all you'll need - plug in your league parameters, and it ranks every active player in baseball for you. Move that list over into your predraft rankings, and you're pretty much done. Easy.
posted by pdb at 11:40 AM on March 17, 2006
posted by pdb at 11:40 AM on March 17, 2006
If it is a snake draft, you can do this yourself by just ranking every player and crossing them off the list as they are drafted. You can do the same by position with separate lists. I play an auction league and have some elaborate d-i-y spreadsheet that is a pain in the tuckus to set up but the end result provides a way of ranking available players by total value as well as value in each scoring category. By next season I should have my draft manager application finished which does this as well as a number of other helpful drafting functions—but that's not going to help you now...
I haven't used this, but one GM in my league does, so I guess that's something. The Baseball Prospectus stuff mentioned above is great though I don't subscribe myself.
The various fantasy rags may be useful if this is your first go at fantasy, especially if your league is chock-a-block with novices. At some point, though, they don't present a whole lot of information you can't get for yourself off the web. I usually pick up one to use as a sanity check on my own predictions/valuations. If you do use them, be sure to validate their assumptions because a whole lot changes from mid-winter—when most of these are written—and Opening Day (projecting Clemens at a full season with the Astros). Also update their values/ratings as injuries and position battles sort themselves during spring training.
If you are in a keeper league with a huge reserve roster then the Baseball America 2006 Almanac is an essential companion for dredging up the next unheralded star of tomorrow.
Some great resources for draft prep and general fantasy info:
RotoJunkie Bullpen
Masterball forums one of the main figures behind this site played in my league for several years
rec.sport.baseball.fantasy
And, hey, good luck!
posted by Fezboy! at 12:05 PM on March 17, 2006
I haven't used this, but one GM in my league does, so I guess that's something. The Baseball Prospectus stuff mentioned above is great though I don't subscribe myself.
The various fantasy rags may be useful if this is your first go at fantasy, especially if your league is chock-a-block with novices. At some point, though, they don't present a whole lot of information you can't get for yourself off the web. I usually pick up one to use as a sanity check on my own predictions/valuations. If you do use them, be sure to validate their assumptions because a whole lot changes from mid-winter—when most of these are written—and Opening Day (projecting Clemens at a full season with the Astros). Also update their values/ratings as injuries and position battles sort themselves during spring training.
If you are in a keeper league with a huge reserve roster then the Baseball America 2006 Almanac is an essential companion for dredging up the next unheralded star of tomorrow.
Some great resources for draft prep and general fantasy info:
RotoJunkie Bullpen
Masterball forums one of the main figures behind this site played in my league for several years
rec.sport.baseball.fantasy
And, hey, good luck!
posted by Fezboy! at 12:05 PM on March 17, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
I'm not a shill, just a happy customer.
posted by schustafa at 8:37 AM on March 17, 2006