21-03-21 Mailbag

This is the final mail bag of the 2021 draft prep season. If you have further questions, the Reader Forums will remain open for awhile longer.

I haven’t seen this anywhere but evaluating players assets with playing time, which is considered better value and which is least?

Player A – Full-timer (p)
Player B – Mid-timer (PW)
Player C – Part-timer (P+)

When it comes to hitters, playing time drives everything. So while the power skills are different, the impact on other categories matters. At its most extreme, these players might actually hit around the same number of HRs — 15-20, perhaps — but Player A will have far more runs and RBIs, perhaps more stolen bases, and a bigger impact on your team batting average (assuming that’s a positive).

However, this also needs to be analyzed within the players’ respective contexts. Playing time expectations are fluid, driven by things like player health and team construct. If that full-timer is an injury risk and the mid-timer is behind a shaky front-liner, then the (M) option might be the best.

I noticed that Pete Alonso’s power rating got dinged in this latest update. What causes that in the middle of March?

Everything is driven by the composition of the player pool. For this latest update, our data provider removed many players who are now not expected to see playing time this year. Removing bad players serves to push up the league average calculated from everyone who is remaining. For some players whose BABS rating is on the cusp between two levels, this shift can push them into a different asset group.

Alonso’s power skills did not change, but his position on the league continuum did. In his case, he was always right on the cusp between P+ and PW (his low hard-hit ball rate suppresses his power rating) and so this slight shift pushed him down to PW.