The BABL Manipulation, Part 1

With the exception of my home H2H league (where I’m currently in first place by 9.5 games) my fantasy league performance this year has been awe-uninspiring. My team has sunk to 9th place even in the BABS Baseball (BABL) exhibition, a league I designed where one would think I’d do reasonable well. Nope. A refresher on…

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A BABS Perspective on Under and Overachievers

by Chris Doyle By now we’ve had a solid couple of months to analyze player performance. On the hitting side, we’ve seen plenty of standouts and disappointments, but when it comes to BABS’ assessments there are some clear underachievers and overachievers. Here are six players whose performances have defied expectations, one way or another: Underachievers…

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Turning over the Tout Apple Cart

When the Florida Marlins purged their roster this past off-season, a reason given was that their cache of stars was not winning them anything. One could argue that acquiring a few pieces could have been the quicker path to contention, but other teams have had success by tearing everything down and starting over. I am…

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BABS June 2018 Update – Pitchers

See the latest BABS update here. by Chris Doyle Strikeouts continue to rise in baseball, which means you’ve got more options when it comes to building your balance sheet. Averaging a strikeout per inning is no longer special and is almost a requisite for being considered a fantasy starter. With that said, here are some…

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BABS June 2018 Update – Batters

Access the second BABS update of the season here. by Chris Doyle We’re two months into the season and things are finally starting to crystalize. Have we learned anything after the first third of the schedule? Let’s see if we can draw any conclusions. Cream of the crop Mookie Betts (PW, SB, A+) Mike Trout…

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BABS Mining for Closers

by Justin Cary Closers continue to be a difficult game to maneuver. Here are a few interesting insights and speculations for in-season acquisition. The elite (E+, K+, SV) closers group includes many names you’d expect: Aroldis Chapman, Wade Davis, Edwin Diaz, Brad Hand, Craig Kimbrel and Bud Norris. Most were highly touted coming into the…

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BABS charts early rookie progress

by Chris Doyle As Ron pointed out in his piece on Minor League BABS back in January, there’s one weakness in BABS’ analysis that can group players together who otherwise may not actually share similar skill sets. The example he cited was Austin Slater and Boog Powell, who had identical major league stats in 2017…

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BABL at the first mile marker

It’s May 15, and for me, that is an important date. Up until now, all we’ve been experiencing is statistical noise. And despite the fact that most stats never really stabilize fully, May 15 is the date I like to use to consider the “rough realness” of where my players and teams stand. This first…

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BABS May 2018 Update – Batters

by Chris Doyle Access the first BABS update of the season here. While we must remember that the small sample size caveat still exists, it’s nonetheless a fun and interesting exercise to try and spot the variances from pre-season rankings and attempt to explain or rationalize them. Here are some early takes: Humidor? What humidor?…

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BABS May 2018 Update – Pitchers

by Justin Cary We are a little more than a month in the season and the first BABS scan has arrived. Owners should be reminded that playing time represents less than 20% of the total year’s output. Be careful making assessments about skill sets. Instead, owners should be looking at skills confirmations, or what skill…

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