Posts Tagged ‘fantasy baseball’
First round risers
This is my weekly article from ESPN Insider. Most first round picks are not going to return first round value. If our goal is to roster the safest foundation players at the top of the draft, these are the only players currently ranked in the Top 15 that I would trust nearly 100 percent with…
Read MoreBABS Update: The Humidor Cometh
The BABS database and master spreadsheet are both updated with the latest player additions and moves. Last week’s poll indicated that most of you are planning to have your drafts the weekend of March 24-25 so I will get one more database update posted before then. I’m not sure if I’ll get in a spreadsheet…
Read MoreBABL Exhibition draft results
Our group of 10 intrepid explorers have begun their journey, taking BABS Baseball (BABL) out for its initial voyage. We have just completed the first leg, wrapping up our slow draft last week. As a refresher, here are the basics of this new, BABS-inspired league format: 4×4 Rotisserie draft & hold Categories are HR, SB,…
Read MoreBABS evaluates the young crop
By Justin Cary Predicting a full year of a player can be a risky endeavor when you only have one year of historical data. BABS’ Experience liability tells you that the performance of these players is not set in stone and that their skill sets could look different a year from now. So which young…
Read MoreUsing BABS in deeper leagues
BABS is great, but she’s not perfect. She works best with players who generate statistically significant performance samples. BABS likes playing time. As such, she works like a charm in most standard mixed league formats. But once we start dipping into those batters likely to see just a few hundred plate appearances, or rarely-used pitchers,…
Read MoreIdentifying first round fails
This is my weekly article from ESPN Insider. It is possible to lose your draft in the first round, so you would expect that we’d be experts in identifying those elite players. We’re not. Over the past 14 years, our success rate at projecting which players will earn Top 15 value is about 35 percent.…
Read MoreNo need to overpay for closer roles
When it comes to the BABS philosophy of players being “more alike than they are different,” there is no better demonstration of this than with relief pitchers. There are about three dozen relievers who have a shot at about 10 or more saves; about 20 who are good bets for 30-plus. However, the top dozen…
Read MoreIs Clayton Kershaw still a first-rounder?
This is my weekly article from ESPN Insider. The talent curve at the beginning of a draft is very steep. In Rotisserie dollars, the variance between the no. 1 pick (Mike Trout, Jose Altuve, whoever) and the pick at the end of round 2 could be as much as $20. Value flattens considerably the deeper…
Read MoreOutfielders provide big skill, but lots of health risk
The top of the outfield food chain is similar to last year – lots of skill, lots of risk. There is no shortage of power, good average and some nice extreme speed options. But seven of the top 10 players have injury risk, and five of those seven are rated as major risks. Dropping to…
Read MoreAnchoring Aaron Judge
Each year, members have access to all the columns I write for ESPN Insider. They will appear here every Thursday or Friday. Many will include a BABS-relevant postscript. Enjoy. We are nothing if not beholden to our psychological biases. If I ask you how many home runs Aaron Judge will hit in 2018, you will…
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