The Fantasy Baseball Sherpa

Hi everyone,

Saturday I covered the 2009 Tout Wars Mixed League auction, which took place in midtown Manhattan.  This is a 5×5 league which uses the usual scoring categories (AVG, HR, RBI, R, SB for hitters; W, SV, ERA, WHIP, K for pitchers).  Rosters consist of 14 Hitters (2 Catchers, 1 1B, 1 2B, 1 SS, 1 3B, 5 OF, 1 1B/3B, 1 2B/SS, 1 Util) and 9 Pitchers.  Each team had $260 to spend during the auction on their 23-man roster.  The auction was followed by a 4-round reserve draft.

Here are the 17 participants for 2009:

1. Andy Behrens - Yahoo.com
2. Will Carroll - BaseballProspectus.com
3. Alex Cushing - mlb.com
4. Doug Dennis -BaseballHQ.com
5. David Gonos - OpenSports.com
6. John Hoyos - rotojunkie.com
7. Eric Karabell - ESPN.com
8. J.P. Kastner - CREATiVESPORTS.com
9. Chris Liss - Rotowire.com
10. Eric Mack - CBSSPORTS.com
11. Alex Patton - pattonandco.com
12. Paul Petera - BaseballHQ.com
13. Jason Pliml - MockDraftCentral.com
14. Brendan Roberts - ESPN.com
15. Michael Salfino - SNY.tv
16. Larry Schechter - SandlotShrink.com
17. Perry Van Hook - FantasyBaseball.com

Here’s a link to the spreadsheet posted on the Tout Wars’ website that details each team’s roster.

I used the projections from my Fantasy Baseball Sherpa website to predict the standings based on the results of Saturday’s auction.

Projections by Team - Hitting Categories

Projections by Team - Pitching Categories

Projected Standings

Keep in mind, this is just one man’s opinion, not an “answer key”.  However, I thought this would be of interest since I am an observer rather than a participant.  I’m sure if you asked them,  many, if not all, of the 17 participants would feel that they came out of the auction with the best team.  Such is the nature of the beast.

Several other reasons why the actual results are likely to differ from the projected standings above:

• At the risk of stating the obvious, players’ actual results may differ from their projected results, sometimes significantly so.  This can be due to a myriad of reasons including injuries, suspensions, role changes (e.g. - bench player becomes a starter, or vice versa), changes in batting order position, trades, Closer changes, etc.
• I did not make any adjustments to the 23-man rosters purchased during the auction.  Of course, when the league is played out, if a player is injured, suspended, benched, sent to the minors, etc., the owner will replace them in their starting lineup.  I chose not to do this because I didn’t want to make judgments re: replacement players that would potentially affect the projected standings.
• Some owners will prove to be more adept (or luckier) than others at making in-season trades, free agent purchases, etc.

Even with the above caveats I’m still confident that the projected standings give a reasonably accurate picture of the teams’ relative strength coming out of the auction.  Let’s see what happens as the season unwinds!

The Sherpa

FantasyBaseballSherpa.com

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I covered the 2009 Tout Wars NL-only auction, which took place in midtown Manhattan.  This is a 5×5 league which uses the usual scoring categories (AVG, HR, RBI, R, SB for hitters; W, SV, ERA, WHIP, K for pitchers).  Rosters consist of 14 Hitters (2 Catchers, 1 1B, 1 2B, 1 SS, 1 3B, 5 OF, 1 1B/3B, 1 2B/SS, 1 Util) and 9 Pitchers.  Each team had $260 to spend during the auction on their 23-man roster.  The auction was followed by a 4-round reserve draft.

Here are the 13 participants for 2009:

1. Tristan Cockcroft - ESPN.com
2. Phil Hertz - baseballHQ.com
3. Peter Kreutzer - askrotoman.com
4. Rob Leibowitz - Fanball.com
5. Michael Lombardo - WiseGuyBaseball.com
6. Lenny Melnick & Paul Greco - FantasyPros911.com
7. Scott Pianowski - Yahoo.com
8. Nate Ravitz - ESPN.com
9. Cory Schwartz - mlb.com
10. Brian Walton - CREATiVESPORTS.com
11. Scott Wilderman - The Owners Edge
12. Rick Wilton - Baseball-Injury-Report.com
13. Todd Zola - mastersball.com

Here’s a link to the spreadsheet posted on the Tout Wars’ website that details each team’s roster.

I used the projections from my Fantasy Baseball Sherpa website to predict the standings based on the results of Sunday’s auction.

Projections by Team - Hitting Categories

Projections by Team - Pitching Categories

Projected Standings

Keep in mind, this is just one man’s opinion, not an “answer key”.  However, I thought this would be of interest since I am an observer rather than a participant.  I’m sure if you asked them,  many, if not all, of the 13 participants would feel that they came out of the auction with the best team.  Such is the nature of the beast.

Several other reasons why the actual results are likely to differ from the projected standings above:

• At the risk of stating the obvious, players’ actual results may differ from their projected results, sometimes significantly so.  This can be due to a myriad of reasons including injuries, suspensions, role changes (e.g. - bench player becomes a starter, or vice versa), changes in batting order position, trades, Closer changes, etc.
• I did not make any adjustments to the 23-man rosters purchased during the auction.  Of course, when the league is played out, if a player is injured, suspended, benched, sent to the minors, etc., the owner will replace them in their starting lineup.  I chose not to do this because I didn’t want to make judgments re: replacement players that would potentially affect the projected standings.
• Some owners will prove to be more adept (or luckier) than others at making in-season trades, free agent purchases, etc.

Even with the above caveats I’m still confident that the projected standings gives a reasonably accurate picture of the teams’ relative strength coming out of the auction.  Let’s see what happens as the season unwinds!

The Sherpa

FantasyBaseballSherpa.com

Hi everyone,

This past Saturday I covered the 2009 Tout Wars AL-only auction, which took place in midtown Manhattan.  This is a 5×5 league which uses the usual scoring categories (AVG, HR, RBI, R, SB for hitters; W, SV, ERA, WHIP, K for pitchers).  Rosters consist of 14 Hitters (2 Catchers, 1 1B, 1 2B, 1 SS, 1 3B, 5 OF, 1 1B/3B, 1 2B/SS, 1 Util) and 9 Pitchers.  Each team had $260 to spend during the auction on their 23-man roster.  The auction was followed by a 4-round reserve draft.

Here are the 12 participants for 2009:

1. Matthew Berry - ESPN.com
2. Jason Collette - OwnersEdge.com
3. Jeff Erickson - RotoWire
4. Jason Grey - ESPN.com
5. Lawr Michaels - CREATiVESPORTS.com
6. Steve Moyer - baseballinfosolutions.com
7. Dean Peterson - STATS LLC
8. Ron Shandler - baseballHQ.com
9. Joe Sheehan - BaseballProspectus.com
10. Mike Siano - mlb.com
11. Sam Walker - Wall Street Journal
12. Rick Wolf/Glenn Colton - Rotoworld.com

Here’s a link to the spreadsheet posted on the Tout Wars’ website that details each team’s roster.

I used the projections from my Fantasy Baseball Sherpa website to predict the standings based on the results of Saturday’s auction.

Projections by Team - Hitting Categories

Projections by Team - Pitching Categories

Projected Standings

Keep in mind, this is just one man’s opinion, not an “answer key”.  However, I thought this would be of interest since I am an observer rather than a participant.  I’m sure if you asked them,  many, if not all, of the 12 participants would feel that they came out of the auction with the best team.  Such is the nature of the beast.

Several other reasons why the actual results are likely to differ from the projected standings above:

• At the risk of stating the obvious, players’ actual results may differ from their projected results, sometimes significantly so.  This can be due to a myriad of reasons including injuries, suspensions, role changes (e.g. - bench player becomes a starter, or vice versa), changes in batting order position, trades, Closer changes, etc.
• I did not make any adjustments to the 23-man rosters purchased during the auction.  Of course, when the league is played out, if a player is injured, suspended, benched, sent to the minors, etc., the owner will replace them in their starting lineup.  I chose not to do this because I didn’t want to make judgments re: replacement players that would potentially affect the projected standings.
• Some owners will prove to be more adept (or luckier) than others at making in-season trades, free agent purchases, etc.

Even with the above caveats I’m still confident that the projected standings gives a reasonably accurate picture of the teams’ relative strength coming out of the auction.  Let’s see what happens as the season unwinds!

The Sherpa

FantasyBaseballSherpa.com