What is in a category?

Today most fantasy baseball league play a 5x5 game 5 hitting categories (Batting average, runs, home runs, rbi and stolen bases) and 5 pitching categories (wins, era, whip, saves and k’s ), but that wasn’t always the case. When the first Rotisserie leagues were formed they played a 4x4 game. Runs and K’s were not counted for back then.  

No matter what version you play you need to win the maximum points in order to win the game and here comes the first lesson: in order to win a category you don’t need to dominate it all it takes is ONE more stolen base, home run or Win to win the respective category. This means that when building a fantasy team balance should be the guide.

Another interesting question regarding the different categories is what is the most important one? Is it home runs? After all when you get a home run you also get a run, at least one rbi and it counts for your average. Maybe something scarce like stolen bases or saves? For me, the answer is none of the above. For me the answer is playing time. You can’t get stats (at least the counting stats) if your players don’t play, so I always try to make sure to maximize my players playing time whether pitchers or position players. 

The previous week

My pitching is keep killing me. I lost Anibal Sánchez to the dl and Dan Straily to the minors. Betancourt is still on the dl and I picked J.J. Putz who’s supposed to come back from the dl this weekend to enhance my closers.

Not much help from streaming pitchers either. Kluber got a win but allowed 3 runs in 5.2 ip and got only 4 k’s. Lyles was even worse. He Allowed 8 runs in 5 ip with only 3 k’s against the cubs.

Andrew Cashner had a nice start against the Dodgers: 8 ip, one run on five hits, but only two k’s and no win. Eric Stults against the Phillies went 7 ip, two runs on seven hits but only four k’s and no win. Joe Saunders was another disaster. At homeagainst the light hitting Pirates 1.2 ip and six runs. Oy!

I’d like to use that Lyles outing to make a point. Lyles is a rhp, the cubs are 20th in the league against righties. In his previous 7 outings Lyles allowed no more than 2 runs in a start. Five of them qualified as Quality Starts ( at least 6 ip and no more than 3 runs allowed). My point? Sometimes all the numbers crunching won’t give you the requested results but it doesn't mean I feel bad about it. Like the 411 taught us “Don't Confuse the Outcome with the Decision”