These guys sent me an email today and asked me (and I’m sure everyone else they could think of) to write about them. The site is brand new and a little thin. The two big news stories are the launch of the new design, which is more exciting for them than us, and their season preview, which isn’t yet available. It’s also one of those widgeted together CMS jobs, not unattractive (at all) but distractingly overwhelming with information on the front page. And, I would suggest, not terribly helpful steering me toward what I should be reading.
But I looked around some more and found a nice simple story in the articles section about contact rates and batting average that will be very useful if true for fantasy players, and made me want to put together my own study.
There’s also a piece, linked to here, about the very varying ADP for some fellas with similar stats last year. I like this sort of thing and thought it might be of interest for me to post my projections for the five guys (rather than the writer’s use of last year’s stats).
Player A Â 550 Â 116 Â 45 Â Â 133 Â 2 Â Â .306
Player B Â 600Â Â 91 Â 32 Â 121 Â Â 5 Â .323
Player C Â 550 Â Â 91Â 35 Â Â 110 Â Â 5 Â Â .296
Player D Â 550 Â Â 83 Â Â 33 Â 109 Â 1 Â .300
Player E Â 450 Â Â 89 Â 26 Â Â 88 Â 5 Â Â .321
I think my projections explain why Player E is being drafted 66th (I have him rated a little lower, as the 50th best hitter) this year. He’s old and he’s been hurt recently. But as the writer says in this useful piece, when the perception runs ahead of the player’s decline (one hopes) there’s a chance to find some real value. (Actually, he ends the story with a rather wishy-washy conclusion, which suggests he thinks taking Player E with the 66th pick is pushing it a little, too. Good for him!)
Good luck to MLB Front Office. Or as my intellectual property attorney, Confucius, might say, May the legal team at MLB and MLBAM not hear about their site for a long time.