Dumping Categories/Losing Other Stats

Eugene makes an interesting point about dumping categories:

Steals are frequently tied to players who have other value as well- Ichiro, Beltran, etc. If you disregard them to ditch steals, you will be paying more for players who either aren't as well rounded or paying for them for their other value and not complimenting their steals- thus buying the whole player and only using a portion.

I've addressed category dumping in many other posts, but perhaps have never looked at the other side of this equation - what happens to the categories you're contending in when you decide to dump a category?

Is Eugene's premise correct? More importantly, was it correct last year?

Top 10 A.L. Home Runs 2008

Rank	Top 10 HR	AB	HR	RBI	SB	BA	$HR	$	Sal	AP	SW	2007
1	Miguel Cabrera	616	37	127	1	.292	14	33	42	33	36	34
2	Carlos Quentin	480	36	100	7	.288	14	31	6	5	7	2
3	Alex Rodriguez	510	35	103	18	.302	13	38	47	42	43	53
4	Jermaine Dye	590	34	96	3	.292	13	29	20	18	17	16
5	Jim Thome	503	34	90	1	.245	13	20	19	18	22	23
6	Grady Sizemore	634	33	90	38	.268	13	40	35	32	29	31
7	Jack Cust	481	33	77	0	.231	13	16	12	15	10	16
8	Aubrey Huff	598	32	108	4	.304	12	32	13	14	10	14
9	Jason Giambi	458	32	96	2	.247	12	21	4	12	6	7
10	Josh Hamilton	624	32	130	9	.304	12	38	20	25	14	15
	average	549	34	102	8	.279	13	30	22	21	19	21

I ran this chart earlier this winter.

If you were dumping steals last year in an A.L.-only league, you would have waved bye-bye to A-Rod and Sizemore. But the rest of these guys certainly wouldn't have contributed anything in steals - or at least not enough to warrant adding a significant amount to their bids.

Even in the N.L. - where we would expect more HR/SB tandem players, you also could have made a similar non-SB play.

Top 10 N.L. Home Runs 2008

Rank	Top 10 HR	AB	HR	RBI	SB	BA	$HR	$	Sal	AP	SW	2007
1	Ryan Howard	610	48	146	1	.251	17	30	37	31	33	32
2	Adam Dunn	511	40	100	2	.236	14	21	26	24	26	28
3	Carlos Delgado	598	38	115	1	.271	13	27	18	14	15	17
4	Ryan Braun	611	37	106	14	.285	13	33	37	29	37	36
5	Ryan Ludwick	538	37	113	4	.299	13	32	3	6	3	12
6	Albert Pujols	524	37	116	7	.357	13	43	35	33	36	33
7	Adrian Gonzalez	616	36	119	0	.279	13	28	26	25	18	23
8	Prince Fielder	588	34	102	3	.276	12	26	38	30	32	35
9	Pat Burrell	536	33	86	0	.250	12	18	18	15	14	19
10	Hanley Ramirez	589	33	67	35	.301	12	39	41	41	41	51
11	Chase Utley	607	33	104	14	.292	12	33	38	33	36	32
12	David Wright	626	33	124	15	.302	12	38	43	38	39	46
	average	580	37	108	8	.283	13	31	30	29	28	30

Ramirez, Utley and Wright all would have been non-starters. But the rest of these guys certainly would have fit a non-SB strategy nicely.

Of course you're going to lose out on some stats from guys who are tied into SB. But there are enough guys out there who hit for power and don't run that it should work.

My challenge usually has more to do with how I should budget if I'm dumping a category. It's not enough to turn the dial to zero on SB and pump up the players without SB in a linear fashion. You're probably competing with a roomful of owners who will be budgeting across all categories and need to adjust accordingly. Pushing the bid to $25 on Delgado last year wouldn't have made sense in a non-SB strategy. Going to $21 might have, depending on your freeze list and your other needs.