During the off-season, we changed from 4x4 to 5x5 adding Runs and Strikeouts...I've never heard of an innings maximum in Rotisserie before. I am familiar with start limits, but these commonly apply to head-to-head leagues and not straight-up Roto.
The way it stands now, there is a 900 inning minimum, but no maximum. I feel like I may be able to use this to my advantage at the auction by focusing some extra money on pitching and stockpiling some reserve starters so that I can win Ks and Wins for sure. I also have 3 closers right now so I'll compete in saves.
I need to be sure I get starters that aren't going to damage my ratios too much, but will this be possible with the depth of available starters in a league like this? What do I need to do to make sure I can win ALL the pitching categories, and still compete in a few hitting ones? Do you think this will be a viable strategy?
But it doesn't matter. The reason that Rotisserie leagues don't have maximum innings pitched requirements is because pitching is far too variable from year to year. Between injuries and fluctuations in performance, 2007s Aaron Harang often turns into 2008s...Aaron Harang.
Including Harang, nine out of the 20 most expensive pitchers in the National League lost $9 or more in 4x4 last year from 2007 to 2008. In the American League the carnage was worse; eleven out of the 20 most expensive pitchers in 2008 lost $10 or more from what they earned in 2007.
There's not much you can really do to ensure that you will win all of the pitching categories. The other conundrum is that because offense is more predictable than pitching you'll likely be treading water in the hitting categories unless your offensive freezes are superb.
Your idea of stockpiling pitchers on reserve is fine; I do that in my expert league regardless of what strategy I'm pursuing.
The switch from 4x4 to 5x5 does mean that nwhorton should spend a little more on pitching due to the change in formats. But this change is minimal, and probably comes out to about $5-6 per team.
2 comments:
Lots of people play roto with inning maximums. It's the default league setting in Yahoo and I think maybe in ESPN as well.
It changes the dynamics of the game somewhat because you end up trying to put together the best 1250 innings you can or whatever the max may be. Pacing yourself pitching-wise becomes an issue to keep track of. And knowing that your competitors who are way ahead of pace on innings will be dropping back during the stretch run as their illusory leads in k's and wins fades...
Yes, I am used to the Yahoo type formats that generally impose something like 1250 innings by default to prevent streaming starters. I think in deeper NL-/AL-Only leagues the need for a maximum is not as important because there aren't nearly as many valuable starters around, which I think was Mike's point.
Thanks for addressing my idea...I'd decided to steer away from that strategy too. The auction is tonight in a few hours and I'm still trying to finalize my plans. The inflation this year is 92.3%!
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