Altering Prices for Non-Traditional Rosters

Cinderella Story is in a league that doesn't use the traditional 14 hitter/nine pitcher split, and wanted to know if I had any advice for him on how to adjust.

Any advice on how to alter prices for a league with slightly different roster spots? I am joining a startup league with 16 teams, but the rosters are only 1 C, 2 DHs, and one 'infielder' to go with the usual hitters, so 15 hitters total. And its 10 pitchers instead of 9. I started with Patton's prices for 15 team mixed, but should I still go for the stars and scrubs with the extra team and 2 extra roster spots, or would you dial the bids down a bit?

After I won the CBS Sports A.L. league last year, I was invited by Eric Mack over at CBS to something called the "League of Champions." This is a 12-team mixed league draft comprised of 12 owners who won some kind of CBS league (I guess they have a lot of expert leagues over there). The draft took place online in an auction room. At some point, I told Mack - via the room's chat feature - that I had played Roto for 23 years but this was the first time I had ever done a mixed league. Based on his reaction, I may have broken his brain.

Cute little anecdote aside, I tell this story because I'm more comfortable giving advice for N.L. or A.L.-only leagues than I am for mixed leagues. Cinderella, I'll give it a shot...with the caveat that I'm advising you based entirely on theory and not on experience.

I don't have the inclination to derive what the mixed league formula can or should be for a 15-team mixed league with 14 hitters and nine pitchers. However, taking last year's auction rosters for the American League/National League and taking the 210 most expensive hitters, leaves you with $3,946 of combined A.L./N.L. hitting money spent for $3,445 worth of talent.

The rub here is that the 210 most expensive hitters don't include nearly enough catchers. Only 20 catchers would have made in into a "traditional mixed league" (that phrase sounds odd of the tongue) out of an anticipated 30. I would have to assume that getting rid of a catcher and adding any hitter would put some extra talent into the player pool.

I still have a couple of questions. How much talent is at the bottom of the pool in a mixed league? How much less talent would be available by adding a team?

15-team league, 14 hitters: Players 211-352: $920 earned (N.L. and A.L.)*
16-team league, 15 hitters: Players 241-352: $632 earned (N.L. and A.L.)*
*> 350 hitters due to $0 bids/non-overlap of 100% of average league players.

I didn't account for the catchers in this calculation, but it does seem like adding an extra team and hitter does lead to a pretty significant drop in talent available. Two leagues versus one will lead to more free talent coming over mid-season, but even if you multiply the earnings up there by 60% (15 teams/25 teams = 60%), that's still $173 of talent you're "losing" moving from one format to the other.

As for the pitchers:
15-team league, 9 pitchers: Pitchers 136-225: $472 earned (N.L. and A.L.)
16-team league, 10 pitchers: Pitchers 161-225: $326 earned (N.L. and A.L.)

There's less of a gap here...but then pitchers earn a little less than half of what hitters earn in a 15-team league. From that standpoint, you're losing more or less the same amount of talent for the pitchers ($146) that you are for the hitters ($288).

To get back to Cinderella's question, would I lower the bids somewhat?

Probably not at the top of the spectrum, but maybe in the middle.

Even when you factor in the extra players auctioned at the bottom of Cinderella's deeper mixed league, you still don't have any $30+ earners sitting at the bottom in either pool. You can still find some players who earn in double digits in one-league only leagues. If these players go un-auctioned, then they should be sitting in the free agent pool.

In other words, the distribution of dollars in mixed leagues still applies. Pay big for the elite players because they tend to earn their keep and they won't be sitting there in the free agent pool. Pay less for the guys in the middle because you might find a replacement in the free agent pool. Pay much less for the guys at the bottom, because there are still enough decent free agents out there, and some will inevitably do better than some of the players you wind up buying at auction.