Custom Draft Guide categories

[Tom_T]

I've been recruited for a few of our site's tech tasks, and my first order of business is to add more categories to the Custom Draft Guide.

In progress: Holds and Net Saves (in conjunction with the upcoming addition of Holds and Blown Saves to our data.)

We're pretty much open to anything as long as the data exists in our projection files, and we've got the time to implement it (i.e. I'm not planning to add 20 new categories.) Some ideas I've had are: Holds+Saves-Blown Saves, and 2xWins-Losses.

Suggestions?

[Kevin]

Thinking outside the box, what about simply* adding a tool that allows you to algebraically combine two or more existing categories in any way that you see fit? For example, if you already have Wins and Losses as categories, and one user wanted 2xW-L while another wanted 3xW-2L etc. etc., they're both happy.

Sportsline has this functionality for their commissioner service. When filling out the information for your scoring system, you have the option of a Custom Stat - you create your own abbreviation and formula. Their instructions for formula are:

Formula is the mathematic equation you will use to create your custom stat. For instance, if you want to make a stat that is Singles + Doubles, you would enter 1B+2B as your formula.

As a total aside, they've added some interesting figures for each of the "raw" stat categories that they offer, showing what percentages of their leagues use that stat. Did you know that 6% of Sportsline leagues score Sacrifice Hits for batters, and 18% score "Perfect Games" for pitchers? Now you do.

* "simply" here meant to refer to conceptual simplicity, not technological simplicity

[Tom_T]

That idea has occurred to us, since Rotolab lets you "roll your own." It's pretty tricky, though. There's nothing in the CDG that lets you save your settings for next time, the way CBS and Rotolab save your custom category as part of your league settings. So, we'd have to add a cookie or some other file to your computer, to hold your formula.

And how would we display it the second time? We'd have to read your settings and dynamically show that category on the page. Not that easy.

Even as a one-time-use feature (which would be annoying -- having to enter the same formula every time you run the report), it would require a decent-sized overhaul to the CDG code. Throw in what I said above, and it's a long-term project.

I will check out the CBS site to see which categories are being used. "Perfect games", I might pass on that one.

[Kevin]

How do you handle saving data for the Team Tracker?

I hear you about the complexity of the project, but it might be like writing a macro. Takes three times as long, but 20 runs later you're pretty happy you did it.

[Kevin]

FWIW, here is a rough cut of the percentage of fantasy leagues that seem to be using these categories:

Hitting
98% Home Runs
98% Runs Batted In
96% Stolen Bases
87% Runs
53% Batting Average
43% Walks (Batters)
42% Doubles
42% Triples
40% Singles
30% Strikeouts (Batter) *
28% Caught Stealing *
24% Hit by Pitch
20% Hitting for the Cycle
14% Errors *
12% Grand Slam Home Runs
10% Ground Into Double Plays *
8% Hits
8% On Base Pct
7% Sacrifice Flies
6% Intentional Walks
6% Sacrifice Hits
<5% Assists
<5% At Bats
<5% AtBat Runners in Sco. Pos.
<5% Bases Produced
<5% Catcher Interference
<5% Caught Stealing by Catcher
<5% Combo
<5% Double Plays Turned
<5% Doubles Plus Triples
<5% Extra Base Hits
<5% Fielding Chances
<5% Fielding Pct
<5% Games
<5% Games Played Catcher
<5% Games Played Center Field
<5% Games Played Corner Infield
<5% Games Played Designated Hitter
<5% Games Played First Base
<5% Games Played Left Field
<5% Games Played Middle Infield
<5% Games Played Outfield
<5% Games Played Right Field
<5% Games Played Second Base
<5% Games Played Short Stop
<5% Games Played Third Base
<5% Games Started (Batter)
<5% Hits Runners in Sco. Pos.
<5% Left On Base
<5% OF Assists
<5% On Base plus Slugging Pct
<5% Passed Balls by Catcher
<5% Primary Position
<5% Production Pct
<5% Put Outs
<5% RBI Minus Home Runs
<5% Runs per At Bat
<5% Runs Produced
<5% Runs Produced Average
<5% Singles + Doubles + Triples
<5% Slugging Pct
<5% Stolen Base Pct
<5% Stolen Bases - Caught Stealing
<5% Stolen Bases Allowed *
<5% Total Bases
<5% Total Pct Average
<5% Triple Plays Turned

Pitching
95% Saves
93% Wins
86% Strikeouts (Pitcher)
57% Earned Run Average *
52% Walks + Hits / Inning *
43% Innings
36% Earned Runs *
35% Losses *
34% Shutouts
33% Complete Games
30% Blown Saves *
27% Walks Issued (Pitchers) *
25% No-Hitters
18% Perfect Games
17% Hits Allowed *
12% Hit Batsmen *
12% Holds
12% Quality Starts
8% Pick Offs
6% Balks *
6% Wild Pitches *
5% Home Runs Allowed *
<5% Air Outs
<5% Appearances
<5% At Bats Against
<5% Batters Facing Pitcher
<5% Batting Average Against *
<5% Complete Game Loss
<5% Doubles Allowed *
<5% Games Finished
<5% Games Started (Pitcher)
<5% Ground Outs
<5% Ground Outs/Air Outs
<5% Hits per Inning *
<5% Hits per Nine *
<5% Inherited Runners Scored *
<5% Innings per Start
<5% Intentional Walks *
<5% Men on Base/ 9 Innings *
<5% Modified ERA
<5% Net Wins
<5% No-Hitter Loss
<5% On Base Pct Against *
<5% Outs *
<5% Pitch Count
<5% Plate Appearances
<5% Relief Losses *
<5% Relief Wins
<5% Runs Allowed *
<5% Save Opportunities
<5% Singles Allowed *
<5% Strikeouts Minus Walks
<5% Strikeouts per Nine
<5% Total Bases Allowed *
<5% Triples Allowed *
<5% Walks per Nine *
<5% Winning Pct
<5% Wins Minus Losses

[Michael@HQ]

6% of leagues use balks as a scoring category? Is that really what your post above indicates, Kevin?

I'll try to remember that the next time a poster chides me for being in a 4x4 league that hasn't changed ever scoring categories.

[Kevin]

I think that's what it says.

My best guess is that CBS handles a lot of points leagues? Those percentages might seem out of whack with 4x4 and 5x5 leagues, but if points leagues routinely have 10-20 ways to earn points, maybe it's not crazy.

[Michael@HQ]

Balks as a fantasy category

It strikes me as a bit obsessive, although it makes more sense in a points format when one is throwing in everything but the kitchen sink into the formula.

The average MLB team had 5 balks last year so presumably the average fantasy team is in the same range. Based on linear weights in the Retrosheet era, that's worth about 1.3 runs over the course of an entire season. How meaningful can the variance from one team to the next be when we're talking about a category that averages to 1.3 runs per team per season?

[Kevin]

Right, I don't think it makes much sense as a stand-alone Rotisserie category, but as one of 15 ways that you can earn or lose points for your pitchers each week, I can see it. 2 points per K, (-1) pt per BB, 3 pts per IP, (-5) pts per ER, 10 pts for a W, 10 extra pts for a CG shutout, (-3) pts for a balk, 5 pts for a successful pickoff, etc...

[DoubleJ]

what do the "*" mean next to the category?

[RAY@HQ]

what do the "*" mean next to the category?

I believe those are the "lower is better" categories.

[pate]

Even as a one-time-use feature (which would be annoying -- having to enter the same formula every time you run the report), it would require a decent-sized overhaul to the CDG code. Throw in what I said above, and it's a long-term project.

It was a pretty big undertaking for me as well, so long-tem project describes it pretty well.

-Merv
RotoLab

[circle360]

Was wondering. Could you put something for number of games to qualify. I just printed up the Custom Guide for one of my leagues. It only has a 5 game min. A few players arent listed for certain positions. Im not sure what the mininum position is on the guide either. 20?

[circle360]

Bump.

Does anyone from HQ know the game requirement in the custom draft guide. Or is there a way we could put it in for our each custom league.

Thanks.

[RobR]

They are qualified based on our last year's position eligibility number used throughout the site. For example on the stats and projections pages and displayed in the "QLFY" column in the CDG output.

We have discussed dynamic position eligibility, but it hasn't made it to the top of the priority list yet. If we were to do dynamic position eligibility it would probably mean two things.

1) You could input your league rules (probably for games this year and games last year)
2) We would add new eligibilities as the current season's YTD games by position data updated