Stats update

[mikemiles@verizon.net]

This is my first year at baseballHQ and I'm not seeing much change in stats and projections for the last month or so. Are these your final projections or should I expect to see a major update closer to the start of the season. Thanks

[RAY@HQ]

Welcome aboard!

The projections are changing and updated every single day, from February through the end of the season.

That doesn't mean the changes are major, though. Our playing time analysts are adjusting playing time allocations daily (some of which are detailed in Playing Time Today articles). The PT% changes reflected there feed right into the daily projections updates.

At this point, it is somewhat unusual that we make significant changes to a player's projected performance, but it does happen from time to time. There was a forum discussion about Maikel Franco's projection earlier this week, for instance.

But there are changes happening every day... but if you are taking a casual look, you may not notice since most players don't change in each update.

Definitely, make sure you take our latest projections to your draft, though.

[mikemiles@verizon.net]

Got it. Thanks.

[Howie M]

if you take the stats outside the site into some other - whether a piece of paper (like me!) or a iPad or whatever, a week later you can quickly confirm the prices or rounds, for example. every once in a while, you see a significant change of projection - and that's where you look up news on that player to find out the cause. the closer to the draft you get, the bigger the advantage to understanding that news development.

that said, it's assumed that you also have other avenues for breaking news. the boards here are solid on that front, but you well want a deeper dive such as following MLB writers on Twitter, for example - or setting up a google alert for a handful of enigmatic or problematic players.

for drafts where most or all of the rivals don't use HQ, the articles on divergence of HQ thinking from ADP is probably really helpful. for auctions, inputting your format to get league-specific projections can highlight players that you may well get below max, adjusted price.

finally, one popular tip is to find the players seen as most overrated by HQ who likely will lure at least a few rivals into an early bidding war as you name them.

Barry Zito came to the NL in 2007 after two excellent and then three just workmanlike seasons in Oakland. But coming to the possibly weaker NL and no longer have to face DHs had some owners intrigued. sure enough, he went for a fortune - and went 11-13 with a 99 ERA+, lol

now, there are exceptions - and they are still talked about around these parts. but for SP in particular, it has seemed to me that I can be confident that a couple of pricey versions are almost surely going to disappoint. that allows me to focus elsewhere while those dollars drain the pool.