Last year, I was in a league (satellite) and there were two owners who grabbed RP's instead of SP's. After looking at the strategy, I thought it strengthened other teams.
At most, there are 30 available closers in baseball. With 15 teams drafting, that averages out to 2 per team. If you have 2 teams each take 4, then you have 22 left for 13 teams. If each get 1 and the reamining 9 go to 9 of the 13 teams, you have 4 teams with only 1 closer. (Each time a team in this example grabs 3 closers, you have another team with 1 closer and so on, so it's very possible that you have 6 teams with 1 closer.
Granted the first two teams to grab all the closers will finish with 15 and 14 points, 7 other teams will in theory fight for points 13 down to 7. Which leaves a team with 1 closer in position to get a guaranteed 6 points. (They can get more if they a couple teams with 2 closers have injuries, loss of job, etc.)
Now 6 or 7 points is not a lot, but if you look at the caliber of players available in rounds 5-8, when most closers are taken, having the "extra" two hitters here seems to put these teams at a good advantage.
Does this make sense? Just like SB guys. If there are 20 that will steal 30+ bases and three teams grab 15 between them, the rest of the field will compete for 12 points, which is pretty good, considering they will have other picks in these slots.
I know you can plan for this, but in non-main event leagues, it seems to help if you notice teams hoarding and you back off somewhat.
[ March 01, 2007, 06:55 PM: Message edited by: poopy tooth ]