Allow me a short rant (I may be lying) about those that write and speak 'professionally' about fantasy baseball.
"SHUT THE HELL UP!"
Thank you.
Analytics have tainted these FANTASY 'professionals'.
Want an example? Ok.
Back in the day, a hitter had a slash line as well. It wasn't the .300/.400/.500 BLAH BLAH BLAH slash line we see now.
It was .300/25/75
Everybody knew that it was batting average, home runs, and RBI.
THAT, THAT is so much more of a meaningful slash line, even today, to fantasy players over the three percentages.
Why do we have the three percentages?
As I've said before, these analytics folks hit ninth for their Little League teams.
The shouts of, "A WALK IS AS GOOD AS A HIT!" still rings in their ears.
It was their duty to incorporate the drawing of a walk as important to statistics.
They accomplished their mission.
They sound reallly smart with a three percentage slash line too. But for fantasy, it's as fantasy informative as asking your dog how his day went.
The three slash line is everywhere.
They have even minimized the RBI. Calling them lucky.
You know what was lucky? These little twerps getting a hit in Little League!
Here is an example of a professional roto writer from last night....
'Tyler O'Neill went 3-for-3 with a run scored on Tuesday in a loss to the Braves.
O'Neill also drew a walk. The outfielder came around to score an inconsequential run in the ninth inning of a game the Cardinals lost 6-1. O'Neill is having his best season of his career, and the four-reach game brings his season slash to .271/.331/.509 with 17 homers and 40 RBI.'
I own O'Neill. I could give a shit about his triple percentage line.
Kudos to this writer for doing us the favor of including his .271/17/40 'real' slash line even in a roundabout way.
There is no fantasy league on earth with 10 categories that includes AVG/OBP/SLG
Not one.
But these professionals continue to ram it down our throats like a mom feeding a baby his/her Gerbers carrots.
Yuck.
Juan Soto has 76 BB. Soto has walked more than he has struck out. These professionals will beat that into our heads over the off season. They did the same with Joey Votto. It's a fav of theirs that ranks right up there with hitting for the cycle...(somehow, an RBI is lucky and hitting for the cycle is a skill)
Those 76 walks count as 76 times the bat was taken out of Soto's hands to his fantasy owners.
Is there one Soto fantasy owner among us who wishes for ball four before a 3-2 pitch is delivered to Soto? One?
We don't want a freakin' walk. We want a chance of four categories being effected with one swing.
Soto has a real slash line of .299/18/58
Not first round material.
But just wait.
This off season these professionals will not focus on his real slash line.
They'll prefer their own.
.299/.426/.501 is wonderful, they'll say.
They'll compare him to Votto and even Ted Williams.
As if his real fantasy numbers never existed and if so, can only be improved upon.
Let's look at an anti-Soto when it comes to drawing BB.
Sal Perez.
First, before getting into the differences, let me say that the whole sporting press is missing a terrific story in Sal Perez.
Sal Perez has not missed a game this year.
That's right. A Catcher who hasn't missed a game.
Can you imagine? In this day and age?
Even DH hitters (Are you listening Nellie and Giancarlo?) take days off for 'rest'. Not Salvy. It really is incredible.
Anyway...Salvy has walked just 10 times in 105 games.
"HORRIFYING" to analytical nerds.
But let's compare the real slash lines....
Soto .299/18/58
Salvy .274/25/66
And you know what?
During drafting season, our professional fantasy writers and talkers will be (once again) all over Soto.
They will tell us to draft him. They will tell us to draft him highly.
They'' focus on a slash line that has, really, very little to do with our fantasy game.
What can we expect.
The "A WALK IS AS GOOD AS A HIT!" still rings in their ears.
Stupid Slash Line
Stupid Slash Line
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!
Re: Stupid Slash Line
Just adding here....
Walks are never questioned. Never.
We have launch angles. We have MPH. We have distance for each ball.
These Statcast results help us quantify each batters contact with a ball.
A Walk? A Walk is a walk. It doesn't matter if it's intentional.
It doesn't matter if the pitcher doesn't throw a strike in four pitches.
It doesn't matter if it's obvious that a pitcher is pitching around a feared batter.
And it doesn't matter if it's a 16 pitch at bat with the batter earning a base on balls.
A walk is a walk.
For the most part, better hitters draw more walks. Pitchers are more careful with these hitters. Even intentionally walking them or pitching around them.
It doesn't matter.
All these walks are thrown in together and nary a one is questioned.
Analytics like walks. The more walks, the merrier for them (geez, they are f'''ing boring!)
At the end of the year, even fantasy writers and talkers like to say how a hitter 'knows the zone' if getting a lot of walks.
Does Mike Trout know the zone better than Adam Frazier? Not really.
But Trout, although a lot of his walks are borne out of fear, gets credit for knowing the zone from writers and talkers because he draws more walks than Frazier.
The whole thing stinks.
Analytics lay their rugs out five times a day and pray to the God of BB....and they don't have to be analyzed as to where they came from.
If praying to walks, dammit, at least know where they're coming from!
To me, a four pitch walk is very, very different than a nine pitch walk.
Analytics without analyzation coming to a town near you.
Oh Boy.
Walks are never questioned. Never.
We have launch angles. We have MPH. We have distance for each ball.
These Statcast results help us quantify each batters contact with a ball.
A Walk? A Walk is a walk. It doesn't matter if it's intentional.
It doesn't matter if the pitcher doesn't throw a strike in four pitches.
It doesn't matter if it's obvious that a pitcher is pitching around a feared batter.
And it doesn't matter if it's a 16 pitch at bat with the batter earning a base on balls.
A walk is a walk.
For the most part, better hitters draw more walks. Pitchers are more careful with these hitters. Even intentionally walking them or pitching around them.
It doesn't matter.
All these walks are thrown in together and nary a one is questioned.
Analytics like walks. The more walks, the merrier for them (geez, they are f'''ing boring!)
At the end of the year, even fantasy writers and talkers like to say how a hitter 'knows the zone' if getting a lot of walks.
Does Mike Trout know the zone better than Adam Frazier? Not really.
But Trout, although a lot of his walks are borne out of fear, gets credit for knowing the zone from writers and talkers because he draws more walks than Frazier.
The whole thing stinks.
Analytics lay their rugs out five times a day and pray to the God of BB....and they don't have to be analyzed as to where they came from.
If praying to walks, dammit, at least know where they're coming from!
To me, a four pitch walk is very, very different than a nine pitch walk.
Analytics without analyzation coming to a town near you.
Oh Boy.
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!
Re: Stupid Slash Line
While we're talking about slash lines....
The question is....Why are slash lines directed towards analytics?
Why don't WE, THE FANTASY PLAYER, have a slash line?
Even in RotoWorld and RotoWire updates, two sites that are SUPPOSED to be about fantasy baseball, they use the analytics slash line.
If not being able to watch our players and trying to catch up through these sites, we want to know what our player did that night that effects our roto standings.
Sometimes, these ROTO sites do not even do that. They'll drone on about a pitchers 'whiff rates' for the night.
A pitchers slash line, for the roto player should read like this...
Starter...6/7/2/8/W ...Closer 1/0/0/2/S
This is all we need to know.
The first number being innings. The second, H/BB. The third, ER. Then K's. Then, the decision if any.
We don't care if he struggled. We don't care about what the writer even thought about his game. We care about OUR slash line.
It is never given and sometimes an update won't even mention these numbers. Drives me crazy.
What a writer thinks or extracurricular numbers like 'whiff rates' are great for the off season when we're drafting, but in season, we could give a rat's ass.
We have the player already. We don't need the player to be judged. What we need is our own slash line information. That's all.
The question is....Why are slash lines directed towards analytics?
Why don't WE, THE FANTASY PLAYER, have a slash line?
Even in RotoWorld and RotoWire updates, two sites that are SUPPOSED to be about fantasy baseball, they use the analytics slash line.
If not being able to watch our players and trying to catch up through these sites, we want to know what our player did that night that effects our roto standings.
Sometimes, these ROTO sites do not even do that. They'll drone on about a pitchers 'whiff rates' for the night.
A pitchers slash line, for the roto player should read like this...
Starter...6/7/2/8/W ...Closer 1/0/0/2/S
This is all we need to know.
The first number being innings. The second, H/BB. The third, ER. Then K's. Then, the decision if any.
We don't care if he struggled. We don't care about what the writer even thought about his game. We care about OUR slash line.
It is never given and sometimes an update won't even mention these numbers. Drives me crazy.
What a writer thinks or extracurricular numbers like 'whiff rates' are great for the off season when we're drafting, but in season, we could give a rat's ass.
We have the player already. We don't need the player to be judged. What we need is our own slash line information. That's all.
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!
Re: Stupid Slash Line
This is what we're up against....
'Salvador Perez went 1-for-1 with two walks on Monday in an extra-innings loss to the Yankees.
Do you believe in miracles. That's the first time that Perez has walked twice since May 9, 2017. The not-so-patient slugger also singled in a three-reach game that puts his slash at .274/.307/.506 on the 2021 campaign.'
As fantasy owners, why do we care that Sally walked twice? This is analytics intruding in our game. This RotoWorld writer is clearly confused as to who his audience is. Perez did not score a run or steal a base, the only two instances that help us as fantasy owners unless walking with the bases loaded. Those two walks were wasted at bats for his owners, yet this writer trumpets it as an 'accomplishment' of some sort.
Worse, he gives his improved OBP line as if we care in the NFBC.
Again, I know these writers write these things for other leagues, BUT, the name of their sites are ROTOworld and ROTOwire. They should, at the least have a large lean towards the five historical categories.
Instead, they are influenced too much by analytics.
They care way too much in how many times a pitcher makes a batter miss a pitch and even more so by a batter drawing the almighty BB.
One more thing.
These analytics folks do not think about real baseball. KC's lineup sucks. Salvy will get more walks. He's not looking for these walks. He never will.
But, opposing pitchers will not give him the option. Perez has scored less than 20 percent of the time after a walk in his career. Even less so today, I imagine, in a worse lineup. The odds of him scoring is in the pitchers favor.
Perez is a slow, plodding runner once walking down to first base.
How on earth can a walk be a good thing?
The best hitter in the KC lineup is disposed of ...via a walk.
Analytics celebrates the mouse (Perez) eating the cheese, but ignores the fact that he dies in the trap (on the bases).
'Salvador Perez went 1-for-1 with two walks on Monday in an extra-innings loss to the Yankees.
Do you believe in miracles. That's the first time that Perez has walked twice since May 9, 2017. The not-so-patient slugger also singled in a three-reach game that puts his slash at .274/.307/.506 on the 2021 campaign.'
As fantasy owners, why do we care that Sally walked twice? This is analytics intruding in our game. This RotoWorld writer is clearly confused as to who his audience is. Perez did not score a run or steal a base, the only two instances that help us as fantasy owners unless walking with the bases loaded. Those two walks were wasted at bats for his owners, yet this writer trumpets it as an 'accomplishment' of some sort.
Worse, he gives his improved OBP line as if we care in the NFBC.
Again, I know these writers write these things for other leagues, BUT, the name of their sites are ROTOworld and ROTOwire. They should, at the least have a large lean towards the five historical categories.
Instead, they are influenced too much by analytics.
They care way too much in how many times a pitcher makes a batter miss a pitch and even more so by a batter drawing the almighty BB.
One more thing.
These analytics folks do not think about real baseball. KC's lineup sucks. Salvy will get more walks. He's not looking for these walks. He never will.
But, opposing pitchers will not give him the option. Perez has scored less than 20 percent of the time after a walk in his career. Even less so today, I imagine, in a worse lineup. The odds of him scoring is in the pitchers favor.
Perez is a slow, plodding runner once walking down to first base.
How on earth can a walk be a good thing?
The best hitter in the KC lineup is disposed of ...via a walk.
Analytics celebrates the mouse (Perez) eating the cheese, but ignores the fact that he dies in the trap (on the bases).
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!
Re: Stupid Slash Line
Heard another 'smart guy' on MLB today. As he was yammering on about the OBP and great year that Juan Soto has had, it struck me about how divided analytics is from fantasy baseball. I doubt that Soto has justified his first round ranking in our drafts. At least, it doesn't seem like it.
It also struck me that these same 'smart guys' who used to worship Joey Votto, no longer talk much about him. In fantasy circles, Votto is having a great year. He has become a much more aggressive hitter. Not waiting for the walk.
We love it.
They don't.
As I stated before, these smart guys do not analyze the BB itself. In their eyes, all walks are created equal. My guess is that they do not WANT to break down the walk. It would open eyes as to how many walks are more a product of the pitcher, rather than the batter.
Hell, even an intentional walk, a walk where the batter has no choice but to walk, is included.
Every hit? All analyzed.
Where did he hit it?
How hard did he hit it?
Hit or error?
Meanwhile, a walk is a walk is a walk. All...good.
Worse, these smart guys turn their nose up at OUR categories.
They never mention Runs. Unusual in that they proclaim OBP as a Goddess, yet never follow through with the actual production of that same OBP.
RBI are luck. Uh huh. Jose Abreu gets lucky every year then.
Batting Average means little now compared to OBP.
Stolen Bases are exciting to us. To them, a risk better not taken.
They can't touch the home run. The home run is a staple since Babe Ruth. I think of it as a necessary evil for these smart guys.
They could never hit a home run in their Little League days, but admired the kids who could.
Billy Ripken was reminiscing about the old days with the Orioles.
The home ball park near the end of Eddie Murray's career would put on the scoreboard Murrays achievements vs the visiting team.
Against Minnesota ..285/41/120
Against Chicago....291/39/117
Against New York...287/44/122
It made his teammates and season ticket holders realize just how good and consistent Murray was over the course of his career.
Do you think a .281/.395/.501 would have had the same effect?
Some times, these 'smart guys' are too smart for their own good.
It also struck me that these same 'smart guys' who used to worship Joey Votto, no longer talk much about him. In fantasy circles, Votto is having a great year. He has become a much more aggressive hitter. Not waiting for the walk.
We love it.
They don't.
As I stated before, these smart guys do not analyze the BB itself. In their eyes, all walks are created equal. My guess is that they do not WANT to break down the walk. It would open eyes as to how many walks are more a product of the pitcher, rather than the batter.
Hell, even an intentional walk, a walk where the batter has no choice but to walk, is included.
Every hit? All analyzed.
Where did he hit it?
How hard did he hit it?
Hit or error?
Meanwhile, a walk is a walk is a walk. All...good.
Worse, these smart guys turn their nose up at OUR categories.
They never mention Runs. Unusual in that they proclaim OBP as a Goddess, yet never follow through with the actual production of that same OBP.
RBI are luck. Uh huh. Jose Abreu gets lucky every year then.
Batting Average means little now compared to OBP.
Stolen Bases are exciting to us. To them, a risk better not taken.
They can't touch the home run. The home run is a staple since Babe Ruth. I think of it as a necessary evil for these smart guys.
They could never hit a home run in their Little League days, but admired the kids who could.
Billy Ripken was reminiscing about the old days with the Orioles.
The home ball park near the end of Eddie Murray's career would put on the scoreboard Murrays achievements vs the visiting team.
Against Minnesota ..285/41/120
Against Chicago....291/39/117
Against New York...287/44/122
It made his teammates and season ticket holders realize just how good and consistent Murray was over the course of his career.
Do you think a .281/.395/.501 would have had the same effect?
Some times, these 'smart guys' are too smart for their own good.
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!