*** VD 13 Commentary Thread ***

[johnnya24]

Right.

... and the guys who get drafted in the middle.

[Bene Futuis]

Man, I wish the Dodgers had gotten in on Tulowitzki. Could have slotted him into the gaping hole in the earth left behind by Brian Dozier. Man, Dozier hit a dinger his first game with the Dodgers and I was pumped. What came next was tough. He really seemed like a good guy just struggling. But with regards to Tulo, he'd slide right over with little trouble, I'd imagine. If he struggles the Dodgers can play Kike Hernandez or Chris Taylor there. You'd think someone who's gotten burned not once but twice by Tulo in high inflation leagues that I'd learn, but no.

Edit: Because with Tulo, regardless of the volatility and streakiness with the bat, he's a defensive whiz. Makes his floor significantly higher.

[Bene Futuis]

For what it's worth, note that on the standings tab, if we were using additive scoring, you're right in the middle. I'll leave it to someone competent to tell you what you did wrong, but my guess would be (a) if you're dumping that many pitching categories you really shouldn't have twos in the hitting side also, and (b) as much as he maybe shouldn't have been available at the time you took him Warren Spahn is contributing approximately nothing to your team as one of your wild-cards. Replacing him with Bill Upham (career 142 IP, 7 W, 54 K; BY 121 IP, 6 W, 46 K) costs you three points in the standings, and replacing him with some closer who had a good career is worth about +7. In multiplicative scoring, turning those twos into threes is a big deal and locking up those 15s at the top of a category is almost irrelevant compared to 14s and 13s.

To add to this: dumping categories still can be effective. However, if you dump two categories on the pitching side (like wins, Ks) you need to absolutely crush the hitting cats. This strategy is often accomplished by drafting a couple absolute anchors to your pitching staff, like Big Train and Eddie Cicotte or Ed Walsh or something like that at the top. Vintage pitchers with lots of IP and nice ratios afford you a lot of cushion to slide in the "bad letter pitchers". Getting a few QUIZYs in your pitching without destroying the ratios is nice. There are plenty of playable QUIZYs but they often have low IP. That balances out with some of these 4-5000 IP behemoths. On the flip side, you can dump ratios and do the same. However, this way you often don't need to invest early in pitching and can focus on hitting for a while. The flood gates really open when you're looking for high Win / K guys and don't care about ratios at all. Some of your best targets will be pitchers no one else will even consider.

But all these dumping strategies require a kick-ass hitting squad. Using bad letters in pitching allows you to get good letters in hitting with the "dump wins and Ks" strategy. Using pitchers later in the draft enables you to get nice hitters early on with the "dump ratios" strategy. However, these strategies are still tough to pull off against an experienced field. I'm thinking of trying a strategy that hasn't been tried in a while for the next draft. We'll see.

[Bene Futuis]

Let's do OBP instead of BA this one. Sound good?

[Bene Futuis]

My position in the 8/12 drafts I've been in on rjfix:

*** VD 1 Draft Thread """
7. Controller Jacobs

*** VD2 Draft Thread ***
13. Controller Jacobs

*** VD 5 Draft Thread ***
5 Controller Jacobs

*** VD 6 Draft Thread ***
6 Controller Jacobs

*** VD 7 Draft Thread ***
9. Controller J

*** VD 9 Draft Thread ***
11 Controller J

*** VD 10 Draft Thread ***
11 Controller J

*** VD 12 Draft Thread ***
13 Controller Jacobs

Based on an obviously rigged past draft order, I should clearly have picks 1, 2 and 3

My draft position (draft #)(spot)
1 - 13
2 - 12
3 - 6
4 - 3
5 - 7
6 - 1
7 - 5
8 - 1
9 - 10
10 - 2
11 - 2
12 - 12

[Bene Futuis]

you say lumpy like it's a bad thing oh my glob

During my recent home move, I think I lost the Pyongyang book you sent me. I'd read that thing several times. Sad to see it go.

[johnnya24]

Let's do OBP instead of BA this one. Sound good?

I'll add a poll

[Controller Jacobs]

During my recent home move, I think I lost the Pyongyang book you sent me. I'd read that thing several times. Sad to see it go.

One of the most interesting books I've ever read is the graphic novel "My favorite thing is monsters" by Email Ferris.

For an interesting travel book (not graphic), I'd recommend my favorite book, Travels with a Tangerine. British academic wonk follows the path Ibn Battuta took in the 1300s (Battuta made it from Morocco to China and back.) The author (Tim Mackintosh Smith) lived in Yemen at the time, and has total fluency in Arabic, giving him a truly unique take as he goes through remote Islamic and Arabic sites. And it's a light and fun read. Most similar feel is probably the Michael Palin travel series. Route 66 AD is similar, that author travels the Appian Way.

[heyelander]

Didn't chance want too play at one point? I think he was in, but then some personal issue came up and he was away for a long time

[DMT]

Didn't chance want too play at one point? I think he was in, but then some personal issue came up and he was away for a long time

He bailed during the album cover draft and I haven't seen him since.

[revo]

He bailed during the album cover draft and I haven't seen him since.

Which makes the 2nd time he bailed midway through a draft to take a long sabbatical.

Anyone reach out to B-Fly?

[johnnya24]

Which makes the 2nd time he bailed midway through a draft to take a long sabbatical.

Anyone reach out to B-Fly?

Yeah ... no reply.

Chasing guys who aren't going to be 100% committed is not a great idea IMO.

[DMT]

Yeah ... no reply.

Chasing guys who aren't going to be 100% committed is not a great idea IMO.

Right, we have enough and the last one moved along at a nice pace for the most part.

[The Feral Slasher]

My draft position (draft #)(spot)
1 - 13
2 - 12
3 - 6
4 - 3
5 - 7
6 - 1
7 - 5
8 - 1
9 - 10
10 - 2
11 - 2
12 - 12

I've done 12 of these and never drafted higher than 4th. And only higher than 6th one time. Random numbers hate the Slasher !

9
6
4
6
9
7
10
10
6
12
6
9

[Kevin Seitzer]

I remember doing a study of draft position back on the old site. There was something like a one-point advantage for the first two or three spots in the draft order, IIRC.