Originally posted by The Feral Slasher
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That is all great information to have. But, you can't say "yeah, I know the standings mean nothing two weeks in, but look at THIS..." without actually changing the way you think about your team. The reason your "THIS" stood out to you, is because you are feeling it acutely because it's happening to your team right now. In and of itself, this isn't so bad, but in a week when you lose a player to injury, you think to yourself, "Oh no, first there was THIS and now there's this injury. I'm in trouble." All of the information that can be taken from the standings now is useless, but it is so difficult (read: nearly impossible) to not use it when you make decisions on your team. If your team is in last place today, your mind thinks of it as Strike One against your team's future, when in reality, it's not that at all. It's not nearly that impactful. Losing your ace or a big bat for the season this early would be Strike One, but a low place in the standings is nothing. So, why distract yourself?
For example, say I build a team I like, one that I feel has a shot at a title, some good studs and some upside plays who should really pan out in the second half. And it's relatively healthy. Then, late-May rolls around and I'm at the bottom of the standings. If I KNOW I'm at the bottom of the standings, I may just pack it in when some contender offers some future I really like. If I haven't looked at the standings, I think the guy needs to go fishing elsewhere because my team is still the team that I thought had a chance. Maybe at the draft, I went cheap on closers and have lots of #2s. At this point in the season, I'd be low in saves, but once Neris and Knebel and Kelley and Hudson and Vizcaino get their new closing gigs after June, I'm sitting pretty in saves all of a sudden and I'm moving up. Then, my stud Conforto finally gets a regular gig and has an All-Star second half. And Stanton manages to stay healthy and finally heats up and hits 40+. And my young Julio Urias comes up and becomes an ace in the second half. These were part of the plan when I built the team and the slow start is not a purely good thing, but it fits well within the acceptable parameters of my design. If I see how far behind I am, and see the flurry of dump trades, then I could very well become antsy and chuck the plan so I at least get something out of this season.
The data is bad, but it's nearly impossible to not use it. For me, the first data point in the standings is Mother's Day.
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