Probable Starting Pitchers (CBS, ESPN, etc.)

[SenorSmoke]

So a few owners in our league have been complaining lately over inaccurate probable starter listings on our CBS league site. In the past week, at least three starters took the mound (and did well) even though CBS says they were not starting on that day. This has also affected me several times over the years on various sites, so I'm curious:

a) Are other CBS owners noticing this more frequently, or have they always been bad at this?

b) Are owners who use ESPN/All Star Stats/ or other sites seeing similar problems with accurate starting pitcher data?

and finally:

c) Is there a go to source for accurate starters if CBS et al. can't do it?

I ask these questions primarily because the last time I really looked into this kind of thing, all or most of the fantasy data on the planet was provided by STATS Inc including probable starter data. (I was a potential developer on a fantasy site for a client, and as such, had to work with Stats Inc. on pricing for roster and stat feeds). I'm not sure if this is still the case, but if so, my conclusion is that when STATS Inc. screws up, it affects all (or most) of the big fantasy sites and potentially other sports news sites pulling their data from STATS.

[Riff Raff]

I went away Friday to the cottage where we have no internet status. I had no idea Peavy was starting tonight and he was on my bench with some pretty sweet numbers. When I left Friday he was not on the radar (@ CBS) to start. Lost a QS (and a which would have changed my week from 10-8-2 to 11-8-1). Might have even pushed that to 12-7-1 (K/9 was close in one of 2 match ups).

I don't have a solution to the question you pose SS - but I too have noticed the crappiness of forward data @ CBS.

[SenorSmoke]

I was curious and did some looking:

First of all it is Stats LLC (not Inc) and it appears they do still supply data to CBS, Yahoo, MLB.com and many other sites.

Elias Sports Bureau also provides live data to fantasy sites, notably ESPN.

This doesn't really answer my questions but I do have to assume that if CBS is wrong on a given probable starter, then Yahoo!/MLB.com and other Stats LLC clients will also be inaccurate.

Conversely, if Elias screws up, then ESPN and other Elias clients will have inaccurate starter data.

Perhaps the questions become:

a) Do ESPN leagues see the same amount of inaccurate data on probable starters? Is Elias more accurate than Stats LLC?

b) When CBS is wrong, are MLB/Yahoo/etc. also wrong, or does one do a better job than others on manually fixing the data?

Not sure if anybody has the patience for this, but in the past few days two examples are Max Sherzer (PIT on 5/20) and Phil Humber (@CHC on 5/18) -- in both cases, CBS did not list them as the starter (via their little baseball icon) on the day of the game itself and their owners left them on the bench.

I would be curious to know whether Yahoo/MLB.com also made the same mistakes on those days . . .

[Hornsby]

I've found ESPN's listings to be very reliable, as well as easy to read...

http://espn.go.com/mlb/probables

[princewindows]

I have not seen one issue for my starters in my yahoo leagues.

[dslaw]

In my yahoo league I haven't had a problem. If I look 4 or 5 days out it may not be accurate but 2 or 3 days out it is fine.

[laron]

I own Peavy and Sherzer on a yahoo league, and both had their starts accurately marked since at least a day in advance, and also on the day of the start with the carret "^". So no issues on yahoo leagues.

[cavebird]

I think I see the problem on CBS. When one of the starters is TBA, the other, known, starter, doesn't get marked for the start. It must be some glitch in their programming.

[bweiser831]

you guys know the meaning of probable right?