Category: News

Say Hello to On Base Percentage, Part 2.

While we’re putting the final touches on the 2014 Tout Wars league rosters, we wanted to make one significant announcement regarding the league rules. This year all four Tout Wars leagues will use On Base Percentage (instead of Batting Average) in their 5×5 scoring.

Last year’s experiment with OBP in the Tout Wars Mixed Draft and Tout Wars Mixed Auction leagues was a success. The patients survived, for one, and more importantly the owners in those two leagues adjusted without any obvious difficulty.

Expansion into the only leagues involves one further bit of business. The change means that Tout Wars will no longer be quite as good a draft price guideline as it was for leagues that use batting average. It was this issue that caused us to wait a year, and it was this issue that was forefront in our discussions this year about making the change. An online poll we ran in December, however, helped guide us to a decision.

Half the respondents who hadn’t played OBP thought we should make the change. And the vast majority of those who have played with OBP thought we should make the change.

We know the transition will be uncomfortable for some, but we feel strongly that having bases on balls count for hitters (as they count against pitchers in WHIP) is a very positive step in the evolution of fantasy baseball. We hope that our making the change now will make it easier for leagues that want to modernize their categories to make the jump sooner rather than later.

Tout poohbahs Ron, Lawr, Jeff and Peter all play in the XFL, a mixed keeper league that adopted OBP in 2003. We all feel that the tires have been kicked, any wrinkles have been pressed, and OBP is the stronger way to play.  And just as we did when we adopted 5×5 rather than the still (back then) prevalent 4×4, we hope you’ll come along if it makes sense for your league. As support service providers we’ll be including OBP in our materials this year, and we think you’ll start to see 5×5 (OBP) pricing become more common immediately and going forward.

Have a happy new year, and please welcome OBP!

Tout Wars

Your 2013 Doubt Wars Champions! (beta)

doubtwarslogo

Each of the winners will receive: A package of Ron Shandler’s 2014 Baseball Forecaster, the 2014 Mastersball Platinum Package , Rotoman’s 2014 Fantasy Baseball Guide, the 2014 Rotowire Baseball Guide and the 2014 Patton $ Software and Data.

UPDATED: Oct. 5, 2013 at 6pm, with additional teams in the spreadsheet, and the NL champ’s name spelled correctly. UPDATED January 17, 2014 Spelled AL Civilian Champ’s first name correctly.

DOUBT WARS AL: Glenn Colton/Rick Wolf.
Civilian Champ: Andrew Pappas.
Runners Up: Eugene Freedman, Noah Hirsch

DOUBT WARS MIXED: Tim George
Pro Champ: Paul Singman
Runners Up: Jon Hrobuchek, Brent Crossman

DOUBT WARS NL: Jeffrey Pelletier
Pro Champ: Tristan Cockcroft, Todd Zola
Runners Up: Scott Katz, Justin Dowling

Tristan Cockcroft finished second to Todd Zola in the Draft Day Standings for Tout Wars, but his strong ERA and WHIP elevated him past Todd in Doubt Wars. Tristan, however, finished 200 innings short of the Tout Wars minimum. We didn’t anticipate that in Doubt Wars, but it seems less an issue for a Pro team than a Civilian team. Tristan certainly wasn’t gaming Doubt Wars.

Here are the standings for each league (click to enlarge):

DOUBT WARS AL

Screen Shot 2013-10-05 at 5.42.40 PM

DOUBT WARS MIXED

Screen Shot 2013-10-05 at 5.42.56 PM

DOUBT WARS NL

Screen Shot 2013-10-05 at 5.43.18 PM

If you would like to download the spreadsheet compiling the final standings, please click here.

Tout Wars Mixed Auction: Zinkie Wins in 2013!

Going into the last game of the season David Gonos needed two of three things to happen to pass Fred Zinkie:

David Price gets the win.
His hitters (Pierzynski, Martin and Loney) to hit two homers
His hitters (Pierzynski, Martin and Loney) to score two runs

Zinkie’s only defense was Ian Kinsler. If he scored a run, Gonos’ hitters would need to score three.

But it didn’t happen. David Price was masterful, got the win, shutting down Texas hitters, and Loney didn’t power the Tampa offense. Fred Zinkie held on for his second championship in three year!

In other news, David Gonos did set a new league record for strikeouts, breaking Tim Heaney’s 2011 record.

While Fred Zinkie of all people set new league records for ERA and WHIP, eclipsing David Gonos’ (2010) and Nick Minnix’ (2011) records.

Congratulations!

Tout Wars Mixed Draft: Mike Podhorzer is Crowned Champion in 2013.

In the league’s first year Mike passed early frontrunner Perry Van Hook at midseason, then withstood challenges from Tom Kessenich, Van Hook, and Gene McCaffrey to win comfortably the last week.

Welcome to Tout Wars, Mike!

Tout Wars AL: Three Times the Charm for Larry Schechter, 2013 Champ

Schechter has won three straight AL titles and is now a six-time Tout Wars champion. Well done, Larry.

His total of 100.5 points edges Sam Walker’s 2008 record.

Matthew Berry broke Jason Grey’s 2011 record for team strikeouts.

Larry also won LABR AL this year. And he has a book about winning coming out, no coincidence.

Battle of the Touts Tonight on Twitter

gonosvszinkie2013One point, one game, one champion. Follow @davidgonos and @fredzinkie on Twitter tonight, for their reactions of their down-to-the-wire pennant race, on Twitter. Game time is 8:05 pm ET.

FOLLOW THE ACTION HERE OR ON TWITTER #toutwars

It’s Official: Tristan Cockcroft is your 2013 Tout Wars National League Champion

After the draft his team ranked with a handful of others (Zola, Pianowski, Walton, Gardner, Hertz) as the top teams in Tout NL this year, but if you look at his place of finish from week to week, it doesn’t seem that close:

1,3,8,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,2,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1.

Only the last one matters, of course, but the picket fence impresses. (Todd Zola squeezed ahead briefly following the All Star break).

Tristan also set a new record with a 1.151 WHIP, breaking Greg Rosenthal’s 2004 record of 1.16.

Congratulations to Tristan Cockcroft, repeat Tout Wars Champion in 2013.

Catching Up With The Trades: NL Edition

A few deals slipped by without comment in recent weeks.

June 28, 2013
Mike Gianella gets: Jordany Valdespin NYM from Phil Hertz
Phil Hertz gets: Wilmer Flores NYM from Mike Gianella

Comment: Gianella gets a vexing, argumentative, underachieving player on the active roster. Hertz gets a minor leaguer with some potential, though without a defensive position that makes sense, and probably not for a year or two.

June 30, 2013
Derek Carty gets: Wilmer Flores NYM from Phil Hertz
Phil Hertz gets: 2 FAAB dollars from Derek Carty

Comment: Hertz is tireless at trying to get something/anything for the pieces he’s going to unload.

July 5, 2013
Tristan H. Cockcroft gets: Ben Revere Phi from Scott Wilderman
Scott Wilderman gets: Ryan Howard Phi from Tristan H. Cockcroft

Comment: When it happened it was a classic power for speed move. The next day Ryan Howard went down, out until mid-September. Six days later, Revere broke his foot and is out for the season.

July 12, 2013
Scott Pianowski gets: Paul Maholm Atl from Steve Gardner
Jean Segura Mil from Steve Gardner
Steve Gardner gets: Adeiny Hechavarria Mia from Scott Pianowski
Adam Wainwright StL from Scott Pianowski

Comment: Gardner upgrades his pitching, while Pianowski upgrades his offense. The gem here is Wainwright and Gardner has a lot of points to gain in ERA, WHIP and K, while Segura, regardless how much power he shows, will help Pianowski in BA and SB especially.

July 16, 2013
Mike Gianella gets: Everth Cabrera SD from Scott Wilderman
Starling Marte Pit from Scott Wilderman
Tyler Clippard Was from Scott Wilderman
Travis Snider Pit from Scott Wilderman
Scott Wilderman gets: Carlos Beltran StL from Mike Gianella
Aaron Hill Ari from Mike Gianella
David Freese StL from Mike Gianella
Matt Belisle Col from Mike Gianella

Comment: Gianella gets the best basestealer in the game to add to his lowest-ranking steals squad in the league, while Scott converts the cat he’s far ahead in first in for some additional power. For teams like Scott’s (and my 11th place team), the goal is to get to 60 or more points, to avoid the FAAB penalty, and to pass as many teams as possible to move up in the 2014 reserve draft.

July 17, 2013
Peter Kreutzer gets: Gerrit Cole Pit from Phil Hertz
Todd Helton Col from Phil Hertz
Carlos Villanueva ChC from Phil Hertz
Phil Hertz gets: Brad Ziegler Ari from Peter Kreutzer
Drew Storen Was from Peter Kreutzer
Jose Constanza Atl from Peter Kreutzer

Comment: I found myself with the Dbacks’ putative closer, a status that could work out or could be undermined at any moment. Since I’m 20 some odd saves behind the 11th place team, holding onto Ziegler had almost zero value (apart from the innings). I offered him up to the league and fell into productive talks with Phil, who is looking to strip his staff of average (or worse) innings, looking to bring his ERA and WHIP down. While I’m wary about adding mid-level starters, for the same reason, Cole’s ERA improves me, and so does Villanueva’s WHIP, and I do have points to gain in K. Phil gets two lottery tickets for saves, plus significant reliever strikeouts. I also get a hitter who should have a decent average and a few RBI in 15 or so AB per week. That’s a lot better than I’ve been playing.

July 18, 2013
Mike Gianella gets: Taylor Jordan Was from Phil Hertz
Phil Hertz gets: 2 FAAB dollars from Mike Gianella

Comment: Hertz sheds guys he doesn’t want, gets a little something back. Jordan is a risky guy to play, he’s not been overpowering, but while he fills in for Ross Detwiler he could be helpful to a team that could use some innings. Mike points out that he’s got two starts next week, versus the Pirates and Mets. After that he may well be gone.