Limited pitching slot strategy

manbearpigs  3/20/2014 12:28 AM

I joined a 12 team league with six pitching slots (3SP, 2RP and 1P), a deep bench (8BE 3DL), 7 pickups per week, and a 14 GS limit for pitchers per week. The hitting roster is pretty standard, and scoring is 6x6 (standard 5x5 plus OPS and BAA) How should the pitching roster, bench and BAA affect my approach to drafting pitchers?

My thoughts:

1. SP value is about the same as a usual format.
2. RPs get a bump because of the limited slots and BAA. The draft tracker has Kimbrel 13th, (7th using positional value.)
3. OPS widens the gap between the studs and the rest.

With that in mind, my strategy could be to ignore starters, load up on power early, but try to grab a few elite relievers earlier than I usually would. Am I reading this right? I'm really not sure how the other teams will approach starters either, so I don't know how the late rounds and waiver wire will look for streaming.

liam4  3/20/2014 12:48 PM

Agree that power is more important here, and elite relievers matter a bit more, but I'm not sure I follow why the limited slots enhance relief pitcher value?  The 14 GS limit is high, while 7 pickups limits streaming somewhat, so that's a lot of starters you could be rolling out there for W's and K's.

The danger in waiting on starters, in my view, is that unless you think you can punt W's and K's, you may be shooting for as many starts as you can each week.  It's tempting to go for elite relievers early, but you may be giving up all the elite ratio gains from those relievers with below average starters, who account for many more innings.

I haven't seen how pitchers rank with your system, and it's hard to know how the draft will go first time around.  But I'd take a close look at starting pitcher tiers and try to make sure I don't end up too deep.  At least in my experience, I haven't been able to win without an elite starting pitcher or two.

Don't let RP rankings mislead you, the 13 and 7 ranks should not indicate that's where you should draft them, especially the positional rankings for pitchers.  Purely a z-score, to be taken into account against other z-scores for tiering; I look at SP, RP and hitters separately.  Draft for value and based on how long you think guys will last on the board.

silentjim   3/20/2014 12:56 PM

Agreed on all points. I'd look at ADPs vs value and try to balance that out. As Liam mentioned if Kimbrel should be ranked 7th, but he's not getting drafted until the 40s, just reach a little on him not a first round, which I think you know.

Draft for value. In the end getting deals and great sleepers will win you the league and taking advantage of your settings.

manbearpigs  3/21/2014 8:30 AM

I drew a crappy 9th pick, but I think I did OK. I couldn't resist Kershaw at 16, and possibly grabbed Segura unnecessarily, but otherwise I'm pretty happy.

12 Teams | 12 Hitters Per Team [6 Active = HR RBI SB R BA OPS] | 6 Pitchers Per Team [6 Active = W SV ERA WHIP SO OBA]

Round	Rank	Value	Name	Injury	Team	Pos	g	News	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	BA	HR	SB	OPS	HRV	RBIV	SBV	RV	BAV	OPSV
1	11	0.96	Tulowitzki, Troy		COL	SS	138		506	79	152	95	59	85	0.300	27	3	0.907	1.08	1.65	-0.71	0.40	1.49	1.83
3	27	0.51	Posey, Buster		SF	C/1B	147		536	74	161	89	63	81	0.300	19	2	0.857	-0.05	1.30	-0.84	0.00	1.58	1.10
4	37	0.39	Abreu, Jose		CHW	1B	138		515	78	140	82	61	107	0.271	28	5	0.845	1.16	0.77	-0.59	0.31	-0.18	0.86
4	39	0.35	Zimmerman, Ryan		WAS	3B	143		571	91	158	71	59	125	0.277	24	5	0.815	0.72	0.06	-0.57	1.27	0.19	0.42
4	41	0.29	Butler, Billy		KC	DH	159		577	80	167	86	65	103	0.289	19	1	0.800	-0.02	1.06	-0.93	0.46	0.98	0.16
5	49	0.15	Marte, Starling		PIT	OF	139		599	78	164	56	30	152	0.274	15	41	0.768	-0.55	-0.97	2.54	0.29	0.00	-0.42
5	50	0.09	Segura, Jean		MIL	SS	149		636	83	179	54	36	93	0.281	12	40	0.731	-0.92	-1.04	2.47	0.71	0.50	-1.18
5	53	0.06	Hill, Aaron		ARI	2B	138		565	82	156	66	46	80	0.277	20	8	0.794	0.11	-0.26	-0.30	0.58	0.19	0.05
5	60	0.01	Calhoun, Kole		LAA	OF	136		568	95	152	60	57	116	0.268	19	11	0.776	-0.08	-0.68	-0.07	1.55	-0.39	-0.27
7	76	-0.20	Lind, Adam		TOR	1B/DH	136		498	67	133	75	48	105	0.267	22	1	0.786	0.44	0.31	-0.93	-0.54	-0.40	-0.08
7	81	-0.28	Aoki, Norichika		KC	OF	141		586	82	169	49	52	45	0.289	7	20	0.740	-1.63	-1.40	0.70	0.59	1.00	-0.92
7	82	-0.28	Jackson, Austin		DET	OF	146		519	61	144	73	51	124	0.278	12	11	0.779	-0.91	0.21	-0.09	-0.97	0.23	-0.18
8	87	-0.31	Soriano, Alfonso		NYY	OF	143		495	63	122	67	34	132	0.247	27	11	0.771	1.04	-0.21	-0.07	-0.81	-1.52	-0.30
10	110	-0.50	LaRoche, Adam		WAS	1B	146		506	68	125	68	64	128	0.247	22	2	0.765	0.33	-0.11	-0.79	-0.45	-1.56	-0.41
10	116	-0.51	Infante, Omar		KC	2B	130		545	66	158	62	23	57	0.289	9	7	0.727	-1.35	-0.57	-0.40	-0.62	0.92	-1.08
Round	Rank	Value	Name	Injury	Team	Pos	g	News	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	K	BA	HR	SB	OPS	HRV	RBIV	SBV	RV	BAV	OPSV
		0.68	Avg Stats/Total Values				2129		8,222	1,145	2,280	1,052	748	1,533	0.277	283	166	0.790	-0.63	0.15	-0.58	2.75	3.02	-0.65

Round	Rank	Value	Name	Injury	Team	Pos	g	News	IP	H	RA	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	W	SV	WHIP	OBA	AB	WV	SVV	ERAV	WHIPV	SOV	OBAV
1	1	1.72	Kershaw, Clayton		LAD	SP	33		232.2	186	79	73	57	237	17	2.81	17	0	1.04	0.214	868	1.50	-0.68	2.83	2.95	1.63	2.08
1	12	0.48	Uehara, Koji		BOS	RP	69		69.4	52	21	20	13	87	7	2.55	4	34	0.94	0.204	257	-1.31	1.48	1.22	1.56	-1.05	0.97
4	40	-0.12	Minor, Mike		ATL	SP	30		188.5	172	82	75	50	168	20	3.58	14	0	1.18	0.237	725	0.75	-0.68	-0.59	0.06	0.38	-0.62
4	41	-0.13	Wacha, Michael		STL	SP	30		185.5	167	80	74	57	172	19	3.57	14	0	1.21	0.235	712	0.77	-0.68	-0.55	-0.42	0.47	-0.38
5	50	-0.25	Veras, Jose		CHC	RP	66		62.3	48	26	24	27	65	5	3.51	4	24	1.21	0.209	231	-1.35	0.86	-0.10	-0.14	-1.44	0.71
5	55	-0.28	Liriano, Francisco		PIT	SP	29		174.8	152	76	70	74	177	16	3.59	13	0	1.29	0.228	665	0.52	-0.68	-0.56	-1.75	0.55	0.27
6	72	-0.36	Estrada, Marco		MIL	SP	27		161.2	149	73	67	41	150	21	3.76	11	0	1.18	0.239	622	0.21	-0.68	-1.08	0.05	0.08	-0.72
7	75	-0.37	Jones, Nate		CHW	RP	65		68.0	60	27	25	26	70	5	3.29	4	24	1.27	0.232	260	-1.35	0.86	0.19	-0.54	-1.35	-0.06
7	79	-0.39	Crain, Jesse		HOU	RP	57		54.7	44	22	20	22	60	5	3.31	4	15	1.22	0.216	205	-1.44	0.26	0.13	-0.18	-1.53	0.42
10	115	-0.59	Griffin, AJ		OAK	SP	28		172.9	159	84	77	46	142	22	4.03	11	0	1.19	0.239	667	0.20	-0.68	-2.07	-0.12	-0.07	-0.78
11	132	-0.65	Kennedy, Ian		SD	SP	32		201.3	189	93	86	65	181	23	3.84	13	0	1.26	0.242	780	0.59	-0.68	-1.67	-1.49	0.63	-1.28
Round	Rank	Value	Name	Injury	Team	Pos	g	News	IP	H	RA	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	W	SV	WHIP	OBA	AB	WV	SVV	ERAV	WHIPV	SOV	OBAV
		-0.94	Avg Stats/Total Values				465		1,570.9	1,379	664	610	477	1,511	159	3.50	110	97	1.18	0.230	5,993	-0.90	-1.33	-2.27	-0.03	-1.71	0.60