Basic Scoring Rules

[oldguy]

In the league that I have been playing in for years we do not have either an innings pitched ceiling or a "starts" ceiling for our starting pitchers. Thus I have already employed 28 pitchers, garnering wins from 19 of them (some relievers of course). Some how this just does not seem right to me. I have already blown off ERA and we do not use ratio (WHIP) and will take the wins category handily and do no worse than second in strikeouts. Plus I have two of the better NL closers so that is not a problem either.

What is the best way to change our league rules to take care of this? And how are the categories scored once you pass either the innings or starts ceiling. I'd like some good analysis of this situation so as to have a level field of play in the league I participate in.

[Lofunzo]

What type of league is this?? In H2H, there is only a minimum on IP so you could use more ratio cats like WHIP, K/9, or K/BB. In roto or points leagues, you could just put a cap on IP and/or use some of the ratio cats that I mentioned.

[CBMGreatOne]

In the league that I have been playing in for years we do not have either an innings pitched ceiling or a "starts" ceiling for our starting pitchers. Thus I have already employed 28 pitchers, garnering wins from 19 of them (some relievers of course). Some how this just does not seem right to me. I have already blown off ERA and we do not use ratio (WHIP) and will take the wins category handily and do no worse than second in strikeouts. Plus I have two of the better NL closers so that is not a problem either.

What is the best way to change our league rules to take care of this? And how are the categories scored once you pass either the innings or starts ceiling. I'd like some good analysis of this situation so as to have a level field of play in the league I participate in.

In my roto league, we have 6 pitching categories:
3 quantitative: W, Sv, K
3 qualitative: ERA, WHIP, K/BB

In quantitative categories, a poor start just doesn't hurt you, especially in a league with no innings limit. In qualitative categories, a bad start can set back 2 weeks of hard ratio work.

If your league is only using 1 qualitative category (ERA), then that is a big part of the problem. If you're talking about a roto league, I'd definitely add an IP maximum as well. That would at least provide some incentive to be selective. I can't imagine playing in a league without WHIP either. It's probably the best pitching category. If it's H2H, don't worry about capping the innings, just make it less effective of a strategy by adding in those ratio categories as Lofunzo mentioned.

For hitters it's not as big a deal because you can't stream them to quite the same results you can pitchers because all of them play every day, but if you run into a problem with them too, I'd consider using either OBP or OPS. That should discourage gauging the stat sheet by streaming Monday and Thursday players to fill lineups.