Need Some Advice!

[Russell James]

I'm participating in a league this year that is different from what I am used to. It is a points H2H league and you don't draft pitchers, just pitching staffs.

I have been scouring the internet looking for pitching staff rankings, but I cannot find anything in depth.

Could someone tell me where I could find a site and has anyone ever participated in a league like this.

If so, where is the best spot to take a pitching staff.

[RynMan]

Ah, man I'm guessing you have had a lack of responses because nobody has played in a league like that.

I wouldn't know how to decide an appropriate round to take a whole staff.

To rank them, I'd imagine the best way would be find a site that has projections that you trust (PECOTA maybe, ZiPS, or J35J's here at the cafe are excellent), compile the staff's overall numbers in each of the 5x5 categories and determine which would gain the most points. Then tinker from that. It wouldn't take that long to do if you are handy with Excel. Use the "IF" command.

[Snakes Gould]

i would think the pads, mets, red sox, angels, dodgers would all be pretty good off the top of my head.

[jcook3127]

Yea and perhaps the Diamondbacks as well but the bullpen probably drags them down..

I would think in leagues like this, you can sort of consider whole pitching staffs like Team Defenses in Fantasy Football...probably a few elite ones (Pads/Mets/Sox)...probably a bunch of AWFUL ones that won't get drafted...and a majority sitting right around the middle...

That said, I would probably play this very hitter heavy and not reach for a pitching staff...have a few staffs that you're pretty high on but that you know will fall (think Brewers, Blue Jays, heck, even the Yankees) and grab 2-3 staffs in the later rounds

I think if you took the above advice, figured out how all the staffs performed last season, and compared...that you would get a whole bunch of teams that just hovered around each other with few outliers...

So basically, grab probably 3 (maybe even 4) staffs in the mid-later rounds that you're high on that you think you're getting decent value on, mix and match how you play them based on the offenses they're facing in a given week...but don't place a real emphasis on passing up good hitters to get a pitching staff

[thejon]

Baseball still has pitching staffs? Ouch.
Can you bring back the last great one when the White Sox went on their World Series run?
Here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/agg ... e=pitching

[Russell James]

Thanks for the response.

I am a little befuddled about the whole pitching staff thing as well.

I think the DBacks would be a great pick here, even with their suspect bullpen. They don't have a good offense and last year they were one of the first teams in history to ever get to the playoffs when their opponents had outscored them. A guy like Valverde had close to 50 saves. So I am leaning towards them because their offense requires a deep pitching staff to win games.

Hopefully they will fall to around the 6th or 7th round. Like I said I have no idea how to draft in a league like this so I am unsure where pitching staffs will end up.

It is a points league and pitching gives you tons of stats.

Close to 10 points per save, 1 point per K, 10 points for an ERA of 0, 7 point for an ERA of 1.

The league is an MLB.com league. I thought I would give it a try since they are giving some sort of prize to the winner. If I suck, then I will be eliminated early.