I just wanted to run this by you guys and see if you think it would ever work. I've played in a 10 team 5x5 yahoo league for cash for about 10 years now. A few years ago pre draft I thought up the idea of actually not drafting any starting pitchers but just drafting dominant realivers and a dominant hitting lineup. Thus winning saves, ERA and Whip while getting 1 point for K's and Ws for a grand total of 32 points on the pitching side. I've never had the guts to do it but this year I didn't draft a pitcher till the 7th round and drafted a borderline dominant hitting line-up and average pitching line-up that is killing me in Whip and ERA. Could this theory work? This year has me thinking it might. Usually 72-78 points wins our league so your team would have to win avg, HRs, RBI, runs and finish at least top 5 in steals to get that 75 point mark. Looking at my team right now I'd be winning instead of second if I would have just drafted Nathan, K-Rod and RIveria as opposed to Oswalt, Kazmir and Linnecum because of my bats and I would have had more bats since I wouldn't have been drafting Cain and Penny later on. Just a thought that I can't share with my league but that I would share with you guys. I might also be the dumbest idea I've ever had too, I'm not sure.
I'm doing this strategy now in my big $ 12-team 5x5 roto league, and although I started off slow due to some starter and relief blow-outs (I only started this strategy in week 2), I'm now making some progress. I'm in 4th place overall but expect to be in top two in the next 2-3 weeks.
Over the past 28 days, my ERA has been 3.01 and WHIP .94. Note, this strategy can only be used in a league without minimum IP's.
A much better idea to me is have a few high strikeout guys on the side as well. It doesn't make sense to win era by a full run, you certainly could have thrown a couple poor outings in there to gain some Ks. Even a couple extra points in the Ks or Wins catergory could go a long way...
With that said I'm implementing this strategy in a 5x5 H2H weekly lineup league. I think this strategy applies better to the head to head format than it does a roto league...
There are absolutely no guarantees that if you did this you would win any batting cats, much less enough to make up for finishing last in two. Why would you? Most managers are drafting batting ahead of pitching.
The same goes for ERA and WHIP. If your drafting Nathan and KRod then you're drafting them in the 5th or 6th round. That means you're not drafting high level bats there. How will you win the hitting cats if you dont focus on the bats, but how are you going to get those top relievers if you dont draft them early? They ain't gonna be around later.
Not saying you can't win this way. If you make the right picks, you could still win but it wouldn't be because of this strategy.
jake_harv88 wrote:I think this strategy applies better to the head to head format than it does a roto league...
I don't know. I think it works equally well in roto format if implemented correctly. I'll keep you guys updated on my progress.
What happens if you run into a dominant team who is above average across the board? Then you pretty much have no shot at catching him. Bad strategy play IMO.
Yoda wrote:I also think the depth of the league matters. It would be much easier to pull off something like this in a larger league versus a smaller league.
Good thought.
If I did this I wouldn't be drafting Nathan and KRod, I would pick to Sorias and other low-ERA/Low whip closers available after round 10 (when my offense was completely stacked) and then combine them with Broxton/Heath, etc. Also important is the SP/RP low-ratio guys.
Trust me. I did the math and looked at the history of my league (i.e., how many points win, what stats win categories). Starting pitching flew off the draft board in my league, sometimes 2-3 rounds earlier than I had anticipated based on ADP/MDP. As such, I was able to draft an extremely offensive potent team (e.g., D Lee in round 5, Granderson in round 6). I should be able to win or at very least come in top 2-3 in every offensive category.
I should be able to finish up with 105 points in my league, which is an amount that has one all but one year (last year when I dominated )
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by BuckeyeSal » Fri May 09, 2008 2:40 pm 
