Pitcher Streaming: Cost me 3 Freakin Championships so far...

[FantasySportsMaven]

This is simply incredible... or is it?

I am in a Roto league where one A hole logs on every night at 2:30am during the last couple of months and streams the following day pitchers along with his stud hitters only draft. Over the last two months of SP streaming, he has risen from the middle to the top of the league.

This is one of the reasons why I don't like rotos, but decuded to try it as a favor to another player.

Now, I am in second place and gaining without streaming, and since I am gaining on him, his friend has also started streaming because the leaders streaming won't gain him any more and he can whittle away at my point total to save his friends roto victory.

Here is the latest team moves along with the league streamer at the top, his friend in third(now also streaming) and me in the middle spcace. I am way bottom middle i total moves.
Rank Team Points Pts Change Waiver Moves
1.Tonys Bad News Bears 86 -1 8 179
2 Pine Tar Gravy 77.5 -1 1 45
3. 2005 Fantasy Champs 77 3 12 60

Tony is the commish of course, so all I could do is bitch about steaming and then sit back for more of it.

Anyway, I won't be wasting my FBB expertise on this league next year.

In the meantime, I am in a league which I thought was the exact opposite of that previous league. This other league is a H2H league and I finished in the playoffs... but now, after the first week of that playoff, I finished tied with the team who finished below me in the final standings... and Yahoo gave that other team the victory due to ONLY the ERA cat.

When I asked why they didn't reward tthe better team with the tied victory, they said it was because of teams which streamed SPs.... ARGH.

So, I guess streaming putchers cost me in both a roto and H2H league.

[Torr]

So you're arguing against streaming, and then your arguing that a rule that makes it harder to stream hurting your chances as well?

Honestly, I'm sure you'll get alot of people who might agree with you because I've met many players who hate streaming. But the truth is, streaming is perfectly fair if the league doesn't have a rule to discourage it. I'm fine playing in a league that doesn't stream, but if the rules aren't put in place then I am fine with streaming as needed.

Anti-streamers will say that streaming makes drafting a good pitching team worthless and makes the league batter heavy, while pro-streamers will say that those who hate streaming don't want to play pitcher vs batter matchups and want to draft a team and forget it. I don't agree with either of those extremes, but I will say what I think about your two issues. First as to streaming... find a league that matches your playstyle. Find a league with maximum acquisitions or innings per season (or week), and additional negative pitching stats (like era, whip, and losses for example). Secondly as to ERA being the tiebreaker at Yahoo... it's been that way for awhile, and it was like that from the beginning of the year... you should have known by now that it is the tiebreaker there unless this is your first year on Yahoo. Picking ERA as the tiebreaker is just as arbitrary as picking batting average. Something had to be the tiebreaker. Personally I can't simply "reward the better team" with a playoff victory based on regular season record, because then it means there is nothing you can do in the playoffs to win or lose a tiebreaker (and in my "main" league I've had the best regular season record 2 years straight so I'm not speaking selfishly). You should know the rules going in and adjust your strategy to compensate for a tie in H2H matchups, and protect your ERA. The fact that you don't approve of the tiebreaker doesn't mean it's wrong... you should have adapted to it.

I really do understand how frustrating streaming is to people who dislike it, but find the right league for you and prepare for an ERA playoff tiebreaker on Yahoo unless they decide to change it in the future.

[KCollins1304]

There's nothing wrong with streaming within the confines of the rules. I don't personally like it though, so I only play in leagues that have rules that discourage streaming like IP limits mainly in roto leagues.

[jdantzker22]

in my league i set it up that you have a maximum number of starts per week. (In mine it's 9)

[FantasySportsMaven]

In the end, streaming only cost me two of the four league finals I was in. I stopped playing altogether in the Roto leaghue and finished 4th. The champ made over 200 moves, the second place team made over 100 moves and I ended up making 52 moves all year. As I mentioned, I won't be playing next year in leagues like this which are designed for owners who have the time to stream in order to make up for their lack of expertise and fantasy skill.

I lost one other final in a league where my opponent streamed in at least 2 pitchers every single day during the two week playoff. We've already agreed to change the rules in that league to limit any owner to a maximum of 6 moves each week.

In a third league, which I thought I was going to lose, I ended up winning by one cat, holds. His streaming won him IPs, W, Ks but lost him ERA and WHIP.

Finally, in a fourth championship, a Cafe League, I won with neither of us streaming. This is a dynasty league and no one wants to dump their good pitchers to stream so it was a hard fought fair battle down to the final at bat.