SP draft strategy for streaming

[st3v3k4hn]

I play in a relatively shallow (10 team) H2H 5x5 category league. Last year i strreamed like crazy, which was fun and helped Wins and Ks but hurt ERA and Whip. Whats the best strategy for drafting SPs when you plan to stream? Seems like I dont need to worry about Ks or wins that much since i can stream them. Otoh, if i draft mostly for good whip / era then streaming will undo my draft advantage. (Btw we can only do like 5 add/drops per week, so i cant stream every day, but I typically did 3 or 4 per week.) thanks in advance!

[Pogotheostrich]

With only 5 adds per week I would just draft your team like normal. With your last pick take a player you can stash on the DL. That will be your streaming spot.

[st3v3k4hn]

Well I'm wondering if I should stress anything more than normal. Also thinking it might make sense to draft fewer starters (since I can stream them) and load up on (late, no-name) closers. Its a 10 team league so last year most people started with 3 but I could easily get 4 or even 5. Does that make sense?
Also wondering if I try this if its worth trying to draft Kimbrel, just for the K's. If I can get enough K's at SP and CL combined to win K's, I should be able to win SVs and Ws, so thats 3 right there. Sometimes winning ERA or WHIP would put me in pretty good position I think...

[Chaos151p]

My initial thought would be to draft a decent amount of starters, that way you can still stream pitching but not mostly waiver pickups. But if your looking to lock down 3 of the 5 categories then I'd say don't even draft a pitcher in the first ten rounds (load up on offense) then stream away with your all the pitchers you're allowed to pickup, start as many games as possible - play the better matchups but try to take wins, ks and saves by quantity. And hope your hitting dominates. If your looking for 10-0 every week, you might have to rethink which starters you draft (atleast 2 decent ones)

[Chaos151p]

How many rosters spots? Bench spots? I might actually load up on closers, make sure you have them in as many pitcher spots as you can (if you don't just have 2 assigned RP slots). Then you can stream starters up to the max add each week, with 10 teams you should be able to find plenty of good matchups every week while your adding and dropping. The max closers while you have no starts would keep the era/whip down.

[st3v3k4hn]

Assuming its the same as last year: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF, Util, Util, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P, P, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, BN, DL, DL, DL

So plenty of spots to stream and put RPs or SPs. And its actually 6 add/drops a week, not 5...

[kab21]

If you even want to have a chance in the ratios you will need to load up with pitchers earlier than the 10th rd. No reason to draft a pitcher in the top 50 but I would start taking a pitcher at least every other pick starting in the 6th. I'm not sure I understand why Kimbrel is going to effect K's significantly in a streaming league. He K's a lot of batters (for a RP'er) but those K's are basically insignificant if you are streaming as much as you are.

A couple of years ago I loaded up on RP'ers (potential closers) and streamed if I needed.

[st3v3k4hn]

I didn't say anything about waiting until the 10th rd to start grabbing pitchers. I posted the list of positions we have in our league, but thats not my draft order (catcher first, gawd no!)

I think Kimbrel is so much better than anyone else this year (for closers). He'll get as many Ks as a lot of starters with great whip/era so why not pick him like a starter? And he should keep his job. No one else is even close. So i would like to grab him. I'm afraid if i just grab a bunch of no-name closers they will all suck and / or lose their jobs, and it was pretty hard to pick up the new closers in my league. But taking him and some SPs early really cuts into offense, so not sure...

Also, im not the only guy streaming in my league, so even streaming i may not lock up Ks unless i get good numbers from my closers...

[Chaos151p]

If you even want to have a chance in the ratios you will need to load up with pitchers earlier than the 10th rd.

Yea I was saying if you don't care about those 2 ratios, then load up on hitting because the streaming will increase the two wins-k's categories.

Like I said, if you want a 10-0 record, you'll have to draft better pitchers earlier, streaming will add starts but the quality needs to be better - unless you stream RP in those 4 pitcher slots when you don't have starts (or add limit is reached) just make sure relievers are always in adding scoreless innings to your week

[st3v3k4hn]

Ah, got it. Thanks, that makes sense!