American Hooligans

It seems like only yesterday DoctorD convinced me to read Moneyball, but at the same time it feels like I’ve had Billy Beane’s superiority complex all my life. Ever since last year’s fantasy league, I’ve been thinking about re-creating this year’s in Sabermetrics’ image, and even though Yahoo’s free league tools suck, I got pretty close to how Baseball Daddy Issues would’ve wanted it.

It’s 5×5, head-to-head setup. Categories after the jump.

Hitting:

• On-base percentage: If we weren’t using OBP, Fire Joe Morgan would hunt us down and burn the league only to hear the lamentations of our bat control.
• Extra-base hits: It’s more fun that pure SLG and puts a bit more emphasis on power. Since OBP factors in singles and walks, XBH was the best way to create a power stat without going straight for OPS.
• Strikeouts: Something to help neutralize a run on pure power hitters. Really, since this is only a 10-team league it’s to try to put more of a premium on the really elite players who manage to hit for power without racking up a bunch of “K”s.
• Ground into double play: Since GIDPs are the only way a batter can leave a situation worse than where he found it, it seemed like something worth noting.
• Net stolen bases: SB – (2(CS + PO)). It’s the best method Yahoo has of determining speed on the base paths. It’ll overvalue picky base stealers, but that’s sort of the point.

Pitching:

• Home runs: These are apparently controllable by the pitcher. Theoretically. And most of the good pitchers in the league limit them.
• Strikeouts: Something to help the starters counterbalance relievers’ traditionally lower WHIPs. Also, most pitchers strive to strike out batters. So you know.
• Ground into double play: The sinker baller’s strikeout. I’ll admit, GIDP is partially luck driven, but it also denotes ground-ball percentage and pads the pride of Taiwan, Chien-Ming Wang’s stats.
• WHIP: The pitcher’s OBP. See Fire Joe Morgan notation.
• Strikeout-to-walk ratio: Good determinant of a pitcher’s control. Nullifies the Zambrano effect.

Whether or not this will actually work is still up in the air. But Yahoo dynamically ranks its players based on the stats you pick for them, and you have to go 50 players deep before you start seeing names you don’t know, and that’s kinda the point of Moneyball anyway.

Top Five Pitchers In Our League (Last Season’s Stats):

1. Jake Peavy
2. Johan Santana
3. CC Sabathia
4. Josh Beckett
5. Erik Bedard

The fact I had two of them on my roster last year is a testament to my understanding of this intricate game of baseball.

Top Five Batters In Our League (Last Season’s Stats):

1. A-rod
2. Matt Holliday
3. Hanley Ramirez
4. Magglio Ordonez
5. Jimmy Rollins

The fact I traded away Mariano Rivera and Ken Griffey Jr. for Maggs last year is testament to our league’s lack of salary cap.

Ultimately, it’s still a race to A-rod and Santana, but with any luck, we may uncover a few unsung all-stars. Or Chipper will carry my team through May again. Who knows, it’s a long season.

Update: DoctorD has posted his Atkins 25 for the Moneyball Fantasy League.