Increased Minimum Innings Pitched from 7 to 20; Require x amount of SP starts; cap closers per team
I'm still new to H2H, and right off the bat I realized that by allowing an automatic draft to progress without making specific picks was a mistake. This specific game is all about who gets the most and best closers, maybe setup men as well. The game puts little emphasis on starting pitching unless we are talking about rock stars, because further, it's all about accuracy - ERA and WHIP. If you're going to put a SP out there, he better be accurate or he'll skew your weekly figures and you are hosed. Sure you can take K's any given week by just blowing out the number of IP with some great pitchers, but you'll have a hard time doing that and keeping your ERA and WHIP competitive. Which brings me back to the closers, the good ones...they'll pitch a handful of innings and get you solid ERA and WHIP figures; they'll also pick up saves and the occasional win. So barring Ks, that's 4 out of 5 pitching categories each week, or half the picture in terms of beating any giving appointment. So what I see a lot of my competitors doing is 1.) stocking up on relief pitching and closers in particular, sometimes making up the majority of their pitching staff, 2.) hoarding and benching set up men and closers so that others who might need them can't get them, 3.) benching healthy top not starting pitching because of the potential impact to ERA and WHIP, particularly later in the week. It's a sneaky mess, and the folks who have played this before are making it difficult on us newbees as we continue to learn and compete. My suggestions would be as follows - one, increase the minimum innings pitched per week from 7 to 20, or the equivalent of one RP pitching ever night, to three starters average 5 innings per piece then a handful of mid relievers and closers making up the remaining 5 innings, to come up with a much fair balance for pitching each week; require x amount of SP starts each week, players should not be able to keep their ERA, WHIP and other figures low by simply benching their starters and playing relievers just enough to get to that 7 IP weekly target; and last but not least, at the draft, there should be a cap put on each team in terms of the number of closers that each team can have. Closers are essential to the game in terms of how it is currently structured, they generally get the lowest ERA and WHIP figures as well as saves and occasionally wins, that's 4 out of 5 of the pitching categories each week or 50% of the batter. I have one closer, ONE closer, there are eleven other teams in my league, and there are 30 MLB teams out there. Sounds like 2.5 closers per team, which should have been automatically accounted for when I opted for an automated draft, but I wound up with one closer, while others have five. Go figure. I'm still competing in my league through effective research, optimal and timely trades, and a little luck. Plus our season is still very early. However, I see gross inequalities that threaten to make this game a lot more unfair that it has to be. Thanks for reading my post.
M B
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85 comments
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Rob
commented
I agree. Yahoo seasonal baseball will never be on a par with the other venues as long as it maintains a rule which defies the reality of managing a team in real life.
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Anonymous
commented
I agree. I am playing in four leagues right now, and in every one of those leagues, there are "managers" who game the system by drafting only RPs, which means they nearly automatically win in Saves, WHIP, and ERA. It makes SPs worthless. I am putting a ton of innings pitched and losing to teams who start only closers. I "get" that in any game, there is some gamesmandship involved in winning, but to me, this is cheating the system and punishing managers who are actually playing the game, choosing the best starting pitchers, dropping and adding pitchers based on matchups, and actually knowing the game of baseball. Losing to managers who've learned how to cheat the system takes the fun right out of playing. Come on, Yahoo. Clearly, you can see that your current system is broken.
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Anonymous
commented
what a rant. where is the vote against button?
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C T
commented
I fully agree on the need to increase minimum innings pitched. The emphasis should be to draft a well rounded team further emphasizing the importance of drafting well. Punting Wins and K's kills the spirit and fun of H2H leagues. A minimum of 20 IP seems like a decent starting point.
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Rob
commented
He left one advantage out. By drafting just a few RP's and zero SP's the wizards employing the 7 inning gambit can also draft a disproportionate share share of offensive studs.
It's an affront to the spirit of the game and those who joined and paid expecting a reasonably fair representation of actual baseball.
Name of game should be changed from Fantasy Baseball to "Yahoo Draft a few RP's, achieve 7 innings and exit."
Three teams in my 12 team league are exploiting this loophole
Who'll join me in a class action suit vs Yahoo. -
Samuel Haye
commented
I literally could not disagree with this more, and that he is new to H2H is obvious in his findings.
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Cliff Sulyma
commented
H to H competition, 7 total innings is the default Minimum Innings Pitched requirement for a week. It should be raised at least to 40. 2 leagues that I'm in, have teams with 6 and 7 RP's. This is totally UN-Realistic. I'm surprised that this was never rectified.
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Robert
commented
In $100 pro league I was stupid enough to join no fewer than 3 teams don't used SP at all They look for 7 innings pitched from RP then put everybody on the bench. The money saved at draft time goes to hitters those being faithful to the game can't afford. It's not really cheating but "gaming the system" and Yahoo apparently has no problem with that.
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John Uribe
commented
I totally agree that the minimum innings pitched needs to be raised to at least 20, the Pro league I'm in a few of the teams have most of the closers and don't even use starting pitchers, I thought something was wrong at draft when these teams were picking RP way out of the rankings now I see why, these guys are ruining the spirit of the game, I think its flat out cheating and it bothers me that YAHOO hasn't figured it out yet and made adjustments, if this is not fixed soon I will not play next year, its really a simple fix just raise the min innings pitched and post a limit on position players such as a max of 4 RP and 4 SP-RP and 6 SP, because I will not lower myself just to compete with cheaters people who have figured out a way to manipulate the rules to win.
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Anonymous
commented
Pro leagues follow the same rules as the general public leagues except that Yahoo! is the commish and trades are reviewed if protested.
Other than that, the rules are the same, so unless Yahoo! changes the public leagues, don't look for variances in the Pro leagues.
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Rob
commented
Please increase the minimum number of innings pitched in pro leagues. This is the 2nd year in a row that pro leagues have the very low number of 7 innings minimum pitched per week. This puts an over emphasis on relievers and makes starters pretty much unnecessary.
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Rob
commented
Has anyone any evidence that Yahoo actually listens to users.
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David Hewitt
commented
I agree with the other Managers that Yahoo should change the minimum innings pitched from 7 to 20 innings. Hoarding the Closers is not something that is realistic in an actual MLB Game. In my opinion Yahoo Fantasy Baseball needs to have rules in place in order to prevent Hoarding/Cheating in all aspects of the game and make it realistic. Most managers don't try to cheat, lets prevent it from happening, please. Thank you Yahoo!
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D. L.
commented
I run two leagues with minimum innings pitched settings of 35 innings and 40 innings. I would love to have the ability to set a max of something like 60 innings so we don't have some teams with 90+ and others just barely hitting the minimum. Each league is different, but this is a "roto" option I'd like to have in H2H.
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Anonymous
commented
Completely agree. We are having the same issue in our head to head league come playoff time. Managers are just spot starting like crazy to gain all the totals categories
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Nazereno LaMarca
commented
I would say as a newbie you learned lesson number #1....Don't auto draft if you care about the depth and quality of your team. Auto Draft is simply going to give you the best available player without regard to team needs....
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M B
commented
Will do, thanks again.
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Anonymous
commented
Next season, or even now, go to this board and look for leagues that meet your preferences.
http://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy/message-boards/?&bn=fan-baseball-commcorner#
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M B
commented
Anonymous - thought about joining private league, I don't want to create, run, be commissioner, etc. But does joining a private league mean gathering up enough friends to create one, or are there private leagues available through Yahoo Fantasy just like the public ones that are simply looking for players? And if they already exist, is there a place where I can see pitching innings minimums in their settings before I elect to join? Just curious, thanks for your continued input.
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Anonymous
commented
You can join/create a private league, then you can adjust the innings pitched minimum.