I\'ve been doing points only league for a couple of years, but I want to experience a roto or H2H league this year. Since I\'m not sure if I\'ll be able to to a live draft, I want to pre-rank players. In a points only league it\'s pretty easy to evaluate and rank players, but how do you proceed in a roto or h2h? How +/-, PIMS and SOG weight comparing to the other usual stats.
Well it will be somewhat dependent on whether it is roto or h2h and whether positions are differentiated or lumped as forwards and the size of your rosters.
In a yahoo league it is pretty easy pre-draft to look at each position and each category based on previous stats. i.e. go to \'players\' then filter for \'all available\' and then the position and say last year\'s stats - then you click on the header for each column and it will rank the players who did best in that category - i.e. goals Lecavalier 1st last year. Print it out and then go to assists and so on - you then have a ranking by position for each category for last year or the year before if you wish. You can filter for all forwards and defense together as well - would be nice to filter for only all forwards but no can do. Anyway these seperate lists at least give you an indicator of where players can hold their own or contribute strongly or not at all to a category - obviously things change from year to year and that is why we buy Dobber\'s guide.
If you aren\'t in yahoo or if you aren\'t sure what your league categories will be but want to use this technique - just set up your own private league in yahoo and don\'t invite anyone - make sure all the categories you are interested in are in the league set-up. Go in and do your work (I would even suggest using the pre-ranking system in yahoo based on what you are finding and gleanings from other sources and save the list)and when you are done - just dump the league from yahoo - or if you are in a Yahoo league you can import the pre-rank list from another league.
This is some amount of work and maybe overkill or unnecessary but it can give you an analytical perspective for certain cats you are unsure of. For instance did you know that Ovechkin takes about 60% more shots than Crosby in a season? Lecav gets about twice as many short handed points as Heatley?
I tend to scour Dobber\'s fantasy pack religiously and hit the archives in ramblings and other articles for those little tidbits that don\'t show in stats. That usually sticks with me when I make my final pre-rank list - \"oh right Dobber said this guys PIM\'s are going to jump this year\"
Not knowing your draft position ahead of time kinda sucks because if you land Thorton then your assists are through the roof and you need to angle for goal scorers. It\'s like weaving an intricate tapestry this pre-ranking thing - kinda based on some assumptions and never ever foolproof.
There is another factor to consider and that is with a site like Yahoo where the players have a default preranking - alot of guys will use that default and not bother to prerank and some will believe the ranking they use - real advantage to guys who take some care and some time to prerank.
I really don\'t know if this is remotely sensical or helpful but your question got me thinking and thanks for that.
I still don\'t know which other format I want to play, but it\'ll be a public on in Yahoo as my regular private league is already in Yahoo.
I already did and I\'m still doing a lot of preparation (with the very very important help of Dobber\'s guides) for my regular league, but I\'m sure a pts only league is a different since we only care about PTS, PPP and SHP for the forwards/dmens and W, GA, SV, SHO for the goalies.
I like the idea of doing a print out of the leaders by category, but what I don\'t know is how to rank them once you have all this information. Do i still rank them by pts? I don\'t think so. Does a goal scorer is higher then a +/- player. That\'s the kind of thing I want to know.
Right sorry didn\'t really follow through there for you.
It does depend a little on your categories. If for instance you have the following skater cats: goals, assists, ppp, +/-, gwg, shg, pims - a goal scorer is more valuable normally because you have 3 specific goal scoring categories and ppp which he can contribute too. Olli Jokinen is much more valuable than a Brad Richards here because he scores more goals along with the fact that he takes about the same amount of PIM\'s as he gets points - Richards wears a skirt to the rink.
In the past Brendan Morrow was a must have guy because he had a good offensive contribution and +/- to go along with his heavy PIMs. Across the board contributor that really helps a roto style team he has cut back on PIMs now he is captain and that makes him much less valuable.
Players who provide value in several categories are really valuable. Guys like Heatley, Hossa and Lecavalier tend to be fairly balanced in goals and assists, all play the first powerplay, they take lots of shots and the kicker is they play on the penalty kill for those short handed points. Heatley comes out pretty high in that group because of his +/- and his PIMs aren\'t too shabby.
A guy like Gonchar is a powerplay monster and kicks in a regular amount of PIMs but his +/- wasn\'t so hot in the past which devalued him a little but still up high on my list.
Bertuzzi in his day was awesome because he carried a load across many categories.
There are guys like Avery and Neil who create value because of heavy PIM\'s and decent offensive contribution, Jordan Staal a short handed goal machine, Yannic Perreault who can really win face offs, Meszaros who can block 8 shots a game.
You still gotta draft guys like Crosby because they just put up so many freaking points and likely are contributors to several categories.
I could see taking a category ranking for each player and averaging it out over all categories (for your league) to give you some sense of real value in this format - but that would be pretty heavy work if you were going to do 200-300 players.
Here are the things I focus on when ranking players after the top 20 or so (who tend to be obvious)
I rank players according to several things and sometimes it is more intuitive than hard statistics after a truck load of research: good and balanced offensive contributors (weight goes to goals over assists though), on 1st pp unit, on penalty kill, decent PIM\'s and +/-, year over year consistency, is a guy real or just promise?, is the player eligible at more than one position?.
Am I a perfect ranker? Nope not at all - but I have been extremely successful in these types of leagues for several reasons but one is that I usually start out with a solid workable core that doesn\'t leave me way behind in a category early in the season. It can be really difficult to play catch-up.
Gosh I don\'t really have a clear preference. I think having fully engaged GM\'s is really the key to making a league fun. The better they are the more interesting and challenging the league is.- after that is kinda pick your poison. I do have like the added challange of maximum games in roto but that is offset some in H2H by figuring out the best match-ups.
Since I\'m already used to the max. games, I\'ll probably start with a roto one. It should be closer to that I\'m currently used. As for the ranking, I really thought about it during the evening and I\'ll probably to do a math formula that combines each category. I\'ll give 200 pts to the first and then go 199 pts, 198 pts and so on for the other in each category. Afterward I\'ll do the avegerage. Normally a player that is in the top for a couple category should have a better average. What do you guys think?
Yeah do it. It will give you lots of insight for your preranking and I think you will enjoy it besides. Additionally, I will feel good knowing I am not the only guy out there crunching numbers like crazy and trying to mastermind a predraft ranking system for a 1 year league.
First time Roto or H2H league
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