Fantistics Draft Day Sample

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Welcome to Fantistics InsiderBaseball.com Draft Software Frequently Asked Questions

Please note: This section only contains a small amount of content, please visit the Contents area under Help for more detail on using the software.

Q. How can I utilize the Fantistics Draft Strategy VAM?

A. As players are selected, VAM, our formula for relative worth, will change as the scarcity of the positions and the rank of the remaining players changes. How to use it: In the projections section, start by selecting all of the positions. You can not choose to view either Hitters and Pitchers, as the different stat categories preclude them from appearing together, more on this later. Now click on the VAM Column, this is the recommended order/ranking of players for you draft. When your draft begins, as you right mouse click players onto the rosters grid, click on the Recalculate button and the software will recalculate VAM, allowing you to resort a new order based on the new position scarcity in your draft, or draft inflation. Please note that the changes will be subtle early on, but will get more noticeable as your draft goes on. The VAM theory is only recommended through the first 80-100 players that are selected in your draft, after which you should revert to the $ valuations and consider your position by position needs. When VAM values are closely bunched, it is acceptable to consider your positional needs first....It is necessary to shift between the pitcher screen and the hitter screen as the draft continues to find the best value. The Top 100 VAM screen also offers a condensed version of the rankings. Additionally the Draft Advisor screen shows the relative difference between players at each position.

Q. My league does not specify a number of starters or relievers that must draft, how do I input this into the software?

A. As many of you already understand from reading the VAM strategy, the algorithm is trying to solve an equation to produce the best fit. However the result is only as good as the parameters that we define in our league setup within the software. Most of the scoring setup is self explanatory, the exception may be for those who do not use Dollar values (non auction leagues). Those individuals should use the default value of $260 as the software needs some value to base it's rankings on. The area of the setup that probably needs the most defining is the pitchers area as many leagues do not specify the number of starters verses relievers, and the software requires this split. There are a multitude of theories on which split is most advantageous for a fantasy GM. First and foremost, it depends what your league scoring is. If you play in a fantasy points league, it's pretty easy to figure out what the split should be. Just take a look at the fantasy points produced in the projections section and you will be able to figure out an appropriate split. As an example if there are 60 pitchers with 400 or more points, and there are 20 relievers with 400 or more points. Then an appropriate split would be 3 starters to 1 reliever. If you play in the typical Rotisserie league that has a 5x5 format, most agree that a 2 to 1 split is appropriate. So if you must start 9 pitchers in your weekly lineup a 6 starter / 3 reliever split is typically the protocol. Even if you intend on drafting more middle reliever type pitchers (not necessarily a wise strategy), having an overstated number in the relievers input box (within the software) will cause the top relief pitchers to be overstated, as relievers have little value (in a 5x5 format) outside of their contribution to the Saves category (because they only pitch 60 -70 innings, their pretty WHIP and ERA numbers are only worth 1/3 of those produced by a starter.) Keeping this in mind you really don't want the software to consider the non closers when computing the VAM calculation. Therefore if your entering a number, let's say 4, in the relievers section and there are 12 teams in your league, then there are probably 18 (48-30) middle relievers that the software is comparing against the top closers in your league....which using the theory of position scarcity is going to over inflate the value of the top relievers....which really is not what you want to do. That's not to say that top relievers aren't important, as they certainly are...it's very difficult to win a league with a zero in any category...it's just that you don't want to put all your eggs into one basket.

Q. What should use, FPI or VAM?

A. VAM is a drafting strategy, FPI is a player indicator. As we show in the FPI research summary, FPI is one of the most telling or correlated indicators of fantasy value when compared to today's most common baseball indicators. FPI was designed to capture or ascertain the quality of a player's fantasy ability in the most common denomination, per plate appearance (for batters) or per Innings Pitched (for pitchers). The reason we developed the indicator, was to compare players with different playing time situations on a par basis. In other words a player with 500 projected ABs and a .55 FPI, verses a player with 300 ABs and a .75 FPI is worth more on draft day day based on his playing time, but is not a better quality player. The other area where FPI serves us is when looking at a player who has a different amount of ABs or IPs from one season to the next. If we simply compare $ values of one year to the next we are missing the true value of that player's contribution (or performance level) if we do not break down his season into a smaller denomination. FPI is the foundation of our projections model. What FPI is not, is a definitive tool to use on Draft Day (that is the role of the VAM rankings through the first 80-100 players selected). In other words if you were to sort a position of players by FPI, you would not have a ranking order that is optimal. The reason is simple, FPI does not incorporate playing time (playing situations), while the $ valuations do. FPI can be useful for draft day purposes if you play in a deep league. If for example your league is drafting 250+ batters (both NL/AL) the projected role of some platoon or part time players is almost ambiguous and terribly difficult to project. Thus you may find 2 players with the same valuation (let's say $1 in this case) one with 350 ABs and a .70 FPI ($1) and the other with 400 ABs and a .50 FPI ($1)...well needless to say I'd rather have the player with the .70 FPI as his playing time situation my in fact change in a positive manner.

Q. Which database should use? When I use your software I get a different result than when I use the online databases. The criteria used is the standard 5x5 Rotisserie League.

A. Use the database results provided by the software. As long as you have properly setup the league and scoring characteristics, then the results will be more accurate and reflective our your needs in the software. Although both may be 5x5, the software will have personalized parameters such as the number of teams, Dollar allowance, leagues used (NL/AL), and position by position draft needs, which the our online version will not (nor will any other online or printed rankings).

Q. How to handle keeper players and should they be included in the League Characteristics. Also how do I get the software to recognize this and consider the inflation.

A. Within the software there are 3 ways to capture keeper players:

Through the Setup section (see Drafting Order). By entering the kept player in this section, you will be able to fully utilize all of the features within the software including the Mock Draft feature, auction valuation, and VAM recalculation. This will allow you to enter and cost associated with the player while also changing the dynamics of the VAM valuation (which is our method to capture draft inflation). This method is recommended.
Selecting kept players directly from the Projections Screen, Top 100 screen, or search section. Method 1 (above) is preferred over this method, as if you do a simulation Mock Draft, your selected players will be erased after you reset the Mock draft feature.
Via the projections section, where you can check the "freeze" box next to a players name. This method is only recommended if you do not play in an auction league and will only use the software to create a cheat sheet.

If you would like to capture Inflation for an auction league:

Inflation is automatically captured in the software since 2010. In the Setup|Fantasy Teams and Budget area, select Auction as your league format (press finish when done with the rest of the league settings). There is an inflation calculation at the bottom of the software that show the inflation during your draft. inflation can be recalculated by pressing the recalc icon periodically during your draft. There is also a INF$ column next to each player which will show the inflation during the draft. This column can be compared to the EAV$ (Expected Auction Value) to gauge the current market situation.

As a formula, Draft Inflation is: ((Original League Budget)-(Frozen prices of all kept Players))/((Original League Budget)-(Fair Market Value of kept Players))

Let's assume that the league budget is $2,600 ($260 times 10 teams) and the Frozen Prices paid of let's say 30 players is $300, with a Fair Market Value of $800. Then:

(2600-300)/(2600-800)= 27% Draft Inflation

So in theory, there was a discount of 27% paid for the kept players based on the overall budget. Since our goal is to spend all of the budgeted dollars, this increases the value of the each remaining players (a finite number).

Q. Our league does not use a "salary" when drafting/retaining players. Is it necessary to assign a dollar amount as part of the setup. When I didn't, it gave me an invalid entry and finally gave me a run-time error and quit. Is a dollar amount necessary to use this program?

A. Yes, we recommend that you use the default $260. The results will have a dollar value assigned, but you will notice on the cheat sheets that the players are ranked by position and recommended draft order. The dollar values, even though they are not necessary in your league, will give you an idea how valuable a player is at that particular ranking position.

Q. My question relates to the projection for pitchers by team. An example is that you show the Yankees having a total of 18 pitchers, reasonable that there may be that many over a season, but the combined record is 136 and 103. Will these be adjusted to be more realistic of a 162 game season?

A. This is actually a very interesting forecasting concept. We have found through our research that the only legitimate way to forecast individual performances is through a bottom up approach. Forecasting from a top down approach leads to a serious shortcoming in the forecasts of lesser known players and/or players whose roles are yet to be defined. In your specific example the Yankees currently have 6 legitimate starters with Sterling Hitchcock as the 6th and a 7th potential starter with Mike Thurman. If we were to take a top down approach, it would distort the potential impact of these two starters, especially if one of them is traded away. The projections will certainly get more refined as players are shifted (potentially traded) through the month of March.

Q. I have a question concerning the database usage for the draft. My league has 12 teams and we are protecting 4 players, now with this being the case then 48 players are removed from my VAM draft ranking list. Does this mean that the VAM ranking will only work for me until the next 52 players are drafted (which in essence is about the first 4 rounds of my draft). The reason I ask is because in reading the concept behind VAM and drafting, it suggest that after the first 90-100 players are drafted then I should move off the VAM draft ranking list and draft according to needed positions.

A. Since most of the players selected (frozen) are the top players, it would skew the results if you used the VAM beyond the original 90-100 players. Thus, if you make the assumption that these players would have been within the top 90-100 VAM players (and you can find this out by running the software with these players unprotected), then you would only use VAM for the top 50 or so players (in your case).

This section will continue to be updated.

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