Archive for the ‘Position Eligibility’ Category

Taking a Second Look at Jeff Clement

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March 23rd, 2010 by Mays
Categories: Position Eligibility, Sleepers

If you have checked out the Price Guide in the past week or so, you may have noticed a dramatic change in value for Jeff Clement.

Previously, the Pittsburgh firstbaseman was sitting at about -$1 in a standard league — a useful reserve but not a worthwhile regular.

Now, Jeff Clement is valued at $17.

What changed?

Remember that the Price Guide automatically determines positional eligibility by looking at the number of games at each position that someone played in the previous year. That works great for established major leaguers, but it means that there’s no positional adjustment for minor league players.

So for minor league players who didn’t have any games played in the previous year (or who just had a few September AB), I assign a default position. For example, Ian Desmond played 17 games at SS in 2009, which was just shy of the 20 game cutoff set by default and resulted in him only qualifying at “Util.” I set his default position as “SS,” and the problem is solved.

Jeff Clement had no major league appearances in 2009. So for him, I set the default position as “1B.” After all, he’s currently looking like the front-runner for the Pirates’ starting 1B job this year.

However, in the not too distant past Clement was a catcher. In fact, he played 38 games behind the plate for the Mariners in 2008. That’s good enough to qualify him as a catcher in many leagues, and so I switched his default position to “C.”

The result is an $18 bump in value! Compared to other 1B, his projection isn’t that impressive. But up against the much lower quality of hitters at catcher, he’s in the middle of the pack.

I’ll caution you to double-check your league’s eligibility rules before you get too excited about Jeff Clement this year. I think Yahoo, CBS, and ESPN all count him as a catcher, though.

Secondly, his value (like all catchers) plummets in leagues that only start one catcher. The deeper your draft, the better an option Clement looks.

Disclaimer #3 is that he’s not a lock for regular playing time in Pittsburgh this year. He’ll face competition from Garrett Jones and Steven Pearce (who will both play some OF, too), and a slow start could force Clement to wallow in AAA a little longer.

With those cautions, Clements could be a sneaky pick late in a draft. I’d probably favor him over low-upside guys like A.J. Pierzynski.

What is Chone Figgins Worth at 2B?

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February 26th, 2010 by Mays
Categories: Position Eligibility, Theory

The Seattle Mariners started off Spring Training this week with a surprising infield arrangement — Jose Lopez taking grounders at 3B and the newly acquired Chone Figgins playing 2B.

At this point it just looks like an experiment, but the potential shift has lots of people talking. For fantasy purposes, a 2B-eligible Figgins would be a throwback to his legendary flexibility of years past.

But how valuable is Figgins at 2B? As a 3B in a standard league, I’ve got him at $11. That may seem a bit conservative after his breakout $19 campaign in 2009, but don’t forget about a 2008 where he barely managed to be above replacement level. He’s also making the transition from the Angels to the Mariners, and I don’t see many guys in Seattle that will be able to provide much help for his run totals. He’s hard to predict for 2010, but the best guess is that his true talent lies somewhere in between 2008 and 2009 — maybe about $11.

All of that assumes he only qualifies at 3B for fantasy, though. You might notice that the Price Guide lists a “Total” value and an “Adj. Total.” The former represents a player’s value without regard for position; the latter is after taking position into account. Since the typical 2B is a little worse than the average 3B, a player with equivalent stats will be worth a little more as a 2B than as a 3B. The “League Info” tab of the Price Guide tells you how much each position is adjusted.

To figure out what Figgins is worth as a 2B, all you have to do is replace the 3B adjustment with the 2B one. It turns out that, in a standard fantasy league, Figgins would get a bump from about $11 to $15 if you could put him at 2B.

There’s also some value in a player qualifying at two positions: You gain roster flexibility for off days, and you have more options for replacing an injured player. Those things are tough to quantify, but I’d pay a couple of extra dollars for a 2B/3B. I could easily see a swing from $11 to $18 when everything is accounted for.

Keep in mind that all of this is for a standard league that starts an extra CI and MI. Surprisingly, in a shallow league like the Yahoo or ESPN default setup, there is basically no gain for switching from 3B to 2B. The hypothetical 2B-Figgins is valued at $8, just a slight improvement from the expected $6. With only 10 or 12 starting at each position, the drop-off on 2B is much closer to that of 3B than to SS.

In a situation without a MI slot, I’d be willing to give a little extra for multi-position eligibility. So maybe that original $6 becomes $12 if Figgins is a 2B/3B in Yahoo/ESPN.

2010 Positional Eligibility Details

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January 13th, 2010 by Mays
Categories: Position Eligibility

Yesterday, I mentioned a few of the players who might have multi-position eligibility in your league in 2010. Today’s post is a detailed look on that same topic.

To chart below is broken down into players who played 20+, 10+, 5+, and 1+ games at a certain position. In each grouping, I didn’t repeat players from the more-strict sets above, unless a player gains a position in each group. So, if your league only requires 10 or more games at a position to qualify there, you will need to look at both the first and second sections to see all of the players who qualify at a second position.

If you league has some other requirement besides these multiples, you can probably use the Price Guide to get a list tailored to your league.

Significant Players, 20+ games:

Victor Martinez C, 1B
Mark Reynolds 3B, 1B
Kevin Youkilis 3B, 1B
Ben Zobrist 2B, OF
Pablo Sandoval 3B, 1B
Michael Cuddyer OF, 1B
Adam Dunn OF, 1B
Asdrubal Cabrera SS, 2B
Jorge Cantu 3B, 1B
Nick Swisher OF, 1B
Adam Kennedy 2B, 3B
Maicer Izturis SS, 2B
Mark DeRosa 3B, OF
Ian Stewart 2B, 3B
Casey McGehee 2B, 3B
Martin Prado 2B, 3B, 1B
Garrett Jones OF, 1B
Skip Schumaker 2B, OF
Chase Headley 3B, OF
Mark Teahen 3B, OF
Juan Uribe SS, 2B, 3B
Ramon Hernandez C, 1B
Daniel Murphy OF, 1B
Jhonny Peralta SS, 3B
Willie Bloomquist SS, OF
Emilio Bonifacio SS, 3B
Craig Counsell SS, 2B, 3B
Jerry Hairston Jr. SS, 3B, OF
Fernando Tatis 3B, OF, 1B

Significant Players, 10+ games:

Ben Zobrist SS, 2B, OF
Jose Lopez 2B, 1B
Alberto Callaspo 2B, 3B
Mark DeRosa 3B, OF, 1B
Clint Barmes SS, 2B
Luke Scott OF, 1B
Mark Teahen 3B, OF, 1B
Ryan Raburn OF, 1B
Brendan Ryan SS, 2B
Chris Davis 3B, 1B
Willie Bloomquist SS, 2B, OF
Jerry Hairston Jr. SS, 2B, 3B, OF
Ryan Garko OF, 1B

Significant Players, 5+ games:

Yadier Molina C, 1B
Maicer Izturis SS, 2B, 3B
Ian Stewart 2B, 3B, OF
Landon Powell C, 1B
Ryan Raburn 3B, OF, 1B
Emilio Bonifacio SS, 2B, 3B, OF
Fernando Tatis 2B, 3B, OF, 1B

Significant Players, 1+ games:

Kevin Youkilis 3B, OF, 1B
Ben Zobrist SS, 2B, 3B, OF, 1B
Chone Figgins 2B, 3B, OF
Pablo Sandoval C, 3B, 1B
Jorge Posada C, 1B
Michael Cuddyer 2B, OF, 1B
Carlos Lee OF, 1B
Marco Scutaro SS, 2B
Russell Martin C, 3B
Casey Blake 3B, OF, 1B
Chris Coghlan 2B, OF
Alberto Callaspo SS, 2B, 3B
Adam Kennedy 2B, 3B, OF, 1B
Maicer Izturis SS, 2B, 3B, OF
Mark DeRosa 2B, 3B, OF, 1B
Josh Willingham OF, 1B
Casey McGehee 2B, 3B, OF, 1B
Ryan Doumit C, OF
Martin Prado 2B, 3B, OF, 1B
Pedro Feliz SS, 3B
Chase Headley 3B, OF, 1B
Mark Teahen 2B, 3B, OF, 1B
Hank Blalock 3B, 1B
Gerald Laird C, 1B
Alfonso Soriano 2B, 3B, OF
Ramon Hernandez C, 3B, 1B
Nick Hundley C, OF
Willie Bloomquist SS, 2B, 3B, OF, 1B
Koyie Hill C, 3B
Henry Blanco C, 3B
Chris Snyder C, 1B
Fernando Tatis SS, 2B, 3B, OF, 1B

The 2010 Positional Eligibility Guide

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January 12th, 2010 by Mays
Categories: Position Eligibility

There is a feature of the Price Guide that you may not have noticed, but that is one of the unique and valuable things about it: It customizes the values based on the positional eligibility requirements of your specific league.

In the past I’ve gotten burned by trusting the eligibility listed on websites and magazines, drafting a player to be my SS and later realizing he only qualifies at 2B in my league. Worst is if I have already drafted a better 2B, and my newly acquired “starting SS” actually becomes my new backup 2B.

The Price Guide keeps that from happening, and it even adjusts a player’s value based on his most valuable position. That can make a big difference in what a player is worth, especially if he qualifies at catcher or middle infield in your league.

Most of this year’s multi-position players are not surprising: Victor Martinez (C, 1B), Kevin Youkilis (3B, 1B), Adam Dunn (OF, 1B), and Jorge Cantu (3B, 1B) should maintain the same positional eligibility as last year.

There are also some notable changes:

Lost eligibility

Pablo Sandoval was eligible at catcher last year but will not this year in all but the most lax leagues (3 games). He is still a valuable player, and is still eligible at multiple positions (3B and 1B).

Miguel Cabrera is now an exclusive 1B; he did not start a single game at 3B.

Alexei Ramirez only started at SS in 2009, losing 2B and OF qualifications.

Marco Scutaro put up a surprise season in 2009, made even better in fantasy leagues that let you play him at SS, 2B, or 3B. This year he will be a SS in most leagues (although he played 2 games at 2B).

New eligibility

Mark Reynolds continued to play primarily 3B for the D-backs, but he also managed 28 games at 1B.

There are a couple other players who haven’t picked up new positions but have gained fantasy value: Ben Zobrist (91 G at 2B, 70 at OF, 13 at SS) surged to relevance in 2009 as a $21 player in standard leagues. (He also played a couple of games at 1B and 3B.) Ian Stewart was a BA-killer but was still above replacement overall — he should qualify at 3B (121 G), 2B (21 G), and maybe OF (9 G).

Who knew?

There are some leagues that will allow a player to be put at any position he played any time at in the past year, which can produce some wacky results. (In 2008, Pujols’s game at 2B surely gave his value a little bump.)

As mentioned above, Pablo Sandoval only played 3 games behind the plate, but that could be enough to count him as a catcher. National League Rookie of the Year Chris Coghlan is probably worth a few extra bucks if you can count his 1 game at 2B.

Chone Figgins had 2 games at 2B and 1 in LF, in addition to his primary position of 3B. Alfonso Soriano made his triumphant return to 2B in 2 games and had another game at 3B. Yes, Soriano could be eligible at OF, 3B, and 2B.

Remember that every league is different, and these general statements may not be true of your league. Make sure you verify your own league’s eligibility by entering the specifics into the Price Guide.