Comments on: LIMA 2010: Cheap Starters

By: Carolinas' James

Carolinas' James — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 00:39:39 +0000

Using your criteria at Baseball Reference I come up with 52 LIMA candidates for 2011. I'd like to see how you'd rate them by these categories: Very Good & Probably Cheap; Very Good & NOT Cheap, yet still undervalued by market; Known Commodities Off A Down Season; Auction Price Should Be In Line with Risk and Reward--(specify either) Deep or Shallow Rotisserie Leagues Only; LIMA Grade Is Misleading viz a viz another Sabermetric (which is more telling). Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool UsedGenerated 11/21/2010.

By: Molson

Molson — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:37:49 +0000

Indeed I did misread, sorry. That’s what happens when I post while watching basketball, I guess.

By: tyler

tyler — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:42:54 +0000

@Molson

Thanks for the input – I think you may have misread though; Matt Holliday (OF) was my second round pick. Knock on wood, but the projections seem universal that he’s one of the lowest risk second round guys out there.

I ended up taking Vazquez with my sixth round pick, thinking that either Broxton or Papelbon would make it back, but alas, both were taken. My thoughts now are to take one of the Lees (Carlos or Derrek) or Berkman, then load up on 3 closers and Jay Bruce in rounds 8-11. Then I won’t take another pitcher til some combination of Kuroda, Duchscherer, Chris R. Young, Ben Sheets and Mat Latos in the final 3 rounds (19-21).

The idea would be to start either Lincecum or Lincecum/Vazquez along with the 4 closers each week, to see if the ERA/WHIP/SV strategy works. If not, I should still have a competitive (albeit, not dominant) staff.

By: Molson

Molson — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:29:48 +0000

Starting a H2H team with Lincecum and Halladay can be tough. Having Reynolds as your top offensive talent can make for a long year in the power categories. I like to take one top-tier starter and then a bunch of bombers and good closers/middle relievers, and a speed OF or two late. I try to win R, HR, RBI, SV, ERA, WHIP and compete in AVG and SB.

But then again, I don’t usually do very well in H2H, so you could be on to something.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:07:50 +0000

As an aside, I’ve been using Baseball Notebook’s ranking sheets and double-checking against Razzball’s projected Point Shares to take players who, in both systems are ranked relatively highly and (in the case of BN) as “safe” picks.

Still, cross-checking just now against the Price Guide, Reynolds and Phillips do not come out well. It’s interesting to me that 3 systems whose methodologies I respect can come to such different valuations.

By: Tyler

Tyler — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:04:07 +0000

Apropos of nothing (including this excellent post), but I’ve got a strategy, rather than valuation question.

I’m in a 5×5, 12 team H2H with weekly transactions. The catch is that there’s no minimum IP requirement.

My thought is to draft one or two stud starters, and 3-4 excellent closers, and otherwise focusing on offense. I’ll be punting W & K’s, but likely winning ERA, WHIP, and SV, and otherwise increasing my chances of winning the offensive categories. Thoughts?

I’m in the midst of a slow draft right now. Picks thus far are:

(1) Lincecum
(2) Holliday
(3) Reynolds
(4) Phillips
(5) Rivera

and plan on taking Broxton or Vazquez with my next pick.