Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Baseball Scoring Comparison (aka Hope Springs Eternal)

I managed a winning month on Fantasy Sports Live, but I had my worst ROI month to date on Snapdraft. A shining -48.11% ate all of my profits. Yeesh.

With the baseball season coming up on Monday, I wanted to take the time to review the scoring systems from the main fantasy sites.

Daily fantasy baseball has been a fickle friend to me. I had my best week ever playing baseball contests and also my worst day ever. I've always considered it a high variance game.

Let's start with the oldest NKOTB, Fantasy Sports Live. Since they have not posted any new contests, I'm assuming their contests are the same as listed in the rules:

Roster = 9 man
Positions = SP,C,1B,2B,3B,SS,LF,CF,RF
Single = +1
2B = +2
3B = +3
HR = +4
R = +1
RBI = +1
BB = +1
SB = +2
Batter K = -1
IP = +3
H allowed = -1
BB allowed = -1
ER allowed = -2
Pitcher K = +1
Win = +8
(Pitcher's batting stats do NOT count towards your score.)

My knock on this game in the past is that it's always been too pitching heavy. You spend 50% of your cap on one spot. And you must get a good pitching performance to have any realistic chance, save a multi HR performance by a batter.

I will say they are trying to balance it more (by raising ER to -2). I'm just hoping the traffic stays high enough to allow lots of multi-player contests.

Moving on to fantasy EnnnnNBC (Snapdraft):

Roster = 10 man
Positions = Px2,C,1B,2B,3B,SS,OFx3
Single = +1
2B = +2
3B = +3
HR = +4
R = +1
RBI = +1
BB = +1
SB = +2
IP = +1
Pitcher K = +1
Win = +10
Save = +10
(Assuming P batting stats WILL count towards total score. No indication otherwise.)

I actually think this game will be very balanced. There is no distinction between SP and RP, both are available. Also the OF position is flex, meaning you can select three RFers if you want. Pitchers will not rack up 50+ points, which is possible in other games.

One of the downsides to Snapdraft games is that their salaries NEVER change, meaning some players will be (obvious) super bargains all season long.

Finally, the youngest NKOTB, Draftbug:

Roster = 10 man
Postions = SP,RP,C,1B,2B,3B,SS,OFx3
Single = +1
2B = +2
3B = +3
HR = +4
R = +1
RBI = +1
SB = +2
BB = +1
Batter K = -1
IP = +3
H allowed = -1
BB allowed = -1
ER allowed = -1
Pitcher K = +1
Win = +10
Save = +7
Loss = -3
(Assuming P batting stats WILL count towards total score. No indication otherwise.)

This is basically a hybrid of the other two games. Again a flex in the OF positions, which I like. This is the only game that gives scoring for a loss. Having two P spots gives you a chance to come back if your SP craps out.

Two scoring items I would like to see added to any game:

-1 for Pitcher HBP
-3 for Blown Save

Anything to balance the hitter vs. pitcher scoring is good in my book.

Overall, these games are strikingly similar. Except for adding a relief pitcher to the mix, your scouting and roster selection would be almost identical.

Since the games are very much alike, I recommend playing at the site that gives you the most incentives (i.e. bonuses and rewards).

1 comment:

Blinders said...

We also bumped up the scoring for runs and RBIs. Overall pitching is now about 1/3 of scoring and cap which you should like.

An OF Pool would not be a problem. I think we actually launched that way, but went to individual positions. Not sure if it would be worth switching back or not.