Football season is over. There, I said it. I mean, it isn’t really over for me. I’ve already been to Kansas City to meet with Mike and Matt and plan out FF Today for 2007 (and beyond…), I’m still on top of the football news, and there is still chatter in my more active fantasy football dynasty leagues. Dynasty league = year-round league for you laypeople in the audience. Not to mention the mock draft I’m in right now.
However, for all intents and purposes, football season is over. The Colts won the Super Bowl. The Pro Bowl is a joke. There is no pro football to watch until September (sorry, CFL), which seems like a long way away right now.
To compensate, I’m turning some attention to baseball. For a couple years now I have created a baseball version of my Cheatsheet Compiler & Draft Buddy software. This was done at the request of a number of football Compiler customers. Sure, what the heck, I’ll give it a shot.
The problem was however, fantasy baseball scoring for most leagues is quite a bit more complicated than fantasy football. Fantasy baseball typically uses a rotisserie format, meaning your players accumulate statistics for various categories (hits, runs, RBIs, wins, saves, etc.). If you are leading a category, you get 1st place points for that category. It does not matter if you are leading the category by a single stat, or killing a category by doubling up your next closest opponent. If you’re in 1st then you get 1st place points, 2nd place earns 2nd place points, etc., etc.
Fantasy football on the other hand, is pure points. The more the better. Easy.
This seemingly subtle difference caused me a lot of heartache each year trying to rollout the baseball Compiler. Plus to further complicate things, I didn’t have as much time to dedicate to the project as I would have liked, due to other commitments. Namely, work that actually pays the bills.
This year, that all changes. Based on early tests, I think we’ve finally found a methodology of valuing players that will yield appropriate player rankings and dollar values from the baseball Compiler. It’s called the Percentage Valuation Method (PVM) as described by RotoChamps, who also provide the player projections for the Compiler. Why we couldn’t realize last year this should have been incorporated into the Compiler, I can’t explain. We’re spewing the “better late than never” mantra in response to that.
It looks like I’ll be working on the Compiler, including testing, into early next week. Draft Buddy development will occur right after that. All in all, hopefully the baseball Compiler and Draft Buddy are ready for public release by the end of next week. If you want to be notified when it is ready, then drop me an email at compiler@myofficepool.ca and I’ll add you to my mailing list. Plus an annoucement will be made at RotoChamps and here.
So, anyone want to start a fantasy baseball league to help pass the time in the summer?